Giant Stinging Tree

Where the rainforest has been opened up by cyclonic storms you will find the notorious stinging trees growing. In south-east Queensland there are a couple of species. The one in my photos is Giant Stinging Tree Dendrocnide excelsa, which can inflict severe pain that can last for several months.

Looking up into the crown of a Giant Stinging Tree.

The Dendrocnide species belong to the Stinging Nettle family Urticaceae, and just like the common European herbaceous plant they carry stinging hairs, which if touched, deliver a neurotoxin. Giant Stinging Trees are not as dangerous as Gympie Gympie D. moroides, which causes agonising pain and has been responsible for the suicide of victims.

The trees are hairy all over, and can sting livestock and people. There are reports of horses and dogs being killed if contact with the tree is too comprehensive. First aid advice if you are stung is to use leg wax depiliatory strips to remove the stinging hairs. Wildlife, especially birds, often seem to be immune or have some protection against the stings, and the leaves and fruits are eaten by certain species. Aboriginal people obviously had ways of dealing with the stings as they used fibres from the tree for making nets and ropes.

Giant Stinging Tree trunk.

Giant Stinging Tree is a typical rainforest tree, up to 40 metres tall, with a buttressed trunk. The leaves are heartshaped and can be 30 cm across.

Assumption Day in Lesigny

When we visited M. Denis last week he asked were we going to the Assumption Day rally at Lésigny? It's free, fun and there's lots of people. Free and fun are our scene, so we did some investigation, and yes, it appeared you just rolled up (with picnic and old car) and took part.

We invited Huub, Ingrid and Anne-Loes to come and picnic with us, so as suitably 1960s attired as you can be spontaneously, we piled into Claudette and headed to Lésigny.  It was raining and thundering as we approached, but the prospect of a free breakfast meant that we weren't turning around. By the time we arrived the rain was a light drizzle, so we took our umbrellas and made for the food tables.

 Huub, Susan and Simon attack bread, terrine and cheese
(with brioche, coffee and wine to follow)

We weren't the only ones interested in being fed

(the above photos courtesy of Ingrid)

Once breakfast was out of the way we took to our cars - then sat gently steaming while the rain bucketed down for 20 minutes of so. Then we were off!! We travelled via La Roche Posay, Vicq sur Gartempe, and Néons sur Creuse to Yzeures, where we all parked up and were invited into the salle des fetes to be provided with apéros. Along the route people had turned out to watch, and the princesses in the back almost exhausted themselves perfecting their royal waves.

Parked up in Yzeures.

From Yzeures we travelled back through la Roche Posay to Lésigny, where we snaffled one end of a long picnic table, laid out our food (too many wonderful things to list). At the other end of the picnic table were a couple of other groups of picnickers, and soon the comestibles were travelling the length of the table, as slices of our quiche were exchanged for slices of their tomato tart, and our mayonnaise travelled up and back because we were the only people who had remembered.

This is typical of these sorts of car events - you bring your own picnic, sit with strangers, and soon you're all one big family group. Telephone numbers and email addresses were exchanged, and a thoroughly convivial time was had by all.

After lunch and we are all looking at each other's cars.

There's something I think I may have forgotten to mention.... Susan made a "French Apple Pie" which caused amusement (being something French people have never heard of), so it was sent up the table for everyone to sample, and in return we were pressed with apricot sponge, chocolate brownies, moelleux au chocolat and apple clafoutis.

Five desserts. That's what I call a picnic!

Yzeures, a Float

We wrote the other day about a mystery float in the parade for the Comice Agricole, and it was suggested it was the float from Yzeures.

We know it wasn't, because we saw the float from Yzeures being built, and it was this one:

And look who's driving it - it's M.Denis, to whom we entrust the care of Celestine & Claudette!

M.Denis has recently retired from owning and running quite a large Renault concession and general mechanics, and has rented a shed to concentrate on fixing old tractors. He also works on various classic cars, and always does a stellar job of greasing the Grand Dames' various creaks and aches, and can be relied upon to ferret out any little problem we may have.

The Yzeures Circus float had been in his workshop the last couple of visits (both cars recently had a pre-roadworthy test check-up) and we saw it in various stages of creation, but we didn't realise M.Denis was going to be all clowned up and driving.

A Forgotten Heroine

Rosine Deréan was a French actor, born in 1910 in Paris, and dying in obscurity in Genillé in 2001. Married to the comedian Claude Dauphin, she was deported to Ravensbruck during the Second World War. After the war the couple separated and she slowly disappeared from public view. Earlier this year Christophe Meunier, a local historian and university lecturer, published a biography of this little known French movie star and Resistance heroine. 

The plaque honouring her memory as a forced labourer.

She and her husband bought the chateau de la Bourdillière at Genillé in 1939. Although she lived a long and full life, her career as an actor was relatively short, and she last appeared in a film in 1956. During the Second World War, with her anti-Nazi husband having escaped to London via submarine, she joined the Resistance network Amarante. After being denounced she was arrested and interned, along with Geneviève Antonioz-de Gaulle, at Ravensbruck in Germany, where she was put to work making rope, and from where she was liberated on 30 April 1945. Scarred by these events, she returned to Genillé but was unable to really re-launch her career.

 The community events venue in Genillé is named after Rosine Deréan.

Admired for her delicate beauty and elegance, her most successful film was a tearjerker called Les Deux Orphelines, directed by Maurice Tourneur in 1933 and co-starring Renée Saint-Cyr. She and her husband were celebrities, regularly seen out on the town in Paris. By the late 1930s they were working together, starring in films such as Les perles de la couronne, in which their personal alchemy was commented on.  

 The Espace Rosine Deréan, the community events venue (Fr. salle des fêtes).

Despite her having worked with the greatest directors and actors of her day between 1931 and 1939, there was no personal archive for her biographer to trawl through. He had to piece together her story like a detective from hints, traces and personal testimonies.

 Photograph of Rosine Deréan in the salle des fêtes in Genillé.

Adrian Matthews has written about Genillé Under the Occupation on his blog, an account of a guided visit around the village with Christophe Meunier.

Donner & Blitzen

Yesterday morning at early o'clock we took Célestine over the Yzeures to collect Huub, Ingrid and Anne-Loes for a car based picnic. The weather wasn't looking perfect, but we thought we would risk it. Heading towards Lesigny we were impressed by the lightning coming from the clouds we were heading towards, but to us it didn't seem to be exactly over the picnic area.

We were right - at 09:30 the lightning hit the drawbridge tower of the chateau of le Grand Pressigny, causing a rock fall and damaging the roof of the orangerie. As a result of this, the chateau is currently closed. The Nouvelle-Republique article that alerted us to the event is here.

The gateway in 2008. This is the most recent photo we have...

We may write some more about the car-based picnic (it was genial) later in the week, but in the meantime, here's a preview:

Comice Agricole 2017 - Day 3

Day three of the comice is reserved for the "Grand Défilé" - the big parade. This year's parade was much bigger than that in 2011, with much more community involement. Many of the villages and towns around Preuilly had circus themed "chars" (floats), including:

Bossay

Boussay

Chambon

Charnizay

Chaumussay

Tournon

Unfortunately I have no idea who this cricus school is (or where they are from)

The kids were pretty good though

Preuilly sur Claise's float was for the Reine de Comice

Some excellent planning and creativity had gone into the floats, although at one stage it looked like one of the floats had been measured to fit precisely though the narrow gaps in the street, but it had been  forgotten that there would be people standing on the footpaths...

There was also a number of bands: from Saumur, Yzeures, and Saint-Geno, and a pair of majorette teams.

In all - very colourful, very local, and a most entertaining way to spend an otehrwise quiet Sunday afternoon.