Out and About in the Claise Valley in Early April

My friend Ingrid and I took ourselves on a little nature outing to check on the state of the orchids in the Claise Valley around Chaumussay on 7 April. She wanted to practice with a new macro lens, so she took most of the photos. And we saw a lot of wildlife apart from just orchids. So here is a selection.

 

A Red-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus lapidarius (Fr. Bourdon des pierres) queen looking for a suitable place to set up her new colony.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Lady Orchid Orchis purpurea (Fr. Orchis pourpre) bud.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Male Green Fairy Longhorn moths Adela reaumurella (Fr. Adèle verdoyante) displaying on a Wayfaring Tree Viburnum lantana (Fr. Viorne lantane), waiting for females to appear.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Apple Blossom Beetle Tropinota hirta (Fr. Cétoine hérissée) on, you guessed it, apple blossom. The tree is a naturalised domestic apple I assume.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Lady Orchid.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

The remarkarble shared tower entries to a sweat bee Lasioglossum marginatum colony. One of the little bees who occupy these tiny tunnels is centre bottom.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Green Hairstreak Callophrys rubi (Fr. Thècle de la ronce) on apple blossom. This lovely butterfly has a very short flight season, but the numbers appear to be increasing. These days I see it every year, which was not the case in the past.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

The rare parasitic fly Gonia vacua. This one is male and covered in pollen.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

The Second World War Demarcation line memorial at Chaumussay, on the D42 between Preuilly sur Claise and le Grand Pressigny. Conveniently, one can park there, and there is a colony of Early Purple Orchids.

Photo courtesy of Ingrid de Winter.

Early Purple Orchid Orchis mascula (Fr. Orchis male) and Blue Sedge Carex flacca (Fr. Laîche glauque).

Cowslips Primula veris (Fr. Coucou) on the roadside at Humeau.

Put a Sock in It

Yesterday Susan mentioned Eoliennes Bollées, how we are fans of the aforementioned and have blogged about them (link). On our last Sunday drive before Christmas (and our first after the second lockdown) we discovered another, completely by chance.

In 1963 the owner of the chateau of Nitray purchased a light plane and built an airstrip through his vineyards. The plane was built at Gap in the south-east of France, but by 1967 the builder was searching for another place to build new aircraft. A proposal was made to build a little hangar at Nitray and use the private airfield for flight testing new aircraft.

By 1975, the aircraft business had become such that the shed near the chateau had become too small. A new hangar was built on the other side of the runway, the runway extended to the main road from Tours, and a taxiway constructed.

We're not sure when the Eolienne Bollée was converted to take a windsock, but it's obvious that's what happened - you can still see the ring that the sock (now disappeared) was mounted on.

The airfield has now been replanted with vines, and the "new" hanger is still there, although owned by a business not connected with aircraft building.

La Chapelle de Notre-Dame de Prélong

At the edge of the forest, on the road that leads from La Petite Guerche to Le Rond du Chêne, at the foot of a wooded hill, near the Fontaine de Prélong, stand the ruins of a chapel that you can barely see from the road. The small ruined chapel from the fifteenth century, known originally as Notre-Dame de Preslong is now covered with vegetation. Only a section of wall with an arch remains. About a kilometre away from the very dense woods of the Forêt de Guerche, the chapel and spring are at the end of a small sheltered valley. A stream from the spring runs down the base of the valley towards the River Creuse, and the road runs parallel to the stream. The land has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic period.

The site was home to a Saint Rigommier, a pious hermit who performed miracles. Local legend also says that Agnès Sorel lived in the nearby Chateau de la Guerche, which had been built for her by Charles VII. So far as I know this is not true, but Agnès' cousin Antoinette lived there, as the wife of the local lord, and she became Charles VII's mistress after Agnès died.

The main legend associated with the chapel is that of a young falconer, out walking with his beautiful young love and looking for Turtle Dove nests. They were attacked by a wolf, who threw itself savagely on the young woman and mauled her to death. Charles VII, on hearing the sad story, built the chapel and had his falconner's fiancée buried in the centre of the building. Shortly afterwards war broke out between the French and English and the young falconner went off to fight. After distinguishing himself on the battlefield he returned to set up as a hermit in the chapel to mourn his beloved.

Local historians believe there is some truth to the story. Today we can still see a hole in the middle of the chapel, which is perhaps the remains of a grave. Supposedly there are inscriptions relating to the lovers still visible on the walls, but I didn't notice anything like that.

The second wolf story associated with the chapel concerns an old woman, who one day tied her only nanny goat to the door latch of the chapel. A wolf caught the scent of the goat, which was frightened. But the goat was held by a rather long rope and it was able to run inside the chapel. The wolf followed, and the goat quickly exited, pulling the latch when the rope was taut, thus locking the wolf in the church, to be dealt with by the villagers.

As a result the chapel is sometimes referred to as the "wolf chapel" by the locals. The wolf was present and active enough in the area to frighten the population. The last wolf in Vienne (county or département) was shot in 1923.

Finally abandoned in the Revolution it took less than a century to turn it into a picturesque ruin. The forest invaded the clearing around the chapel, the roof became damp and rotten, creepers and vegetation covered the walls and the open meadow at the front of the building became narrower and narrower until it disappeared altogether.

The chapel of Notre Dame de Prélong was originally placed under the dependence of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Preuilly. During the 17th century, it became the responsibility of la Guerche, being at that time located in the territory of the Comte de la Guerche.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Wood Pile or Wall?

This creative use of firewood, an existing stone boundary wall and a mill stone is at the entrance to a property near Blois.

************************************************

For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, gardens, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Medieval and Modern

The Hôtel Gouin with a Calder sculpture in the courtyard.

The Hôtel Goüin in Tours is not, and has never been, a hotel in the anglo sense. It was built as a grand private home in the 15th century, although what we see now is a 16th century remodelling. Later it served as the headquarters and archive storage for the Archaeological Society of the Touraine. In 1944 all but the facade was destroyed in a bombing raid and the building was partially rebuilt in the 1950s. Now it is a museum.

The sculpture currently in the courtyard is by Alexander Calder. He lived for much of his life in the Loire Valley, at Saché. This sculpture, one of his stabile-mobiles, is called 'Crinkly', from 1969 and made of steel, stainless steel and aluminium.

The American sculptor and painter Alexander Calder, 1898 - 1976, arrived in Paris in 1926. He created articulated toys, in wire. Jean Cocteau nicknamed him later 'the king of wire'. Calder was part of the avant-garde, with artists like Joan Miró, Fernand Léger, Man Ray, Le Corbusier, and especially, Pietr Mondrian, the pioneering abstract painter. Calder admired Mondrian's paintings and in 1930 declared 'I would like to make Mondrians which move'. From 1931, he was a member of the group 'Abstraction-Creation', which brought together Mondrian, Jean Arp and Robert Delaunay. In 1953, Calder set up his workshop in the Touraine, at Saché, on the banks of the Indre. 

The work of Calder is marked by the search for movement, which is expressed in particular with his mobiles. These are light iron structures, suspended and articulated, composed of several horizontal bars carrying small coloured leaves which move in the wind. 

A pioneer of kinetic sculptures, Calder combined mobiles and stabiles, creating standing sculptures topped with a mobile. His stabiles are monumental steel sculptures, destined for the centres of cities, to resonate with modern architecture. Calder first made models which were then tested in the breeze to check their robustness. These models were scaled up and erected by workers from a local boilermaking factory. The Biémont factory near Tours constructed most of these stabiles, painted in mat black, with details added at the request of Calder.

Dauphin Again

I was thinking the other day that it feels like ages since we last posted a downpipe photo - and I was right. So to correct that, here's a stylish copper one from Chambord.