We had hoped to visit the castle in Saumur. Once we realised it was shut on a Monday we did a bit of research about what else to do. To our surprise, we saw that there was a mushroom museum nearby. That sounded like a must-see for us! 🤣 It was combined with two other attractions. The first was an underground exhibition of beautifully lit stone carvings called Pierre et lumiere. The second was a garden (Les Jardins du Puygirault) showing the history and development of kitchen gardens through the ages to the present day. We decided to go for all three!
We started off with the mushroom Museum. This comprised three main elements: an exhibition of mushroom objects from various countries, an extensive exhibition of different types of mushroom, most of which were preserved in Perspex, with the largest wild mushroom collection in Europe and finally the huge mushroom cultivation area. All of these were housed in an underground cave complex. The caves provided the perfect conditions for mushroom cultivation and the fact that the area is famous for horse riding means there are ready supplies of manure as well! There were two mycologists working there during our visit so we got some advice for the mushroom growing for Ben which was as follows:
The best thing is to grow shitake and button mushrooms and the number one secret to success is ventilation, the number two secret for success is ventilation, and the number three secret to success is ventilation. 🤣
He also said that
Reishi are relatively easy to grow and can be dehydrated and sold for medicinal purposes. He said that oyster mushrooms are a bit of a nightmare because you have to check them daily, harvest them very regularly and there is only a very small window of time in which to sell them. So unless you have a regular established order from a local restaurant for example (or dehydrate them) it’s a hard thing to do.
For even more pictures click here
We made a few purchases in the gift shop – some fresh button mushrooms to have with dinner, oyster mushrooms for breakfast and a mushroom beer for Dave!
We ventured on to the carving exhibition, also housed in underground caves. There was a primary school group there when we arrived and one little girl was enthusiastically telling us how brilliant it was. The exhibition had been conceived by a local resident who wanted to showcase famous buildings of the Loire region. It was created over three years by a sculptor who had no formal training. This made the scale of the task, with 20 exhibits, even more impressive. We particularly liked the model of Saumur as it replicated some of the photos Dave had taken the night before. The model of Tours cathedral was also really stunning.
The final attraction was the potagers (kitchen gardens) through the ages. This was also really impressive, tracing the history of such gardens over many centuries. All the information panels were provided in French and English and we had noticed that English is widely spoken here, a lot more than in Spain. As this is one of the more popular regions for British tourists they are well geared up to accommodate visitors. We saw a snapshot of 10,000 years of garden history. This covered vegetables, aromatics, flowers and plants taken from other cultures. There was a beautiful medieval style garden and bee hives with bee-friendly planting within easy reach. The final exhibit was an underground 14th century watering system. It was a large and stunning attraction which surpassed our expectations.
We had a late lunch of leftovers back at the van and then strolled across the bridge and wandered around the cobbled streets of Saumur, stopping for a drink in a bar in front of L’église Saint-Pierre. We then had a quick look inside the church before returning to the campsite for a dinner of Toulouse sausage and mushrooms cooked outside in the fresh air. It turned into rather boozy chatty evening which we very much enjoyed.
My sister owned a house just down the road at Tourquand (?) – the village was identifiable by a huge wine bottle by the side of the road. Did a cycling holiday with Fraser and Catrina starting from there (might be 30 years ago), and we visited the mushroom caves but they were nothing like as sophisticated as now.
Also had a number of boozy chatty evenings, so some things stay the same!
PS It might not interest you but there’s a really fantastic tank museum there too!
It´s a beautiful area. There are a lot of cyclists still about. We did see a sign to the tank museum, but we needed to move on today as we are off to St Malo to see my old boss. 4 days to go …. eek
Oh! How incredible, we couldn’t believe our eyes.
Ben will be mega interested in your blog for sure.
I have not read the blog, but can see as I pan down you have so many varying photographs.
I have just come in from the garden and am very fatigued, not only that we haven’t started The Telegraph crossword yet .
Will have a proper look later.
I am quite speechless knowing you drifted into a mushroom museum.
Bet you were both rather surprised too.
Love Jx🍄🎼🎹🍄🎼🎹🎸🎷🥁
Yes, it certainly was a surprise. It was a really interesting day. I thought you’d like the flower arrangement in the church as well! XXX
Indeed
Wow that mushroom museum really is something!
Bizarrely at least 4 other people we know have also been there
What a totally stunning place . Fabulous photos. The mushroom exhibition was so interesting . Good luck to Ben with his mushroom farm. The carvings are wonderful and the cottage gardens equally lovely. Mushroom beer. 🤮 Of course it might have been good. Xx