Le Thoureil – a beautiful riverside village perched on the banks of the Loire

Bowls of steaming soup and pumpkin pie, guess the weight of the pumpkin and the biggest display of pumpkins and squashes I’ve ever seen in my life.

There are different ways to prune vines. Here in the Loire in Anjou we see a lot of Single Guyot and Double Guyot pruning, a cane replacement system.

In our village, we return to the calm just like we had in Cumeray although we have street lights and mains drains. I never thought I’d see the day when I’d be excited about that!

Downy mildew is indigenous to north-eastern North America where it spread from wild vines into cultivated vineyards. It probably came over to Europe during the phylloxera crises when native American rootstock were being tested for their resistance to the disease that wiped out around two thirds of Europe’s vineyards.

Yesterday was the annual Fête des Bateaux. The weather was pretty awful but this didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of the boatsmen and women who gathered in the pretty riverside village of Le Thoureil to celebrate life on the river.

You can buy pastry in any French supermarket and I certainly don’t judge anyone for using it as it saves time, comes rolled and is ready to slide into a tin. But, it’s not quite as good as homemade. Probably because when I make my own I use rather large quantities of really good fresh butter