Grizzled Skipper

Grizzled Skipper Pyrgus malvae (Fr. Hespérie de l'Ormiere) is a small day flying lepidoptera of a type known as a skipper. They are generally regarded as and included with butterflies, rather than moths, but they have antennae that terminate in hooked clubs rather than round ended clubs, so they don't look like other butterflies.

I was rather surprised to encounter this individual on the street a couple of days ago.

The Grizzled Skipper has been found to be a species complex, and individuals found in southern France are probably always the newly designated P. malvoides. In Indre et Loire it seems we have the northern species, P. malvae. They prefer open chalk grassland and woodland clearings where their caterpillar host plants, various strawberry family species, are likely to occur.

There are several lookalike species apart from the externally identical P. malvoides. It is always worth looking at them closely just in case the individual is one of the rarer species, but to be sure you have to use an identification key, carefully answering a series of questions about different aspects of the pattern on the wings.

A Grizzled Skipper photographed several years ago on wet earth in our orchard, showing the characteristic molar shaped mark on the upperside of the hind wing

They are one of the earliest butterflies on the wing in the spring, with a first generation appearing in April, and the second generation are still active in September or even October. It is most abundant in May, with much lower numbers seen in the other months.

All the Way Home

Susan took this photo from the passenger seat of the Cactus last week as we returned home from work. At this time of year we leave home an hour before sunrise, and get back just as the sun is setting again.

Close To Your Ear

Last Friday we went with Antoinette and Niall to Clos Lucé for a concert of Renaissance music. Such excellence! Prés de Votre Orielle are a nine piece ensemble comprising keyboards (organ and virginal), four viol de gamba, and four singers. All or the music was written by William Byrd, the main event being music from the Mass for Four Voices.

As a special treat, here is a promotional video, featuring the Kyrie from Byrd's Mass for Four Voices,  performed by Prés de Votre Orielle.

Carvings in the Heurault Tower

Exiting the Chateau Royal d'Amboise is a fun experience if you look up at the carvings at the ends of the rib vaults in the Heurault Tower. Here is a small selection, which sadly doesn't include the man picking his bum, as my photo of him is very blurry.

A man wearing a turban and hitching a sack or a cloak over his shoulders.

Inside the tower you ascend or descend by a ramp that spirals around the centre to allow horses and carriages easy access -- kind of like a modern ramp to access a multi-storey car park. The Chateau Royal is perched on a rock ridge that overlooks the Loire and dominates the town.

A woman lifting her veil over her chin.

The characters depicted become more and more vulgar as you descend.

A man tipping his head back and drinking from a flask.

Two men wrestling. I'm fairly sure the one on top has a rather unsporting hold on his opponent.

Munching on the Roses

Yesterday we went over to Chateau Valcreuse to meet the new owners, Californians Mark and Kathy. As we were leaving we spotted a Roe Deer right outside the front door, nibbling away at the roses.

The End of an Era at Chateau Valcreuse

These people came to Chateau Valcreuse as a bride, a chauffeur, a waiter, a chef and a mechanic.

 

On Wednesday we went to a party at Chateau Valcreuse. Our friends Caroline and Alexander have somewhat reluctantly sold their 19th century chateau bed and breakfast overlooking the River Creuse near La Roche Posay. The new owners are an American couple who we have yet to meet.

The very nice and hardworking waiter at the party.

The party was so Caroline and Alexander could say goodbye to all their friends and those who've supported them over the past 15 years. They live in Belgium, but every year they came to France for the summer, and ran Chateau Valcreuse as an upmarket B&B. And therein lies their problem.

Alexander made a speech in French, a language he is not comfortable in. Everyone was very impressed.

Their children have reached the age when they do not want to be uprooted every summer and taken away from their friends. Covid really highlighted this, as so they took the decision to sell. The B&B took up so much of their time that they weren't spending the holidays with the kids really, just sleeping in the same house.

Caroline made a speech and thanked absolutely everyone in the most charming and heartfelt way.

 

I've no doubt they will be back, and the B&B is going to continue under the new owners. We will miss Alexander's enthusiasm and Caroline's attention to detail. They were always a joy to work with and the only people we ever did picnics or weddings for with Célestine or Claudette. They were fabulous hosts and two of the kindest and most generous people we know. They staged the best parties! We have been so lucky to have been part of their circle of friends at Chateau Valcreuse. To be honest, I think the change will be sadder for their friends than for them. They have a new project to go to back in Belgium.

Breakfast at Tours Station

Last week we had a couple of clients who were staying overnight at hotels close to Tours station.

These days we like to make an early start to the day, preparing the car (at the moment that's Claudette) then driving close to where we are meeting our client. Then we have breakfast. Often it is at a café, where we buy coffee and eat croissants (or if you're Simon, a pain á raisin) we have bought at a nearby boulangerie.

Recently we have taken to having breakfast at Café Leffe, the restaurant in Tours station. Whilst sitting there on Sunday morning this view presented itself. I kind of like it.

Oooo Whats That Thing?

Yesterday I was called by a neighbour who wanted me to come over and identify a mysterious growth that had appeared on her side door lintel.

Ootheca attached to door lintel.

It turned out to be a Praying Mantis ootheca. She had never seen one before, but she had seen a Praying Mantis sitting on her telephone yesterday. She'd put it outside, but obviously, as it turned out, not before the Praying Mantis had created her frothy ootheca made of hardened protein to protect the eggs she had laid.

A Praying Mantis with prey (a bushcricket) photographed several years ago.

The eggs will hatch in the spring and my friend can expect to have a kitchen full of about 150 tiny Praying Mantises once the temperature is warm enough (about 17C).

What Have We Been Doing?

Last week I did a lot of driving and Susan spent a lot of time walking around chateaux. While Susan is guiding I tend to read and listen to the radio. It's not as boring as it sounds, because I get to sit and read in some interesting locations.

On Saturday I sat in the shade in a picnic area outside Montresor; reading, listening to a podcast, and digesting a rather quite good lunch. Life's hard...

This is the view of Montresor as you drive in from Villoin-Coulangé. The picnic area is to your right.

A Good Year for Agen Prunes

In France prunes that do not come from the area around Agen are considered inferior (to the point of not worth buying). The real thing is called a pruneau d'Agen in French. The word 'prune' in French simply means fresh plum.

Sweet, low in calories and good for your health, the Agen prune is a cult product from the Lot-et-Garonne. About 900 growers produce more than 38 000 tonnes of certified IGP Pruneaux d'Agen annually in France, and this year's harvest begun in mid August, a little early.

Only the Ente variety of plum can be turned into Agen prunes, known as the 'black pearl' of Lot-et-Garonne. They can be eaten coated in chocolate, soaked in Armagnac or just plain, every day for breakfast. A prune a day keeps the doctor away according to the producers.

This year the prunes will be good. The plums haven't suffered from the heat or the drought. With the sun the fruit is packed with sugar. The more sugar the better the quality of the prune.

France is the third biggest producers of prunes in the world, with 400 000 tonnes of plums harvested annually. The plums are sorted according to their sugar levels, then laid out in ovens at 80C.

Stormy Weather

We were working on Wednesday, and there were France wide storm warnings which had me slightly spooked. I don't like the thought Claudette getting caught in a hailstorm.

This meant that I spent much of the afternoon  sitting in Claudette in the car park of Chenonceau  checking the rain radar.

One thing that struck me was how the storm avoided the Cher river valley, but followed the Loire all the way.

We managed to avoid most of the rain and all of the hail, which was useful. One of Claudette's shortcomings is that her windscreen wipers don't really wipe - they flap at the rain like Bertie Wooster flapping at a wasp.

School Menu

 This is the menu for September for our local primary school.

Items in green are organic, red are locally sourced or made in-house. All salads are made from fresh ingredients, all meats are from animals born, raised and butchered in France. The fish is from sustainable fisheries.

On Thursday 1 September the kids were eating melon, organic tomatoes stuffed in-house with local ingredients, rice, cheese and ice cream. 

On Monday 5 September it was organic grated carrots in vinaigrette, veal stew, organic potato puffs, cheese and fruit.

On Tuesday 13 September they ate beetroot, pizza, cheese, and baked egg custard, all organic and vegetarian.

On Friday 23 September it will be salad nicoise (green beans, tuna, olives, tomato and boiled egg in vinaigrette), fish meuniere (fish dredged in flour and fried), sauteed vegetables, cheese, fruit.

Organic Veggies

I get all our veggies from the Jardins Vergers de la Petite Rabaudiere. That's an organic market garden and orchard on the edge of town and their farm shop is open from 4pm to 7pm every Monday. They also come to the market in Preuilly on Thursday mornings. Here are some photos from my last visit.

Michelin starred chef Jacky Dallais (left) buys his veggies here, as does my friend Manuela (right).

The cabbages looked great and I bought one.

What Jacky Dallais had in his basket.

It's tomato time.

Eloise munching her way through some green beans. Prior to my arrival she had eaten a red pepper and gnawed on a corn cob. After the beans were gone she had another red pepper. Mum Justine is manning the till.

Climate Change, Water and Agriculture in France

This text has been lifted from Le Monde in English.

According to the 2010 Conseil d'Etat report, "L'Eau et Son Droit" ("Water and its right"), agriculture consumes 48% of all water [in France]. This figure rises to 79% in summer.

Agricultural choices play a role in the increasing dryness of certain regions. Corn [maize] cultivation represents 41% of irrigated crops, according to the consumer information group UFC-Que Choisir. It needs irrigation in July and August, when rivers and water tables are at their lowest. This corn then feeds the animals of industrial livestock production.

In France, in 2010, the Conseil d'Etat noted that the irrigated surface area tripled between 1970 and 2000, in conjunction with increased drilling into the water table, whether it was done legally or illegally. Between 2010 and 2020, the share of usable agricultural land that is irrigated increased by 14%, according to the 2020 agricultural census.

Climate change has serious consequences for water. By 2050, average annual river flows [in France] will decrease by 10% to 40%. Evaporation from the soil and transpiration from the plant cover will increase by 10% to 30%, according to the 2020 report "Changement climatique, eau, agriculture : Quelles trajectoires d'ici 2050".

Dead Computer

Our office computer has died. I'm a bit disappointed, because we have only had it for six years. I bought it second hand from Ebay in November 2016, and it turned into a bit of a saga at the time. I am fairly confident that we haven't lost any files because I did a big backup on Friday evening.

I think we will have to bite the bullet and buy a more modern machine, because I suspect it's a hardware issue. In the meantime we only Susan's laptop, my tablet, and a pair of mobile phones to keep us connected to the world.

On a more cheerful note - Susan was at Villandry on Friday and took this excellent photo with her phone.

A Ukrainian Birthday at Chenonceau

 

Makari has just swallowed a rather large dollop of wasabi on a sushi roll. He had to tough it out, much to everyone's amusement.

 

My friend Ros, who is hosting Masha, a young Ukrainian refugee, near Le Blanc, contacted me recently to say that it was Masha's 19th birthday on 11 September. She and Tony, her husband, wanted to do something special as Masha is now all on her own in France. She arrived with her mother and little brother, after spending a month in a cellar in Kharkiv, but now her mother and brother have returned to Ukraine to be with Masha's father. Masha has chosen to stay in France but continue her Ukrainian university studies remotely.

Makari and Varvara brought balloons and a small handmade present for Masha. I thought it was very touching, as they have only met her once before.

 

In Preuilly and the immediately surrounding villages we have about 40 Ukrainian refugees, including teenagers about Masha's age, so when Ros asked me to suggest a chateau to visit for Masha's birthday, I recommended Chenonceau, and said I would invite Makari and Varvara, two of 'our' refugees in Preuilly.

Masha blowing the candles out on the birthday cake.

 

One of the things Masha was missing was speaking Ukrainian so we thought company her own age would be just the treat she needed. The outing was planned in utmost secrecy from her and when Makari and Varvara appeared in the Chenonceau carpark brandishing balloons and singing Happy Birthday she was very surprised.

Sitting down to a picnic before visiting the chateau.

 

Ros supplied a picnic which included lots of sushi, because she had learnt that Ukrainians really like sushi. When the cake was cut and Happy Birthday sung once again, all the adjoining tables of French picnickers joined in.

Makari and Varvara surprise Masha with their birthday greetings and a gift in the carpark.

 

After eating ourselves to a standstill we visited the interior of the chateau. Chenonceau had very generously given the Ukrainians free passes for the day (I didn't ask for free tickets, they were offered when I told the Visitor Services Manager the story).

 

During the visit Masha took lots of calls from friends and family in Ukraine wanting to wish her a happy birthday. I had strict instructions from Makari and Varvara's mum Natasha to take lots of photos, so these are some of them.

Makari, Varvara and Masha on the balcony at Chenonceau.

An Alley in the Dordogne

Where I grew up alleys tended not to look like this. This particular alley is in Tursac.

The End of an Era

I suspect that the majority of the world's population is like me and has only known one UK Monarch. My Mother was born in 1934 so lived during the reigns of three Kings and a Queen. She was a staunch royaliast, so yesterday's news would have caused her great sadness.

This was one of her most memorable occasions - pictured meeting the Queen in 1977 and shown on the cover of our local newspaper "The Canberra Times". It was later published in Australia's leading monthly magazine, the "Women's Weekly".

* I was right. Apparently 94% of the worlds population were born after 1952

Busy

 

That's what we've been. Busy.

Today is the fourth day in a row we have used Claudette for a tour, and tomorrow we are using her again. Even when the cars are behaving they demand attention. On Sunday it was Claudette's turn to throw a curveball.

As has been our habit the past couple of years, we went up to Tours on Sunday afternoon to check over Claudette, refuel her and wash her before meeting our clients at Saint Pierre des Corps Station, Doing that the day before and staying overnight in Tours saves us a very early start to the day, and means that when we arrive home we haven't spent 15 hours working.

On Sunday I took Claudette out of the garage only to find we had a very soft front tyre. Luckily(!) I am old enough to have grown up when flat tyres weren't uncommon, and you were expected to change the wheel yourself rather than call roadside service. It took about 30 minutes of jack wrangling and we were ready to go.

Restoring the Towers of Chambord

All six towers of the Chateau of Chambord are covered in scaffolding as part of a 3.5 million euro project to repair the structural integrity of the lanterns and to ensure the roofs don't leak. When they were inspected prior to the work it was realised that the roof timbers no longer reach the walls in some cases. Water is getting in and mixing with the tannins in the oak, causing damage to the lead or zinc flashing. The roofs are already twisting and sagging, and if it continues and the roofs are not repaired they will simply collapse as the wood disintegrates. No repairs have been carried out on these lanterns since 1967 and the last big restoration was in the 19th century.

Over time the decorative lead finials have all disappeared or degraded, so a collection of salamanders, fleur de lis and volutes are being made by skilled crafts persons. They will be given a suitable dark blue-gray patina or gilded and reinstated.

The four towers on the corners of the square central keep have lead roofs, and the other two have slate roofs. Each is 12 metres high including their weathervane (10.3 metres without). There is 15 tonnes of roofing material up there, half of which is lead. The scaffolding is 54 metres long and weighs 80 tonnes. Thirty people will take 10 000 man hours to complete the work, including 4000 hours for replacing the slates on the lanterns (light wells).

Appearances can be deceiving

Susan wrote last week about the drought affecting France, and the photos of the Loire River that make the water lever look even lower than it is. This photo is an interesting contrast, in that the water level looks quite low, but not too bad.

We have seen the water level lower earlier this year, and even lower in April 2019, but that was with the needle dam downstream open. The dam is now firmly closed. There are storms and rain forecast for this week, and we will be back at Chenonceau on Thurday, so we will be interested to see it the water level changes much.

Dinner at the Lavoir

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the ginguette at the lavoir and mentioned we didn't have many photos of it. We now have more photos, but for some reason not that many.

Last Thursday we had dinner at the lavoir with Huub and Ingrid. It was a really relaxed evening in pleasant surroundings, and once again the burgers were excellent. Everyone was a bit worried by the weather forecast of storms, and by the end of the evening the lighning was well in evidence, even though we received no rain. This may be why the place wasn't as busy as it could have been, but it was a lovely way to spend an evening.

The ginguette le Lavoir has proven to be a real success with locals as well as visitors, and we hope it will become a permanent (if seasonal) fixture. There is often live music at the weekend, as well. You have until 30th September to visit.

The Overground Underground

One thing I wanted to see while we were in Lyon in July was the funicular underground railway. The railways were built to carry goods and passengers up the incredibly steep cliffs that suround old Lyon and are very early - the first was built in 1862. They start at ground level and climb a very steep ramp to enter the tunnel. For the people of Lyon that may be normal, but for me...

There were once five funicular lines, but only two exist now, a line climbing the Fourvière hill linking Saint-Jean to Saint-Just with an intermediate station at Minimes, and a line from Saint-Jean to the Basilica. Both lines were modernised in 1986 and 1987. A new station at Saint-Jean was built in 1991 to serve a new line of the Metro and both funicular lines, and the whole complex named Vieux-Lyon. The Fourvière funicular was refurbished at the start of 2018, and the St Just funicular at the start of 2019.

We rode on the line up to the Basilica. It isn't very long, only 404 metres (1,325 ft), but it climbs 116 metres (381 ft). There's only 2 stops, one at each end, and two cars. They balance each other out, so it's actually quite an efficient mode of transport. Each car carries 70 passengers, and the journey takes 2 minutes.

That's the facts, now for the pictures:

The train is at the station

The funicular crosses a bridge to enter the tunnel

The same view from inside

The mechanism that hauls the carriage up the hill

One thing we weren't expecting (so we didn't get any photos) is Roman artifacts in niches in the tunnel.

The Best Baguette in France

There is regular chatter in travel forums about the best baguette/croissant/whatever in France/Paris/wherever.

This is often prompted by "articles" in newspapers or travel blogs, and is invariably clickbait - a title designed to show up in search engines to attract people to a website so that their adverts get shown to more people. This blog post is different - we don't receive any money from advertising, and I am making no list of boulangeries.

A picture of baguettes, because it is obligatory

The best baguette is almost invariably the baguette in the boulangerie closest to you. And if you don't like that one, there is sure to be a different style of baguette, or another boulangerie close by. Susan and I can't agree on the best baguette to be found in one of our local boulangeries, and I am not a huge fan of any of the baguettes in the other. Remember - we live in a town of 1000 people, so our chocie is limited to 4, maybe 5, baguettes.

And that's before you add in how you like it baked. (For the record, I prefer an ordinary baguette, pas trop cuit)

In a city like Paris, with about 11,000 boulangeries, the choice is endless, and people who write about the "best" baguette have no more idea than the person reading the article in New York who has never been to France. The most recent "article" (I won't insult your intelligence by posting a link) even manages to list a boulangerie that by common censensus (i.e. someone who lives nearby) changed ownership and "went off" five years ago.

So relax, buy a baguette from somewhere close. I'll probably be better than you're used to at home.

Old Stones

 

I photographed this while walking to a friend's house in La Roche Posay. My friend has retired and is trying to declutter or downsize, so she has been going through her wardrobe and taking out things she no longer wears. I came away with two pairs of trousers and a pair of jeans, two knee length skirts, a jumper, a cardigan and a knee length coat. All natural fibres, all good quality French brands, all classic and timeless, so they will be perfect for work.