We had a lovely couple from the Loire staying this week, he was a talker and all he told us was interesting. He had been a vigneron for about 20 years, before that he had grown apples- he had not been able to afford to buy the apple trees for his orchard, he told us (this would have been just after the war) but some how he had managed to acquire shoots and slips from established trees and built his orchard that way. But after about 10 years of this they started to import cheap apples from the East of Europe so he had turned to vines and when these in turn ceased to turn over enough money for him he had opened a cafe and turned his place over to holiday gites and so he had spent the last years, drinking wine with the holidaymakers in his cafe.
It seemed that this was the bit he had enjoyed best.
They lived by the river Cher, within sight of France’s most beautiful castle Chenonceau and,because of an old right of way, had free access to the castle along a river path. When they discovered that we were going to holiday near there later this year, they insisted that we must visit them and enjoy their access to the castle with them.
We just might.
All this was told to us when we give them a welcoming glass of Vin Blanc on the terrace on their arrival, where they also gave Madame Dwyer the ultimate compliment on her French by turning to me and saying; ” So how did you, an Irishman, manage to marry this lovely French woman”