It's a small world

Out and about today, getting various local goodies together for friends in the UK. We'd made an arrangement to visit Christelle Sourdais, (French website) one of the increasing band of female wine producers in the Chinon appellation and one of the forty wine producers here in Cravant. We've tasted her wine at the Chinon wine fair which takes place late April every year. It's the perfect introduction and an opportunity to note those vignerons you'd like to visit at their domaine.  We'd made an unexpected visit to Christelle Sourdais after the concert in Cravant last Sunday. There's always an apèro to be enjoyed after an event, which the wine producers are always willing to support. They get called on a lot. This morning we went back and spent about an hour with Christelle- a lovely lady, very jolly and chatty. We tried about six wines and in the end bought two different cases of reds and one of rosé, some of which we'll be taking across to the UK. 

In last Sunday's blog I mentioned that the estate buildings of Christelle Sourdais and Pierre Sourdais - another wine producer we know quite well - are next door to each other. They are literally joined together. The guess was that they were cousins. However Pierre turns out to be Christelle's uncle. We mentioned to her that while our house was being built, we'd stayed in the gîte belonging to Jean-Claude and Christian Dellalande, then the owners of La Semellerie. It's since been taken over by their son Fabrice. We know them all very well. Anyhow Christian, as we found out several years later, is another Sourdais. This morning we discovered that she is in fact Christelle's aunt. A couple of years ago we went to visit Les Bouquerries, another domaine about ten minutes from us by car. We just dropped in  - no appointment. The husband, who is the wine producer and another Sourdais, met us and showed us into his kitchen where he was finishing off a meeting. He gave us some wine to try, finished the meeting and came and joined us. He wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing. So we explained and mentioned that we had stayed in the gîte belonging to Jean-Claude and Christian Dellalande. Oh yes he said. She's my sister. A big family! And the village being a village, even if they aren't related, they all know each other. 

After Christelle Sourdais we drove over to Crissay to visit the  honey producer Alexandra Laubigeau, who I've blogged about a couple of times. The honey is fantastic. A gorgeous day to go as the landscape is quite open, so you can see for miles. We turned a bend into the most fabulous view of poppies. They've been steadily appearing along the roadside for the last few weeks. The field of poppies made us stop. A solid blanket of red. So beautiful.

The first time we visited Alexandra's shop it was her husband we met. Mike then went again with some friends last month. That time Alexandra was there. This visit she was there again. Our timing couldn't have been more perfect. Shortly afterwards a large group arrived, so the shop was suddenly heaving with people. Hope they had some good sales. We bought some honey for us and the UK. Alexandra suddenly mentioned my blog. She'd been googling on the internet to see what came up about her shop and honey production and found my two entries - Perfect Partners and Sticky Origami.  I was so chuffed. Firstly because she likes the blog and reads it quite regularly. But she was also so happy with the entries about the shop, that she sent the links to her father who lives in Norway, who also likes the blog. I'm international! I hadn't picked up on the messages they'd left. So when we got back, I had a look, found them and replied to them both. Really made my day.