Each season's production is stored in dark cellars in casks that are small, medium, and large. Ed is admiring the large one.
After the first year, the wine is stored in normal-sized casks of oak and left to age. Cognac from these casks, some 75 years old, is mixed to produce new bottles. The age of a bottle is the age of the youngest cognac it contains, ten, fifteen, twenty-five, etc.
One end of each cask is surrounded by a rattan strip. This strip is softer than the oak and makes the presence of insects that damage wood more quickly apparent.
We weren't too much impressed with the cognac, but bought a bottle of pineau for a friend. Kaye discovered fruit-flavored cognac and has been sipping apricot cognac some evenings.
After this the tasting we went on to visit Saintes, a historic town on Charente River dating back to Roman times. The Arch of Germanicus originally stood on the bridge at the end of the Roman road from Lyon to Saintes. When the bridge was widened, the arch was moved to a nearby park.
After lunching, we visited the Cathedral of Saint-Pierre. The spire was never added to the tower, so it looks a bit clunky.
Although, looking up from the entrance, the levels are pretty impressive.
There's a lovely barrel vault over the choir, which dates from 1927.
We stopped in at the Abbaye aux Dames de Saintes, but they were preparing for a concert, so we only rested in the cool for a bit without walking around. We plan on a return visit to Saintes when the weather is more amenable to touristing.
Our final visit of the day was to Talmont-Sur-Girdonde, a fortified town on a spit of land (a presque'île, almost-an-island) at the mouth of the Girdonde River. The church of St Radegonde, built in 1094, was a resting place for pilgrims on the path of St Jacques de Compestelle.
Many of the exterior carvings have been restored, since the limestone wore away quickly on the because of the exposed position on the coast.
The village was largely destroyed by the Spanish in the 1650s, and exists now as a picturesque tourist site. No cars are allowed and you can wander narrow streets and visit craft shops.
(The town has a nice site with pictures; you might want to scroll immediately to the bottom to turn off the music.)
We celebrated the fourth with a nice barbecue dinner.
Driving by nearby St Junien (between us and Limoges) on the highway, you see a tourist sign indicating that glove-making is important there. Kaye arranged a tour of a glove factory for some Facebook friends.
There are still three active glove makers in St Junien, making gloves for couturiers such as Dior, Givenchy, and Hermès, and for stars like Madonna and Beyoncé. St Junien makes almost half of the gloves produced in France each year.
The body of a glove is made from sturdy leathers like cow and sheep. More exotic leathers, like ostrich and snake, are used for decoration. There were samples of these for us to see and feel. The strangest (which we unfortunately neglected to photograph) was of sewn-together rectangles about 1.5" by 3" with a lizard-like surface; it turned out that the rectangles were made of chicken legs.
The newest templates for gloves are about 60 years old, as our excellent guide explained.
After a glove is cut, one of the remnants is a small heart-shaped piece from near the thumb. These were given to the children of the glove-makers as toys. There are still some senior citizens in St Junien who have the leather hearts given them by their mothers.
This is one of the cutters at work preparing a piece of leather to cut. It must be stretched and smoothed before the template is pressed onto it to mark the cutting lines. The cut bits are stacked under weights to keep them smooth.
Assembling the gloves used to be done as piecework by women in their homes, but is now done in the factories. The seams are usually sewn on (industrial) sewing machines and much of the decoration is added by hand.
Yesterday evening we went to a (free) concert of Gregorian chant at our local church. As we entered, the stained glass windows were illuminated by the setting sun and the church was lit by tiny candles, which became the only source of light. With an excellent singer, it was a magical experience.
July is being hot hot hot and dry dry dry. Lawns and fields are brown except for a few very hardy weeds. We're hoping for a bit of rain and cooler temperatures in the days to come.
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