Summary
Slept late (for us) but managed to hit just before rush hour at breakfast. Walked up the hill to see what Sancerre had to offer which didn’t take long. Took a 4 kilometer hike through some of the nearby vineyards then came back into town for lunch on the main square. Afterwards we visited the farm of La Bête Noire where they rise around 200 goats and make the famous Crottin de Chavignol goat cheese. Yummy tasting of the cheese at 6 stages do aging with a glass of wine. Light supper in our hotel bar.
Details
We wake late at 8am. After a quick coffee and news update in bed, we dress and go to breakfast. The place is big but already crowded. Over time it would get even more so. The people are spilling out onto the outside balcony, where it’s 57 degrees, and even into the bar next door. Everyone’s going for similar things: the breakfast breads, juice, and especially the two coffee machines. Given the number of people, it’s a bit of a big mess. In French they’d say “Quel Bordel!!” (What a mess). We look up the origin of that expression. Yep! It’s from ‘What a whore house’ (bordello). We also read that this is a rather vulgar expression.
After eating more than we should, we retire out to the outdoor balcony to enjoy the view and finish our umpteenth coffee. We try to take pictures of each other with the view, but invariably there’s someone coming or going. Thank goodness our phones can now get rid of people in photos. So convenient.
We walk around and explore the little hilltop town. We know there’s a panoramic view on our hotels side of the town, but now find one on the other side, too. Later we’ll find there’s a third. Lovely little town. And doing well financially, it would seem. We do see a few small groups of tourists wandering around, looking at things, but not too bad. No big groups of people following someone with a sign in the air. No cruise boat day trippers.
As we wander around we see a few for sale signs, real estate offices, and a goodly number of interesting listings, including a canal boat. We note down the URL for later investigations (https://www.sancerre-immo.com). They have a language switch to change from French to English.
Later in the morning we drive a couple of kilometers to do a hike in the vineyards. I don’t recall if I mention finding a great app/website with lots of good hikes. Free, if you’re OK to deal with an ad now and then (https://www.visorando.com).
On our walk we enjoy the perfect weather and the view of Sancerre. We see an all important weather station and beyond that the cooling towers of the nearby nuclear power station. We come across a big group of immigrant laborers weeding the rocky vineyards. It looks like back breaking work with all of the rocks in the soil. It’s good for retaining the heat of the day, but bad for the back. We quickly transition from tons of rocks in the soil to virtually no rocks. This is the “Terroir” changing in just a matter of 100 meters. Three miles later we’re back at the car, heading back to town for lunch.
Installed in the shade, in the center of town, we order a Crottin de Chavignol salad, a croque monsieur (they were out of baguettes), beer and surprisingly two desserts. They have three options for desserts with alcohol. We’re tempted but behave (this time). We do get coffee. We don’t die. Maybe there is something to this French diet thing.
After lunch we drive another short distance to see the goats. Our route takes us on a narrow bridge over a canal lock. We see baby goats, mommy goats, a few billy goats. We see and read about the process, the timing.
Throughout our free visit there are big professional panels explain, in French and in English, everything there is to know about goats, goat husbandry, goat milking, and the making of the cheese. One of the panels explains the parts of a female goat, and another explains the parts of a male (billy) goat. Spoiler alert: the male goat is the one with the enormous ball sack in the back.
In describing the typical year of a female goat, there is the point at which “she gets pregnant” after which they no longer take her milk. She gets to “relax” and is essentially “on vacation” until such time as the kid arrives. In the cartoon on the panel she’s shown lying back on a chaise lounge as if on a luxury spa vacation. We think they’re stretching the truth.
We get to see the process of the goats getting milked. Understandably their utters are quite full, and the goats are ready to have them emptied. We are told they know the process and lead themselves into the individual milking pens.
We get to see the actual milking, where the two suction devices are attached to the goats to teats. Alternating back-and-forth, each of the two vacuum devices switching between suction and no suction. After a very few minutes the utters are drained. Either the machine detects this and drops off by itself, or (more frequently) the goat gets irritated and kicks off the suction devices with its feet. Oh, the life of a goat.
We do a Crottin de Chavignol tasting. 7€ gets you six different ages/types of cheese to taste and an accompanying glass of white Sancerre. You start with the youngest, most bland and work your way up to WOW. In the middle (perfectly ripe) you exclaim “yep, that right there is a perfectly aged cheese”.
But it’s all the same cheese: Crottins de Chavignol. Just one shape. The shape? The same as a goat dropping, or as they say it here: a goat dropping or poop. This kind of cheese is very common on salads in France. As such, as you’re asking Google Translate to provide a given menu in English, or to translate the activities of visiting a goat farm, you’ll invariably get that the salad has goat poo or that you’ll get the opportunity to sample goat poo. Hm.
We go out back to see other animals, llamas, sheep, a missing donkey. To encourage the goats to get closer the kids pull big hands of long succulent grass and hold it out to the goats who gladly take it. We humans are well trained.
Back at the room we hang out and read for a while, digesting our cheese and wine. At dinner time we head back to the hotel’s wine bar and have more wine and more (different) little bites for dinner. Again, they’re good.
Photos
[Note: These photos are in chronological order, start at the top. ]
