A Visit to Domaine Ogereau, 2017
Emmanuel Ogereau eased off the accelerator of the combi-van just as we passed the pale grey ghost of a dilapidated windmill, and from here on we coasted down the hill. The incline was gentle, nevertheless it was sufficient for gravity to keep all four wheels rolling along the single-track road at a comfortable pace, until we reached the bottom, when a brief dab on the brakes was all that was required to bring us to a halt. We were certainly going no further on this road, the tarmac ending abruptly just a few metres ahead. Before us there stood a wall of trees, thick with lush early-summer foliage, and it was only through a small gap in this wall of green that I could see the subtle movement of water behind.
This was the Hyrôme, one of the less commonly encountered rivers of the Loire Valley. For the locals this is a small but historically significant waterway, part of a centuries-old landscape once very active with agriculture and associated milling. Look back just one or two hundred years and the Anjou landscape was covered with windmills, the stony ruin we had just passed near the crest of the hill one of a once-great number, while the rivers including the Hyrôme were dotted with watermills. Indeed, through the trees I could just make out one such mill on the opposite bank, the building – unlike the spectre on the hilltop behind me – clearly still well cared for.
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