Wall Paintings in Poitiers Cathedral

 In 2012 a study was done prior to necessary restoration work after water damaged some of the vaulting.  It revealed a superb assembly of medieval paintings under the imitation stone render done in 1783 in the neoclassical style. The restoration of the south transept paintings began in 2015 and took 10 months to complete. This radiant Gothic art was probably executed in the time of Bishop Gauthier de Bruges just before 1300. A different scene is depicted in each quarter. In the north it is an offering of crowns, in the south the coronation of the Virgin, in the east the Last Judgement, and in the west the bosom of Abraham.

Another wall painting in the nave represents Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and dates from the end of the 17th century.

Packed For a Picnic

Fifteen August, Assomption, fell on a Friday this year so it was a long weekend throughout France. We enjoyed the company of Simon's brother, his wife and their friend. One of the things we did was join the annual classic car meet at Lésigny. This involves meeting at the river for breakfast, then driving a 40 km circuit through rural countryside and villages, along with hundreds of other classic cars following one after another. Once back at the riverside park it was time for a picnic, then a swim.

This is Claudette's boot packed with all the essentials for a picnic and swimming.

For the picnic we served melon and dry cured ham, followed by onion and goats cheese quiche (made by Simon), lettuce, tomatoes, homemade basil vinaigrette, and homemade pickled onions. That was followed by a cheese platter, then homemade mirabelle clafoutis. The drinks served were rose, sparkling water, ginger beer, and champagne.

Every House Has a Well

I came home from shopping the other day and as I walked round to go into the house our Irish neighbour John beckoned me over and said 'Come and look at what I've found!'

He'd been doing some gardening and discovered that behind the cast iron pump that sits decoratively in the front flower bed under a linden tree, there was evidence of a what he strongly suspected was a well cover. A bit of crowbarring later and he was proved right.

Every house in our street, which is named after a well, has its own. Nowadays I don't think any of them are in use, even to water gardens. Our own well is at the back of the house, and like John, we didn't discover it immediately. We'd owned the house for a year when one day we had an architect poking about and he lifted the manhole cover to reveal our well.

Our well is 18 metres deep, John's is 15 metres. Both have water at the bottom. We've never measured ours, but John reckons he's got nearly a metre in depth. In both cases the stone walls of the wells seem in good condition.

The Bridore Granary

While we had visitors over the long weekend I took them to the marvellous and little known 15th century Chateau de Bridoré. They've made lots of improvements since the last time I was there, several years ago.

 

The gatehouse, with the tower which houses the silo on the righthand end.

One feature I had only ever seen from the outside before is the granary, or 'silo'. Now you can get inside the tower than protects it, and there is a full explanation of how it worked.

 

The gatehouse from inside the bas cour (lower courtyard).

The actual granary itself is a 5 metre wide pit in the floor of the tower. This is already a very old idea in the 15th century. We've seen pits for storing grain at a site visit to an archaeological dig of a Gallo-Roman farm near Sublaine, dating from more than a thousand years earlier.

 

15th century fireplace inside the tower.

The way it works is that the grain is deposited in the pit and trodden down several times to compact it during the process of filling the silo. Then the opening is sealed so the grain is stored hermetically. The top layer of grain will germinate, using up all the oxygen to do so, then die once the silo is anaerobic. This means that the grain is protected from rodents and insects, and so long as it stays dry, will last for years if necessary. 

When the grain was to be used the silo was opened and the grain transferred into sacks. A pulley hung from the beam above for hauling them out. I'm guessing that the silo was small enough that hopping in to shovel grain into sacks was not hazardous in the way it would be in a big modern silo (where the grain acts like quicksand).

 

Display showing how hams, sausages and fish were cured by hanging them from the beams and smoking them in the tower.

In addition to the silo there is a fireplace on the ground floor of the tower. A smoky fire would be used to cure meat and fish hanging from the beams, out of reach of all but the most determined rodents. 

The tower which contains the silo would have been used to station guards above what was the main entrance to the chateau in the 15th century.

 

A pulley used to haul sacks of grain (reconstruction).

In the 1970s the owner of the chateau discovered a human skeleton buried under the dirt floor of the tower, and a 15th century Spanish soldier's metal helmet.

Further Reading: 

My post on the Chateau de Bridoré  https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2015/03/chateau-de-bridore.html

My post about visiting the archaeological site near Sublaine https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2021/07/visiting-archaeological-dig.html

 

Hornet Blockade

We have a colony of feral honey bees living in the void between our attic floor and bedroom ceiling. They installed themselves back in April and really have been no trouble at all apart from me having to call Bernard the Beek to see if he could entice them into a 'proper' hive, and if not, ask his advice about how to manage them. The answer to the latter question is simple: there is no need to do anything at all.

The other day I noticed that there was a large number of bees huddled around the entrance to their hive, and hanging in the air in a thoroughly menacing way was a group of Asian Yellow-legged Hornets Vespa velutina (Fr. Frelon asiatique). These are notorious for raiding honey bee hives and beekeepers get very agitated about them.

Watching the action (or, to be honest, the lack of action) it seemed to me that the problem for the bees was not so much getting captured and eaten, but being trapped so they couldn't fly out and forage. It was a very hot day, and they could not fly off to find water for a drink either, and neither could they effectively fan the interior of the hive to keep it cool. The hornets dared not approach too closely as they would have got overwhelmed by guard bees who would envelope them in a mass of hot honey bees, thus killing the hornet. So it was a standoff, with the hornets presumably hoping that if they waited long enough the honey bees would fly in desperation. 

I don't know how long the situation endured. After lunch I looked again, and there were only a few guard bees at the hive entrance, and no hornets in sight. The next day I did see a hornet bearing off a honey bee.

The hornets will be wanting to catch bees to feed their own larvae. Hornet and wasp larvae are 'carnivores' and will eat the soft parts of other insects, which the adults either catch or scavenge for their young. It could also include bits of dead animals, ham and such from your picnic, and fish from the fishmongers at the market. The adult hornets and wasps themselves feed on sugary substances such as nectar that they forage from flowers, and soft drinks and jam at your picnic.

At the back door, the Asian Hornets are staking out the German wasps too, but here they are themselves having to fight off European Hornets Vespa crabro (Fr. Frelon), who also fancy a waspy snack.

European Hornet dismembering a European Wasp Vespula germanica on our door mat. The hornet has stung the wasp in the head and has already removed the abdomen.

The Choir Stalls in Poitiers Cathedral

The Zodiac character Sagitarius.

The choir stalls were put in place during the time of Bishop Jean de Melun in the mid-13th century. They are amongst the oldest still extant in France and are a beautiful example of Parisian Gothic.

 

 Bat.

A misericord.

Entrance to the upper tier of stalls on one side.

One of the misericords.

One end of one side of the choir stalls.

The back of the choir stalls.

Looking down the full length of one side of the choir stalls, towards the altar.

One end of one side of the choir stalls.

Cat and kitten.

 

Originally there were about a hundred seats but nowadays 37 each side remain. Even reduced to 74 seats they remind one of the importance of the Cathedral Chapter here.

 

Virgin and Child, with angels either side holding crowns.

The spandrels of the arcade above the high backs are adorned with angels holding two crowns, alternating with a multitude of varied subjects -- familiar animals, scenes from everyday life, allegorical decpictions of vices, an architect and his instruments, and a Virgin and Child with a slightly mannered grace.