Les Halles de Tours

Les Halles de Tours is the covered produce market right in the heart of the old centre of the City of Tours. It's full of food porn and top quality fresh ingredients. The thirty-eight stall holders are established butchers, bakers, greengrocers, fishmongers, cheesemongers, wine merchants and delicatescens. I must admit, I don't shop there. Everything is a couple of euros more per kilo than I'm used to in Loches. It's a very prestigeous location though, everything in Les Halles is in the best possible condition and sold to you by an experienced and knowledgeable artisan. There is clearly a loyal local (and aging) customer base, comfortably off, used to good service (yes, this is the sort of place it exists in France) and advice, and knowledgeable in their own right about French food.

Centre top, rillons (slow cooked pork belly chunks, a local delicacy), bottom right, oxtail, and behind that beef cheek, at one of the butchers. Next to the rillons is meat for pets, to the left of the oxtail is beef ribs.

In 1866 the City of Tours started work on a metal framed covered market on the site of a large and thriving existing outdoor market. Roads were altered and churches demolished to improve the site. This original building was demolished in 1976 and a new building erected by 1980. The wholesale market which had shared the space was moved to Rochepinard, a quarter in the east of the city.

Soft and stinky northern French cheeses at one of the cheesemongers.

The new building took its aesthetic from the great cruise liners, and the market traders were joined by Picard, the frozen food specialist, a newsagent, a perfumery and a couple of banks. Upstairs is a big meeting and events venue, offices and the studios of France 3 Tours television. Underneath is a large carpark with 670 places.

A fishmongers on one side, a greengrocers on the other. The smiling blond woman is the stallholder and has come out from behind the display to serve the elderly women customers. Customers do not touch the fruit before purchasing.

Les Halles is often referred to as 'le ventre de Tours' (Tours' stomach). 

Greengrocers.

Scallops.

The little 'grey' shrimp bottom left are considered a great delicacy. You eat them whole, head, shell and all. Personally I don't know what the attraction is.

Maison Clement is an épicerie fine (high end specialist grocer) and a cave à vin (wine retail cellar).

A range of salads. The 'pommes harengs' (potato and herring) and the carottes rapées (grated carrot) are very traditional.

The exterior of Les Halles de Tours.

One of the poultry and game merchants.

Hams and patés at one of the charcutiers. These are all cooked hams (aka Paris ham) and by their colour I would say that nitrite was not used, which is good to see.

A Medieval Assault

 

The more I look at this 15th century carving the more I'm convinced it depicts a sexual assault, not an amorous encounter. The woman is pushing the man's head away, and her legs are crossed. He is already bare arsed in anticipation but she is resisting. It is at the base of vault ribs in the Herault Tower in the Chateau Royal d'Amboise.

Mystery Stones

We recently had cause to visit the hospital in Poitiers, and it threw up a bit of a totally unexpected mystery.

By the main entrance to the hospital are these pieces of stone, taken from the 12th century church at Melle. They aren't 12th century originals, but 19th century replacements. Quite why they have themselves been replaced, and why they are outside the hospital, I do not know. At first I assumed that the church was on the site of the hospital and had been demolished, but the church at Melle still stands - assuming it's this one.

Rue du Senateur NIOCHE in Preuilly sur Claise

Someone posted an old postcard of rue du Sénateur NIOCHE on Facebook, and then someone else wrote a brief history of this short street. Other postcards were produced and a discussion about the man the street is named after ensued.

Old postcard of rue du Sénateur Nioche.

 

Probably most people in town could not name this street, despite it being a major thoroughfare. It's very short, running between the Abbey and the bridge. It was called rue de l'Abreuvoir in 1813 and rue du Pont (or Pont-Neuf) around 1860 after the construction of the new bridge over the Claise. At the southern end it had tall Elm trees either side. They seem to have been cut down sometime before 1950 and linden trees planted in their place.

Police stopping traffic for Gilles Bertucelli's funeral in rue du Sénateur Nioche.

Pierre Hercule Aristide Nioche was born in Loches in 1820. He became a lawyer, then was the Member of Parliament (député) for Indre et Loire from 1872 to 1876. Then he was elected as a leftist Republican senator from 1888 to 1902. He died in Preuilly in 1902 at the home of his son-in-law and mayor of Preuilly, Dr Jules Durand.

I'm standing on the other side of the road, but otherwise this is the same view as the postcard.

 The street was renamed in honor of Sénateur Nioche in 1910.

Quince Paste

Recently I had a conversation with a Dutch friend about quinces. He wanted to know if quinces were used much in French cooking, because he loves them and in the Netherlands they are a forgotten fruit. He buys them in the Turkish grocers, or picks them up for free from someone who has some trees and can't sell the fruit. Finally he planted a tree of his own and this year got enough fruit to make a couple of pies. He says he particularly likes the combination of chicken and quince, but I'm not familiar with that dish. We also discussed that in many places there is a tradition of quinces being put on top of wardrobes to make bedrooms smell nice.

Quinces on a roadside tree in September.

Quince trees thrive in the Touraine. We don't have one in the orchard, but our neighbour does, and as quince trees produce large quantities of fruit, we benefit from periodic gifts of quinces. They are an old fashioned sort of fruit and our elderly neighbour is delighted that I like them and, perhaps more importantly, know how to cook them.

Molten lava countered with a mesh lid.

Being large, they are the last of the fruit to ripen and are ready in late September - October. I poach a few, but most of them go to make jelly and I run the pulp that remains after straining for jelly through a food mill to remove skin and seeds. It sits in the freezer until I get it out to make quince paste.

The stiff dark paste just out of the oven.

Quince paste seems to have originated in Turkey and from there made its way to Spain and Portugal. In English language cookbooks it is often called membrillo, which is the Spanish word for quince. Quince paste in Spanish is called dulce de membrillo. The French for quince is coing, so quince paste is pâte de coing. In England it is commonly referred to as quince cheese, and this is how I first encountered it, at the farmers market I shopped at regularly in the late 1990s-early 2000s. It is used both in a sweet and a savoury context, as a counter to strongly flavoured cheeses or game and as a petit four or friandise with coffee. In France it is regarded as a seasonal treat, made in the autumn and served over the Christmas - New Year period.

Starting to cut the block of paste into rods.

To make it you combine an equal quantity of quince pulp and sugar in a large boiler. Heat it slowly to dissolve the sugar and then simmer for about 1.5 hours, on the lowest possible heat. It burns easily, so check it regularly and scrape the bottom of the pan. Slowly the colour will darken from orangey pink to brownish orange as it cooks. It is like working with molten lava, both in its appearance and its capacity to burn the unwary cook. You can't cook it with the lid on because you need to drive a fair bit of water off. To protect against burns and splashes I use a mesh lid on the pan, which allows steam, but nothing else out.

All wrapped up and ready to store in the fridge.

Once it has got thick and dark and you are having difficulty preventing it from burning even on the lowest heat, transfer it to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Put it in the oven at 50°C for another 1.5 hours to dry out some more. Then leave it in the fridge overnight to cool completely and set. The next day tip it out on to a board dredged in icing or vanilla sugar. Ideally, cut the paste into thick rods with a wire, but a long knife will do. Dredge or roll these rods in sugar, wrap in waxed paper and refridgerate. To serve, unwrap and cut into cubes. Roll the cubes in vanilla, golden castor or raw sugar.

Coffee and quince friandises.

You can also bottle (can) it by putting it in sterilised jars instead of in the oven. Close the jars and process in a water bath in the normal way. This will give you a paste for spreading on bread like a jam, which is very popular in Spain topped with Manchego cheese.

A box of quinces from our orchard neighbour.

 
And for those of you interested in maintaining a certain sort of daily regularity, quince paste works as well as the traditional prune.

Musee de la Prehistoire du Grand-Pressigny

 

View over the courtyard from the new wing.

The Musée de la Préhistoire du Grand-Pressigny opened a hundred years ago. The first curator was Jacques-Marie Rougé. He was first and foremost a folklorist, born in the Touraine and lived all his life here. Writing several works on the history and legends of the Touraine, he became interested in the history of working flint in the area. He started to put together a collection, which became the basis of the original displays in the museum, and was the curator for 33 years.

Inside the new wing.

On Saturday 22 October the museum is putting on guided tours to introduce people to the museum and tell them about its history.

The newest wing of the museum.

Walking From Lesigny

On Monday 3 October we walked 5 km with friends, from Lésigny, up the hill and through the fields to the hamlet of Le Coudray, then on to the forest and across the Magny stream to a chateau then up back into Lésigny.

It was a foggy day.

Crossing the Magny on the newly rebuilt footbridge.

This Buff-tailed Bumble Bee Bombus terrestris (Fr. Bourdon terrestre) was cold and not happy about being photographed. She is signaling to me with her middle leg to back off.

Lablab growing up a gate post, with a Citroen Dyane parked in the yard.

La Bourrache

La Bourrache is a new boutique in Preuilly, run by makers Natacha and Grégory. She sews items made from textiles that have had a previous life as something else. He brews beer. Both activities take place on the site of the former domestic garage that they have taken over, and they live in the house on the other side of a courtyard. The boutique is in rue des douves, behind the post office. 

La Bourrache is open every Thursday from 10am to 1pm then 5pm to 7pm, and every Saturday from 10am to 1pm.

The beer and the brewer.

Some of Natacha's wares.

Natacha is ready to welcome you with a smile.

Walking From Ronde du Chene

Ronde du Chene is a hunting lodge in the middle of the Forest of La Guerche. I joined French friends for a 9 kilometre walk there on Thursday 6 October. We walked through mixed deciduous forests, down narrow paths cut into the limestone, up past my favourite section of the forest which sadly is being logged and all the beautiful old beech trees have been selectively felled, then on to the lovely little hamlet of Bas Montant and back up the hill and through the pine forest.

Warted Amanita Amanita strobiliformis (Fr. Amanite solitaire), a generally rare mushroom, was abundant along the sunken limestone paths. Note the characteristic Amanita spp volva on the left, a sort of 'eggshell' that the mushroom pops out of.

Beech logs.

Sloes on Blackthorn Prunus spinosa (Fr. Prunellier sauvage).

Our group meet another group of walkers doing the circuit in the opposite direction. They came from Vouneuil sur Vienne.

Blue electric fence strands have gone up everywhere in the Forest of La Guerche since I was last there.

Jean-Jacques is not smoking a cigar, he's eating a whole dried banana.

Some sort of sycamore, growing an a garden wall in the hamlet of Bas Montant.

Possibly Great Wood Mushroom Agaricus langei (Fr. Agaric rougissante).

Manmade wallow for wild boar. I assume to encourage them away from the nearby étang (dam) which had very low water.

A bracket fungus and some false chanterelles Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (Fr. fausse chanterelle).

Orange Oak Bolete Leccinum aurantiacum (Fr. Bolet orangé).

How to Cook Wild Foraged Porcini Mushrooms

 

Edible Ceps and Orange Oak Boletes prepared for cooking.

Ceps (also known as porcini in Italian and cèpes in French) start popping up in the forests in October. Many locals collect their own, and those with a license to do so collect them commercially, so you can buy them in the market during the season. Bay-brown Bolete retails for about €600 per kilo. Depending on the weather, some years they are abundant, some years they are scarce.

Maggot damage in an Edible Cep. I chucked this mushroom.

There are three main species that you will find in the Touraine Val de Loire, closely related, that are the most prized -- Edible Cep Boletus edulis (Fr. Cèp de Bordeaux); Bay-brown Bolete Xerocomus badius (Fr. Bolet bai); and Dark Bolete Boletus aereus (Fr. Tête de negre). There are other related species, also edible, but generally referred to as boletes, such as Orange Oak Bolete Leccinum auranticum (Fr. Bolet orangé), abundant and well worth eating, but usually just used to bulk out the better species.

Maggot damage in an Edible Cep. If it is only in the 'sponge' that's fine, as you will be removing it anyway.

 
To prepare them to eat, brush the caps off, remove the stems and discard (or use in a dish where they will be pureed with other things), check for slugs. Remove the spongey pores and tubes under the cap by pushing at it gently with your thumb. This sponge is full of water and not very nice to eat.

If the maggot damage comes all the way out at the top, discard the mushroom.

Slice the mushrooms and discard any bits that have maggots. Spread out in a single layer on a tea towel or paper towel and leave overnight. This dries them out a bit and means they don't produce too much water when cooked. At this point they can be bagged and frozen, dried on low heat in the oven or in a dehydrator, or cooked immediately.

A nice haul of ceps and boletes from the forest.

To cook fresh or from frozen, melt a knob of butter and a dash of olive oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Add the mushrooms to the pan, along with a pinch of salt, some ground pepper and crushed garlic. Fry for 3-4 minutes, tossing or stirring frequently. Tip off any liquid the mushrooms have released. You can add some cream and chopped parsley at this point, and serve with grilled steak.

Left Edible Cep Boletus edulis (Fr. Cepe de Bordeaux), right Orange Oak Bolete Leccinum aurantiacum (Fr. Bolet orangé).

Walking From Neuilly le Brignon

On Monday 10 October we walked 6 kilometres with friends, from Neuilly le Brignon, up the hill and through the woods, through a prehistoric settlement and down to a dolmen, past a medieval moated chateau and back along the ridge on the opposite side of the little River Brignon. Thank you to David for organising. There were some impressive mushrooms along the way. On the way home we took a short detour in order to be able to top the car up with petrol at Descartes during the refinery workers strike, which is causing shortages, and we have to go to Tours.

The Brignon at Neuilly le Brignon.

Blushing Rosette Abortiporus biennis (Fr. Polypore bisannuel) on the left, and Laquered Bracket Ganoderma lucidum (Fr. Ganoderme luisant) on the right.

Laquered Bracket Ganoderma lucidum (Fr. Ganoderme luisant), often confused with a well known  Asian medicinal species known as Reishi or Lingzhi, which it resembles.

Spectacular Rustgill Gymnopilus junonius (Fr. Gymnopile remarquable), a hallucinogenic mushroom that is popularly known as Big Laughing Jim.

Walking where prehistoric man walked, between a settlement and a dolmen.

The Pierre Chaude dolmen, a prehistoric tomb.

The back of the Chateau du Chatelier.

A garden on the Brignon at Le Chatelier.

Le Chatelier.

Buying petrol during the refinery workers strike.

What's Going On With the Blog

We started this blog in August 2006 as an open letter to our families about our big adventure in France. The first blog post was us breaking the news that we had paid a deposit and signed the compromis de vente on a house in Preuilly sur Claise. Doing it this way meant that everyone got all the news at the same time, and multiple emails didn't have to be composed.

At first we only wrote when we had news, which meant only three posts in the first month, and they were basically "the story so far". We then started with our observations of life in France, working on the house, dealing with French bureaucracy, and reporting on our visits.

In November 2007 we did our first non France post, and that was about the opening of the new Eurostar line which passed close to our London home. By then we had a number of regular readers and followers, a number of whom we had met.

Since then we have tried to cover whatever is going on in our lives (with some exceptions), including our travels, family events, recipes, and lots of nature information from Susan, in addition to the Preuilly sur Claise stuff.

It wasn't until the 21st February 2008 that we started blogging every day, and until COVID kicked in over 12 years later we continued to blog every day. Finding interesting stuff to write about during lockdown was difficult, and we stopped first our regular Sunday writings about Australia, and then our Saturday posts "further afield".

Although the lockdown is over we're still only writing five days a week, less when real life gets in the way, and that's probably how we will continue for the foreseeable future.

Writing a good blog post takes time: sometimes it feels like we have spent most of the day doing it. It's no wonder that many great blogs have fallen by the wayside. When we started blogging it was the funky newish technology and everyone was doing it. Since then many pretenders to the throne have come along and we sampled most of them until Tictoc arrived. That was a social media too far, so we are sticking with three or four blogs, two Instagram accounts and a number of Facebook and Twitter accounts. But it all takes time.

We have no intentions of stopping the blog, but we hope you will understand if you arrive and discover that there's nothing new to see.

New Doctor in Preuilly

Yesterday a new general practioner doctor started work in Preuilly. The old doctor retired a couple of weeks ago. The new doctor is Catalan. His name is Dr Josef Boronat. We had thought we would be getting the Romanian wife of the dentist, but she is still doing an internship to get her qualification recognised in France.

The door facing us on the other side of the carpark is the new doctor's surgery.

 

I picked up our medical records yesterday morning from the old doctor's surgery. The new doctor has set up in a new surgery, behind the post office and near the dentist. We have registered with Dr Camille Labbé in Le Grand Pressigny. Her English is good, and for medical issues, this is a relief. It's a slight inconvenience to have to drive to the next village for the doctor, but she can be booked online on Doctolib rather than only by phone, and that's much easier.

Fungi Foray at the Etang de Pas aux Anes in the Forest of Loches

On Tuesday 4 October fungi expert Didier led an outing to the Etang de Pas aux Anes in the Forest of Loches. Joining us was a group of disabled adults and their carers from a residential home called La Confluence, in Saint Cyr sur Loire. 

A basket with mushrooms and a field guide. Species from top: Camembert Brittlegill Russula amoenolens (Fr. Russule à odeur de topinambour); Rosy Russula Russula lepida (syn R. rosea, Fr. Russule jolie); Rooting Bolete Boletus radicans (syn Caloboletus radicans, Fr. Bolet radicant) – bitter, light cap; Magpie Inkcap Coprinopsis picaceus (Fr. Coprin pie); Yellow Brain Tremella mesenterica (Fr. Beurre de sorcière); White Knight Tricholoma album (Fr. Tricholome blanc).

Suede Bolete Xerocomus subtomentosus (Fr. Bolet subtomenteux), not toxic, but not very interesting to eat.

A mixed basket of mushrooms, including Beechwood Sickener Russula nobilis (Fr. Russule noble, with red cap, white flesh and blue stain reaction to sulphuric acid), a bouquet of Pholiotes [Update: Pholiotus gummosa] and a Panthercap Amanita pantherina (Fr. Amanite panthère).

Matt Bolete Xerocomus pruinatus (syn Boletus pruinatus, Fr. Bolet pruineux), not toxic but not worth eating.

Wood Blewit Clitocybe nuda (Fr. Pied bleu). Or is it?...

Devils Fingers Clathrus archeri (Fr. Anthrus d'Archer), an Australian species believed to have arrived in France on sheeps wool fleeces destined for the woollen mills of the north-east of France.

Walking along the dam wall of the Etang de Pas aux anes.

Reflections on the Etang de Pas aux anes.

Yellow Stainer Agaricus xanthodermus (Fr. Agaric jaunissante) looks like a delicious Field Mushroom, but it will give you a stomach ache.

Demonstrating the differences between bolete genera -- Suillus wet cap; Xerocomus dry cap; Leccinum scaly stem.

European Holly Ilex aquifolium (Fr. Houx commun). Technically you are not allowed to gather holly sprigs in the Forest of Loches, although taking a few twigs will be tolerated.

Didier was full of tidbits of information as ever:

• 1 gram of soil can contain 20 metres of fungi mycelium.
• Never eat any mushroom raw. There is increasing evidence that it is not safe.
• Edible Cep/Cepe de Bordeaux v Summer Cep/Cepe d’été – net pattern on stem in different proportions. Cepe d'Eté emerges earlier, with no cream edge on cap. Bay Bolete/Bolet bai is an accumulator of a radioactive substance.
• He reminded me that Brown Rollrim Paxillus involutus has brown spores, which is a very good way of distinguishing this toxic species from lookalikes. This is important when specimens are old and atypical looking.
• Brittlegills Russula spp -- stem breaks with a crack; Milkcaps Lactaria spp -- stem breaks with a crack + droplets of 'milk' when gills scraped.
• Russula acrifolia is super acrid and blushes when the stem is scraped.
• There was a court case where a husband accused his wife of trying to poison him with mushrooms. She had served Inkcaps Coprinus sp, and he had drunk wine and she hadn't, so he was affected and she wasn't as Inkcaps and alcohol cause a reaction.
  

We were joined by the Forest Technician Fabien and from him I learnt that:

• There is a 5 litre a day per person foraging limit on mushrooms in the Forest of Loches.
• Every so often someone will turn up in a campervan, stay for a week and gather all the edible mushrooms they can.
• There is a hunt every Monday and Friday in the Forest of Loches from October.