20 Years Since We First Saw Preuilly

It is almost 20 years ago today that we first saw our house.

May 26 - 29, 2006

As soon as Susan arrived back in the UK, I started planning the next trip to France. This was going to be undertaken with military precision.

Because the fares were cheaper, I decided we would fly into Paris (for the last time) and drive to Loches. The hotel was booked for the Saturday and Sunday night, but I decided to leave the Friday night to chance, because we didn't know how far we would drive that evening. The flight arrived in Paris at 9.15pm, and by midnight we were in Blois looking for a hotel. At 2.15am we were still in Blois looking for a hotel, because of the French custom of "faire le pont" - taking the Friday off if Thursday is a public holiday. Every hotel was full. I now know the back streets of Blois like a local. We eventually found a bed in possibly the most expensive motel in town. So much for military precision, then.

Saturday morning found us on the road to Loches. Once again we visited the market, which, if anything, is even busier on a Saturday than on Wednesday. Then it was time for a quiet lunch, and off to the Immobiliers for our first visit.

The old boulangerie, Preuilly-sur-Claise

The place we had travelled to see was an old boulangerie in Preuilly-sur-Claise. Right on the edge of the village on the main road, it was almost the first building we saw. An amazing place with many features, including the garden which had been converted into a room of over 110 square metres. That room is almost as big as the house I grew up in, which is a staggering thought. It also had a communal staircase (a stone spiral staircase possibly 500 years old) and a cellar over 1000 years old. The rooms were all higgledy-piggledy, and appeared to have grown where they landed. So tempting, but at the same time a real challenge as far as what to do with all that space! It also had no garden except for about 10 metres of shared courtyard. Needless to say we were sorely tempted.

We returned to Loches with the agent. As it was still mid-afternoon, we went for a drive around Loches and environs, visiting Loches-sur-Indrois and Montrésor. Montrésor is a beautiful village with a chateau and water meadows crossed with walks. The demoiselles were really busy (but this is Susan's field of expertise, so more of that from her).

Over dinner (at the Gerbe d'Or and including, once again, the Cointreau Soufflé) we made plans about what to do with the boulangerie. Sure it was a challenge, but we felt ourselves equal to it. The plan was to spend all day Sunday visiting the Brenne Nature Park and the area around Preuilly to see what was actually there. The day was rainy, so we spent a lot of it in the car talking endlessly about the boulangerie and our plans for it. Although we knew the work would be expensive, we thought it might be the right place for us, lack of garden notwithstanding.

First view of Preuilly-sur-Claise

On Monday morning it was back to Preuilly to see a couple more properties, including one arrangement of 3 houses around a courtyard. Most odd, and none of the rooms in any of the houses were of a decent size. Then we were taken (almost as an afterthought) to see a three-bedroom house with garage and attached barn which had once been a granary.

The Old Granary, once a barn

As soon as I walked in, it felt right. Sure it had a lot of issues, but they were, for the main, visible. The roof obviously needed doing, and there was obviously no kitchen or bathroom (or working toilet), but it had all the space we feel we need. There was even a garden. I loved the way the building felt so solid, even with the repairs that needed doing. The walls of the barn almost a metre thick, made out of carved limestone blocks, the encaustic tiles on the floor of the sitting room.

I think we decided there and then that we would make an offer, but not until we had a survey done, and we wouldn't say anything to the agent. Unfortunately neither of us knew the French for "building surveyor", so it was difficult communicating to the non-English-speaking Immobilier what we wanted. A very nice lady wandered in off the street to look at another property, and was immediately roped in to try to help because she spoke a little English. We now find out that there is no word in French for building surveyor................

We left the agent, promising to be in touch.............and so back to Paris and the Aeroport Charles de Gaulle. Never again!

Simon

Some changes have happened in Preuilly since then, not all of them desirable. The most noticeable change regarding this blog is that the old boulangerie is no longer. Susan wrote about its descent to being a ruin in 2023, and since then it has been demolished. We still haven't blogged about that for two reasons: we can't quite work out who decided it should be demolished, and I was having radiotherapy at the time and not interested in anything.

When we work out who said what about the demolition we'll write about it with photos.

A Different Post About Food

Monday is the day we usually post about food. Today is the same, but different.

One of the side effects of hormone treatment for prostate cancer is difficulty controlling blood sugar levels. Recent studies suggest that using a common diabetes medication is beneficial in countering this effect. It isn't, however, part of an approved therapy for prostate cancer - yet.

My recent blood tests show that even after really careful diet control I have a problem. We have been on a no sugar, no high GI carbohydrates, high protein, lots of fibre diet for 8 weeks, and although weight loss has been noticeable, my blood sugar has been high while my energy level has been low.

Thus I am now officially diabetic, which is being treated with Metformin, the drug mention in the study linked to above. I have to admit the results so far have been subtle, but I think I'm noticing a difference.

Breakfast in preparation

I'm kind of enjoying my diet, although it is rather egg, cheese and meat heavy. Breakfast is a problem, unless I want to start having serious cholesterol issues. Thus if you're reading this soon after it's published I'm probably eating porridge oats with oat bran and Greek yoghurt, sweetened with a small amount of no added sugar apple pulp. It's better (just) than it sounds, and I refer to it as breakfast stodge. Susan has been cooking some really interesting diabetes appropriate meals, but we're still looking for a snack food that is tasty without being problematic.

Still - the cancer is being held at bay, and once the hormone treatment stops my pancreas should regain normal function, and we'll have killed two birds with one stone. (But hopefully not another kidney stone, because that's no fun.)

The PseudoSteves Turn Up For Another Year

 

Once again our trusty Siberian Irises are in bloom. They are gorgeous as ever, even though they receive no care whatsoever - no watering, no weeding, no dividing. Nothing.

The reason they are known by us as the PseudoSteves is because they are not the variety Steve, which I bought many years ago at a Royal Horticultural Society show in Westminster (London). Steve sadly did not survive the move to France but his robust unnamed cousins love it here.

A Forest Dwelling Crane Fly

Crane flies are a group of very long legged flies in the sub-order of more primitive flies known as Nematocera - you could say they are really giant non-biting gnats. In Britain they are often referred to as 'daddy-long-legs', but this leads to confusion with several groups of spindly arachnids which are also widely known by this name. Crane flies have several distinctive features and wing venation, so can be identified to family level from good photos fairly easily.

 

Male Ctenophora festiva photographed in the Forest of Preuilly in May 2008, with my old compact digital Olympus camera. Check out those antennae!

They usually look quite ungainly in flight but they beat their wings very rapidly (50 - 70 times a second, much faster than dragonflies). At rest they mostly sit with their wings spread open. Be careful not to handle them, as the legs are fragile and snap off very easily. Females have pointed abdomens, with an ovipositor for laying eggs in the soil or decaying plant material. The larvae live on decaying material in soil or water. They dessicate easily, so in dry years do very poorly. The larvae are known as leatherjackets and some species are crop pests. 

 

Male Ctenophora festiva, photographed in the Forest of Preuilly in May 2008.

Ctenophora festiva is an uncommon species that I see occasionally, and adults can be found in the forest here between April and July. Despite its striking appearance, which means that you are likely to notice it if it flies near you, it does not have an English or a French name. With its black and yellowy orange body it is mimicking a wasp. About 20 mm long, they have a black spot near the tip of the wing, the upper side of the thorax is black, and the hind legs have black bands. The feathery antennae of the males are extraordinary!

Their larvae develop in the trunks and stumps of rotting trees, particularly oaks and chestnuts, and as adults they don't stray far away from the stump they emerged from.

Getting That Cherry Ripe Vibe in France

Cherry season means cherry desserts. I had some blush yellow cherries from our local organic orchard Fruits Ô Kalm and the fruit flies in the kitchen were in plague proportions. So I stewed the cherries. Then I had the idea of serving them with whipped coconut cream. And just before serving I had the brainwave of grating a little dark chocolate on the combo. A total winner. Super easy, super delicious.

 

Ingredients

400 g sweet cherries

6 tbsp sugar

300 g coconut cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 squares of dark chocolate

 

Method

1. Break out your cherry stoning tool from the back of whichever inconvenient cupboard you've shoved it in. Set it up, then rinse your cherries and pluck their stalks off.
2. Run the cherries through the stoning tool, then put them in a saucepan with a dash of water and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Gently simmer the cherries for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on them because they'll have a tendency to boil over.
4. Put the cherries aside to cool.
5. Put the coconut cream, vanilla and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar in a high sided bowl.
6. Rummage out your electric hand beater and whip the coconut cream. This will take a while, longer than dairy cream.
7. Serve the cherries in bowls, topped with a dollop of coconut cream. Shave some chocolate onto the coconut cream using a fine grater.
   

Australians will understand the reference to Cherry Ripe. Everyone else is probably mystified.

First World War Memorial at Saint Flovier

 At Saint Flovier you get to see the human faces of the Great War.

Inside the church there is an unusual memorial. Put up sometime after 1918 thanks to Paul Gravier, a local benefactor, and designed by Lux Fournier, it showcases the faces of those locals that the War took away. Around a central painting representing Christ appearing to a fallen soldier, 54 photographs printed on enamel disks give a presence to these young men of Saint Flovier who died for France. Eleven other soldiers are identified just with a name plate but without a photo. Paul Gravier's grandson Patrick Chevalier de La Teillais was killed in 1918. His oldest daughter (and Patrick's aunt), Rosita, is said to have had a heart attack caused by the strong emotion produced when hearing the bells ring out to announce the end of the War. Paul Gravier had built a Renaissance Revival style chateau on the edge of the village in 1884 for a vast sum of money (a million and a half francs) and he and his wife Elisabeth Hugues had entertained lavishly. She died in 1905, and a few years after the War his other grandson died in an accident. On Paul Gravier's death the estate was divided and sold in relatively small parcels as farmland. The chateau was allowed to fall into ruin and has been demolished. 

Amongst the faces is Paul Désiré Brault, born in Saint Flovier in 1894. A soldier in the 113th Infantry Regiment, he was sent to the Front in the autumn of 1914. Some weeks later he went missing at Boureuilles in the Meuse, far away from his native village.

And there is Louis Jules Blin, born in Fléré la Rivière in 1892. He joined the 90th Infantry Regiment in Le Blanc in 1912 and died of his wounds in Poitiers hospital in September 1914.

Gustave Guinot was born in Douadic in 1878. He joined up in 1898 in Le Blanc, recruited into the 9th Transport and Logistics Squadron. He died after a short illness whilst in service in November 1916 in Hospital 76 in Cannes.

Joseph Eugene Bruneau was born in Mer sur l'Indre in 1893 and was a sergeant in the 160th Infantry Regiment. He had joined up in Chateauroux in 1913 and was killed by the enemy at Ripont in the Marne in September 1915.

Victor Raoul Chasselay was born in Saint Flovier in 1890 and was a sergeant second class in the 49th Artillery Regiment. He was recruited at Le Blanc in 1910 and killed by the enemy at Eherdinghe in Belgium in May 1915. The records seem to indicate that his family were not notified for a year after his death.

When you stand in front of a memorial like this you don't just read the names. You do a calculation of how many young men never came back, and how that affected a village as small as Saint Flovier (population around 750). You look at their faces and imagine being their mother, or their wife. You wonder what they might have achieved if their fate had not been to die in the mud of some First World War battlefield. This is not just a list of names, albeit tragically young men, but men with faces, which makes them that much more present.

The service records of these men are available online at https://www.memoiredeshommes.defense.gouv.fr/conflits-operations/premiere-guerre-mondiale.