La Loire Plein les Yeux

Saumur, Loire Valley, 25 to 28 September 2026

Saumur was a blast, from wine tasting to the festival to exploring the wine and meeting new friends.

I arrived on 25 September and walked from the train station across the bridge with its arches, and it was an incredible sight, the château sitting up above the town and everyone getting ready for the festival. My apartment looked straight out over the Loire. Open the French doors and there was a little table on the balcony, the river right in front of me and the festival tents set up along the quay below.

The Saumur Loire Festival only happens every two years and I made it for this one, running from 25 to 27 September. It's all about showcasing wine and local goodies along the river, and I bought some really fun artwork. There was a giant white postcard set up on the bridge with a frame cut out so you could look through it at the river, and written on it was "Escale au Saumur Loire Festival: des souvenirs plein la tête, la Loire plein les yeux!", a stop at the festival, your head full of memories and your eyes full of the Loire. One morning there were hot air balloons drifting over the river.

In Saumur they are very proud of making crémant. Their soil is so similar to Champagne, a soft white chalky limestone they call tuffeau, but they don't have the Champagne name so they can't sell it for Champagne prices. The prices are completely different. Like anywhere you get the good and the bad, and every crémant I tried was different, but some of them were delicious and very much like Champagne, which is a great thing to know when you want that Champagne feeling without the Champagne price.

I made some very beautiful connections. I just bumped into a crew from a sailing club in Orléans who had brought their boats down the Loire to Saumur for the festival, and they welcomed me in with open arms. Aurore, Gilles and Sandra invited me onto their boats, and they wanted to show me their way of living, which was very special. Sandra took me under her wing and looked after me. It was Gilles' boat and Sandra and Aurore came out too, and being on the water with the sun setting, seeing Saumur from another angle, was incredible. The festival lights came on along the quay and the whole town was silhouetted against a pink sky. I got invited out on the boats multiple times.

My first lunch was at Bistro de la Place. I wasn't excited about the location because it was in "the square", but I had a veggie dish that was absolutely delicious, and the meal was incredible. Then there was Le Boeuf, which was bloody delicious and one of the best meals I've had while travelling.

Bar La Tonnelle is known as the best wine bar in town and has a good wine list. For me it didn't have a lot of soul, but it was my local.

Saumur is a very famous village for wine and I got to experience it on the water and off. The learning was incredible because I felt like a local.