Monday 30 September 2024
A Busy Week
Friday 27 September 2024
A Day Out
Thursday 26 September 2024
Re-meeting
Yesterday two friends from Canberra arrived in Preuilly-sur-Claise. Liselle claims to have known me since I was 9 (but I can only remember meeting her when I was in my twenties), and Monica I met when I was 18.
They're on a European trek, so I thought I'd show them some sights close to Preuilly - and therefore off the beaten track.
No photos, because we're still catching up.
Wednesday 25 September 2024
The Festival of OZO
Susan wrote last week about the restoration of the OZO Station Service at Bellevue, south of Sainte Maure de Touraine.
Tuesday 24 September 2024
Look Out for Wild Privet in the Touraine Loire Valley
Privet Ligustrum vulgare (Fr. Troène).
Monday 23 September 2024
The Forbidden Fruit
Noah is an American white grape variety. It's a hybrid of the native American species vines Vitis riparia and V. labrusca (the native European grape is V. vinifera). Noah was created in 1896 and was cultivated in France for decades. You can find it naturalised on the edges of vineyards, occasionally still cultivated in certain parcels of vines, and growing in private domestic gardens. It is one of the notorious banned grape varieties in France though.
Growing on a truffle orchard fence.
It can be identified through a combination of characteristics. The young growing tips are cottony white with pink leaf buds. The young leaves are downy and yellowish. The cottony adult leaves are three lobed, with shallow sinuses (gaps between the lobes) and small angular leaves. The petiole (leaf stem) joins at the bottom of a wide V shaped sinus.
It is a late maturing grape, being two and a half weeks after Chasselas (see my post on this popular table and hobby wine maker's grape). Noah is a vigorous, hardy and fertile variety even when pruned hard. It is resistant to mildew, blight and black rot, but not sufficiently to phylloxera or chlorosis (iron deficiency in plants growing in calcareous soil).
Sampling Noah.
The bunches and berries are medium sized. Bunches are cylindrical-conical; berries are round, greenish-white, with a soft, highly viscous pulp. Noah is one of the varieties that produces sweet wines described as 'foxy', considered highly and undesirably distinctive. The term 'foxy' is intended as an insult, to convey the idea that the wine tastes like fox urine. It's a taste you can find in blackcurrants too, but although they have a very distinctive taste too, no one uses perjorative terms to describe it. If it is distilled into eau de vie it has pleasantly raspberry and rose aromas.
As a table grape Noah polarises opinion. You either love it or hate it. Those who love it can detect ripe wild strawberry aromas along with litchi and raspberry. Those who hate it say the grapes taste like mulberries or strawberries that have been ruined by stink bugs. The grapes are very sweet, but with a lot of acidity to balance that. The flesh slips out of the skin easily so you can squirt the pulp into your mouth through the stem end just by squeezing each grape. Grapes that do this are known as 'slip skins'. The grapes don't keep or travel well, so they are no good as a commercial table grape.
Although banned since 1935, the idea that Noah will make you mad or blind is still widely believed in rural areas, especially winemaking regions. These banned grape varieties (there are several of them) were all developed for hilly terrain. Noah is also nicknamed the 'vin de trois' because it was claimed that two people were needed to support the drinker.
What a bunch of scrumpers!
The explanation for the mythology surrounding Noah and the other banned grape varieties seems to be that the methanol content of wine from these grape varieties is higher than that of Vitis vinifera. Studies confirm this higher level, although it is not "substantially higher" than in other wines. In addition to the grape variety used, the winemaking process also has a major influence on methanol levels. In any case, methanol can only be produced by fermentation of the grape juice, so it's safe to eat the grapes or drink the juice.
In addition to public health reasons, the political and economic context of the early 20th century, notably overproduction, may have contributed to the questioning of the cultivation of these grape varieties. Noah was used as a progenitor by 19th-century hybridizers such as François Baco, Bertille Seyve, Pierre Castel, Fernand Gaillard and Albert Seibel. The best-known variety is baco blanc, the only hybrid legally allowed, and used in Armagnac.
In Europe, the variety has practically disappeared. However, it is still occasionally found in private vineyards, established on trellises. While vines based on American hybrids covered 20 500 ha in France in 1958, only 1500 ha remain today, mainly located in Charente, Ardèche, Cévennes and Vendée.
When the Nazis occupied Alsace they insisted on all the banned varieties being grubbed up, on pain of severe prosecution.
The French decree banning these grape varieties was repealed in 2003, to be replaced by a European wide ban, which includes not being able to commercially grow these grape varieties, or any varieties which include them in their parentage. The other five banned varieties are Othello, Isabelle, Jacquez, Clinton and Herbemont.
The photos are all of a Noah vine that came to my attention recently on a walk with friends. It is growing on the fence around a truffle orchard and I assumed it was a popular variety called Chasselas, but Monique quickly corrected me once she had tasted one. She said it was a blast from the past, a taste from her childhood and was the variety Noah, unmistakable once you know it. I have since discovered that another friend has an enormous one in her yard, which has grown many metres up a conifer. I'm pleased to have finally encountered one of these banned grape varieties in the flesh because I've been wanting to write about them for ages.
Friday 20 September 2024
Bellevue OZO Service Station
As I was leaving a family rolled up in a lovely Wartburg to do photos. This East German coupe was manufactured from 1956 to 1965.
Sitting alongside the Nationale 10 this service station has been designated as 'Remarkable Architecture', and has been much photographed over the years. The building is an iconic mid-twentieth century American influenced structure, especially with the sweeping, soaring spire at the front, like a totem, bearing the OZO name. It opened in the spring of 1956. Following the merger of OZO and Total in 1964, the service station changed names to become the 'Relais Charles Martel'. But with the opening of the A10 Autoroute between Tours and Poitiers in 1977, the traffic along the N10 inexorably diminished, and the relais closed in 1984.
Plan for the service station.
Like a number of decommissioned service stations, the building found a second life as the sales office for a second-hand car dealership. The spire served as an ensign for the roadhouse next door, l'Etoile du Sud. At the end of the 1990s, after the closure of the restaurant, the surroundings deteriorated little by little but the service station stayed proudly upright on the side of the road, waiting for someone to take an interest again. That happened in 2011, when the municipality of Sainte Maure de Touraine realised what a characterful heritage building they had in their territory and decided to protect it within their local Urban Plan. Interest in the former service station grew until in 2016 the Départementale Architecture and Heritage Unit (part of the Ministry of Culture) decided to award it the label 'Patrimoine du XXième siècle' (20th century heritage), which has since become 'Architecture contemporaine remarquarble' (Notable contemporary architecture).
Front elevation plan.
Initially the work to restore the structure was to deal the deterioration brought about by the weather over the years. Following that there was the desire to restore it to its original state and make it a recognisable icon of the heritage along the former Route Nationale 10. It sits in the heart of the Touraine, mid-way between Paris and Hendaye, so ideally situated. Since 2021 the Association Nostal'10 has regularly organised classic car meets here. At the beginning of the 21st century, when mobility is resolutely oriented towards 'green energy', it is necessary to preserve this element of the previous century's heritage, just like we preserve former stage coaching inns. The Relais Charles Martel is the incarnation of the 'Trentes Glorieuses', a testament to a bygone era that should be preserved.
Side elevation plan.
If you are interested in staying up to date with activities at Bellevue OZO Service Station, the Association Nostal'10 has a Facebook page. It has become a tradition to stop to take a photo of your car under the canopy and post it on the FB page. https://www.facebook.com/p/Nostal10-100057312614789/
The petrol pumps are being recreated in concrete. I was told that it was because it was 'less risky'. I'm not sure whether that means in terms of vintage pumps being stolen or real pumps being a safety hazard.
We have participated in this event several times.
Why not go and join the fun tomorrow? Everyone is welcome. Simon is thinking of going in Claudette. I'll be working in Chinon though.
Thursday 19 September 2024
The River's Down
Wednesday 18 September 2024
No Blog Today
Tuesday 17 September 2024
Walking
Monday 16 September 2024
Pulses in France
In France, whilst pulses only take up 4% of cultivated land surface, nearly half are grown organically. Pulses are really popular here and a wide variety are grown.
Mogettes (dried white beans) from the Vendée in the Western Loire.
In the North and Brittany there are green beans eaten fresh, green beans called flageolets eaten shelled and dried, and the white dried beans known as mogettes and cocos blancs de Paimpol.
In the Centre and North-East it is traditionally green lentils which are grown, but there are also garden peas and split peas.
Cocos blancs (navy beans).
In Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes they are famous for their green Puy lentils and white cocos beans.
In the Midi-Pyrénées and the South-East there is strong production of chickpeas and blond lentils.
Rose lentils from the Berry, to our east.
In the Western Loire they produce chickpeas and flageolets.
Down in Occitanie they are the leaders in production of green lentils, chickpeas and big white dried beans named for the town of Tarbe.
Lingots (dried white beans).
Nouvelle-Aquitaine specialises in dried white beans (mogettes and lingots), peas and broad beans.
Pulses play an essential role in sustainable agriculture. They are a green manure, enriching the soil and vital in crop rotation schemes.
For those of you who have stood before the dried beans in the supermarket and wondered about which was which: lingots are the same as mogettes, but grown outside the Vendée, and both are what in English you would call cannellini beans; cocos are smaller, and in English are navy beans.
Further reading: My blog post on mogettes https://daysontheclaise.blogspot.com/2022/10/mogettes-de-vendee.html
Saturday 14 September 2024
A Faster Air Ambulance Service
Friday 13 September 2024
Walking in the Forest of la Guerche
I joined six friends on Wednesday 4 September for what was supposed to be a 5 or 6 kilometre walk from Rond du Chêne, the hunting lodge in the heart of the Forest of la Guerche. However, due to some rubbish map reading (not by me) we ended up doing nearly 8 kilometres. As well as the extra distance, luckily none of it uphill, we were plagued by numerous biting clegs Haematopota sp. Even I ended up with four bites, and I am not normally troubled by these persistant blood feeders. Along the way we encountered several groups of cyclists, a forester and his intern, and a Dutch woman who greeted us from her garden.
A somewhat mutant looking Wood Cauliflower Mushroom Sparassis crispa (Fr. Sparassis crépu) I think.
A group of cyclists crossing through the forest on the road.
The étang (dam) on the Allée de Dangé. You can just see white waterlilies flowering.
Teetering dead tree.
On a forest trail.
One of many Red Slugs Arion rufus (Fr. Grande loche) that we encountered.
Ash Black Slug Limax cinereoniger (Fr. Grande Limace). Unlike the Red Slugs, this was the only one we saw.
Red Slugs mating.
Heading out into the forest.
Sessile (French) Oak Quercus petraea (Fr. Chêne rouvre). 'Sessile' means 'stalkless' and refers to the acorns. It is one of the dominant species in this forest.
The Holly Ilex aquifolium (Fr. Houx) berries are starting to colour up.
Thursday 12 September 2024
Coping With a Medical Emergency in France
Inside a 'private' (ie not pompiers or SAMU, but part of a fleet of private enterprise ambulances working in a public partnership). I was being shown around with a client by the Head of Accident and Emergency at Amboise Hospital.
This post has come about because a couple of energetic and motivated anglophone pompiers* in the south-west have started a new Facebook group called "Emergency Services France help and advice for English speakers". If you are on Facebook, your principle language is English and you spend time in France then I highly recommend you seek this group out and join it. It is full of clear practical advice.
A fleet of private ambulances based in a rural village.
The very first thing you need to know is that the medical emergency number in France is 15. It works from any phone (French or otherwise), no extra numbers needed. You can also phone 18, which is the fire brigade, as they also deal with traffic accidents, domestic falls and will come if the specialist medical service is busy or your condition is not life threatening. You could phone 112, which is the European emergency number, but your call will be answered by one of the local emergency numbers, which may cause a short delay. In the Charente, for example, 112 is answered by the pompiers, who would then have to transfer you to the SAMU (specialist accident and emergency medical service, whose phone number is 15).
Pompiers practice swift water rescue in the Loire at Amboise.
None of these numbers will guarantee the person in the emergency services centre who answers your call can speak English. Some of the staff can, some can't and it all depends on who is on at the time. Asking for an English speaker will also inevitably cause a delay, so best to have some well practiced phrases in French to be going on with. Check out the FB group, as from time to time they announce emergency call specific language courses.
Fire brigade vehicles in our backyard, on a training exercise.
The call responder will ask you a series of standard questions such as the address of the location the emergency services need to come to. They will also ask if the patient is conscious or bleeding. It may be agreed that you can bring the patient in yourself, or they may decide to send an ambulance.
Fire officers engaged in an exercise to rescue a person from a burning building.
The Emergency Services Centre will direct you to a hospital. It may not be the nearest because they may be busy or not have the right facilities. These days, whenever you go to Urgences (Accident and Emergency) you are advised to ring 15 before so they can direct you to the appropriate hospital. This has become increasingly important as staff shortages sometimes result in A&E departments temporarily closing. You will be treated if you just turn up, but it is much better if the hospital knows you are coming. (We have personal experience of this, having turned up with a detached retina to a hospital, only to find Chatellerault did not have any ophthalmologists and we had to go on to Poitiers.)
SAMU medivac helicopter at Poitiers Hospital.
Once you've got off the phone and are waiting for the ambulance to arrive there are things you can do to make the emergency services work smoother.
A private ambulance in the drop off bay at Amboise Hospital.
- If it is dark, turn on all the lights, especially outdoors, so it is obvious which property they need to be attending. If you can, have someone in the street (with a torch if it's dark), waiting to direct the ambulance.
- Make sure there is space around the patient and a clear path to the door. There will be a team of people attending, and a stretcher to manoeuvre.
- Get a medical dossier together which ideally includes the patient's prescriptions, their carte vitale, medical insurance, and medical reports to show past treatments and procedures.
- Pack an overnight bag for the patient which includes their mobile phone and charger, and pyjamas. A towel and toiletries are also a good idea, plus slippers, clean underwear and socks, a change of clothes and shoes.
- Be prepared with your own mobile phone to have a translation app on (DeepL is popular and easy to use), so you can communicate with the medical team.
Paramedics attached to a private ambulance company.
The medical team leader with you will report back to the doctor at the emergency services centre. A decision will be made about hospitalisation (whether it's necessary, and which hospital - based on the patient's condition and how busy nearby hospitals are). It may be decided to take the patient to a hospital which is not the closest. You will not be able to travel in the ambulance with the patient (unless they are a child), so make sure you are clear about where they are going. It's a good idea to try to find a friend to drive you to the hospital, and do not attempt to shadow the ambulance. They will be going much faster than you should, and they have flashing lights that you don't.
A private ambulance dropping a patient off at a clinic in Tours.
Many thanks to Chloe Elliston and Yvette Hudson for creating the FB group, allowing me to plagiarise their excellent content, and taking the time to edit my post prior to publication!
Fire officers attending a burning car on an autoroute in Tours.
*Until recently the term 'pompier' could be succinctly translated as 'fire officer'. Prior to the beginning of 2023 if you volunteered for the Sapeurs Pompiers (fire brigade) you needed to be prepared to undertake all missions. But the ambulance duties are 80% of the fire brigade's interventions, and now you can volunteer just for the ambulance duties. Consequently, 'pompier' could now mean anything from a professional firefighter to a volunteer first aider. After discussion with Chloe, we decided to translate her and Yvette's roles as 'volunteer emergency services officers attached to the fire brigade'.
Examination room at Accident and Emergency in Amboise Hospital.
All photos from our personal archive.
Wednesday 11 September 2024
Walking From le Grand Pressigny
On Monday 2 September I joined 30 friends and aquaintances to walk 5 km from le Grand Pressigny, in the Touraine Loire Valley, ending at the home of Jane and David for a walking club 'apéritif de la rentrée'. Super organised and efficient Jane single handedly put on a great spread, as always.
Simon didn't walk, but came to the apéro in Claudette to give both himself and her a little outing.
Jane and David's lovely home.
Sunflower crop.
Sunflowers (Fr. Tournesols).
Sunflowers.
Common Toadflax Linaria vulgaris (Fr. Linaire commune), a species that signals the change of season from summer to autumn. A species too that I have observed getting less common since we have lived here.
A buckwheat (Fr. sarrasin) crop. Buckwheat flour is quite widely used in traditional French cuisine (eg galettes). There were many honey bees collecting nectar, so I hope there is a switched on beekeeper nearby who is producing the dark strong tasting honey that comes from buckwheat.
The church in le Grand Pressigny.
Tuesday 10 September 2024
Look Out For Heather in the Touraine Loire Valley
Heather Calluna vulgaris (Fr. Callune).
Heather is a perennial evergreen sub-shrub. In France it has lots of names -- Béruée, Brande, Bruyère commune, Bucane, Fausse Bruyère, Grosse Brande, Péterolle or Bruyère callune. The scientific name comes from the Greek word for 'sweep' or 'clean', a reference to the use of heather to make rudimentary brooms.
The plant is considered by some to have protective magical powers.
It usually grows to about 20 - 50 cm high and is the most common member of the Ericaceae family. Calluna vulgaris can be distinguished from Bell Heather Erica cinerea by the four scale like leaves around the stem in C. vulgaris, and only three needle like leaves in E. cinerea. The mnemonic in French for remembering how to tell the difference is Callune 'calme' and Bruyere (Erica) 'bruit' because when you run your hand across the plant it will be quiet if it is Calluna and noisy if it is Erica.
Wild Calluna flowers are made up of a mauve coloured and petal like calix surrounding a mauve four petalled flower. They appear at the end of summer.
Heather copes with being lightly grazed, and can regenerate after a fire. Indeed sometimes controlled burning is used to manage it.
Heather can be an important source of nourishment for sheep and Roe Deer, as they can graze on it even when snow is covering other vegetation. Heather is also the plant host for a number of insects, for example the Heather Beetle. The caterpillars of several different lepidoptera species likewise depend on it for their food source, such as the Silver-studded Blue, Small Emperor Moth and the Chalk Burnet.
It is found throughout Europe and Asia Minor on sunny acid soil, a characteristic plant of heaths, bogs and pine forests.
Heather is a very nectar rich plant. The resulting honey is strong tasting and has a distinctive gelatinous texture.
There are thousands of cultivars, with colours ranging from white to red, developed for late season interest in the garden.
Before the use of hops in brewing, heather was one of the aromatics used in brewing in the Middle Ages.
Like other heathland plants, lichens and fungi, heather is liable to accumulate heavy metals and radioactive elements from the soil. Any animal grazing on heather is also liable to absorb these substances.
Monday 9 September 2024
The Wild Success of a Village Guinguette Started by Two Friends
In the Sud Touraine Loire Valley, in Preuilly-sur-Claise, a pretty, no-frills guinguette run by two friends is giving the whole village a boost. A guinguette is an informal outdoor bar, usually on a river, where there is live music, space to dance and simple light snacks and meals.
One of the guinguette's excellent mocktails.
You've heard of Tic and Tac, Elsa and Anna or Asterix and Obelix. But in Preuilly-sur-Claise, the best known duo (after Maria and Christian from Les Bodin's, of course) is Arthur and Anatole! The two mates, both 28 years old, run Le Lavoir, the guinguette in Preuilly-sur-Claise, in the rural Sud Touraine.
Early evening at the guinguette.
On the banks of the tranquil river Claise, this festive bar-restaurant, where people come to enjoy burgers and fries made in-house with no frills or pretensions, opened its doors three years ago. On 30 April 2022, to be exact. Anatole said that they thought they would try something small, and it turned into something big in one evening. They thought they'd have family and a few friends, but it turned into a full-on rush, with three hundred people turning up! They had to immediately rethink the way they operated. All those who had looked askance and muttered that they would last about a week had to eat their words.
The guinguette at 10 o'clock in the morning.
The two friends, both from around here, Anatole from Boussay, Arthur from Preuilly itself, are not from the mainstream hospitality sector. They only distantly knew the hotel-restaurant business. Anatole, who has a degree in tourism, did an internship in a well known local restaurant and worked for seven years in the entertainment industry, skiing in winter and surfing in summer.
Arthur, who graduated with a degree in arts and entertainment from the Tours film school, had tentatively begun to work on film shoots.
In March this year the Claise flooded. Luckily there was plenty of warning and the fire brigade assisted in removing all the valuable fridges and kitchen fittings before the guinguette was knee deep in water. The photo shows Arthur, Anatole and Louise (Anatole's girlfriend) ruefully checking their business premises after the water had receded a bit.
But for the two friends - who met as teenagers at the hairdresser's! - Covid was the catalyst. They went through the lockdowns together. Arthur had to retrain. And they were bored. So they thought, why not start their own thing?
My swimming group having lunch at the guinguette.
At the time, there were no longer any restaurants or drinking establishments in the village. The Lavoir, the municipal building that had once served as the premises of the Communist Party's pétanque club, was available. Right next to a campsite and open-air swimming pool.
Cheese and charcuterie platter at the guinguette.
The duo, working eighty hours a week in the summer, are now well established: Arthur in the kitchen, Anatole serving, backed up by a team of up to seven people in all. They only work with people they know, friends or friends of friends. The oldest of whom is only 31! A group of friends who serve up to four hundred people every evening during the week of 15 August (the Assumption Day holiday week).
The young team even organized a Joyce Jonathan [link] concert for its 2023 closing night, with 2,500 spectators... in a village of 1,000 inhabitants!
The aftermath of a quiet Friday lunch service at the end of August.
* Open from April to September every day except Tuesday, from 10.30 a.m. to 11 p.m. The kitchen is open from 12 to 2 p.m. and from 7 to 10 p.m.
* Alcohol abuse is harmful to health, consume in moderation.
13 000 -- That's how many meat burgers (vegetarian burgers are also available) were served last season at the Preuilly guinguette, consuming 1.5 tons of minced meat. Eight tons of potatoes also ended up as fries on the plates of Preuilly-sur-Claise guinguette fans.
60 -- that's how many mojito mocktails with great handfuls of fresh mint they'll make in an evening.
View up the Claise from the guinguette's covered terrace out the back.
If you head down there at 6 o'clock in the evening on a Friday, the guinguette won't yet be full to bursting. But there will be at least one small group already settled in for a drink in the shade of the hundred and fifty year old plane trees. Work colleagues such as groups of teachers come down here to take advantage of the friendly atmosphere, the space, the open air and the good weather. They appreciate that the food is good, fresh, cooked on site and made from local produce. Before the guinguette there wasn't really anywhere that colleagues, who might live in various locations up to an hour away, could get together like this.
Word has spread and people come from as far as Tours and Amboise, especially on the weekends and with families, as it is ideal for children, who can play and run around without annoying other patrons or putting themselves at risk. Themed evenings like the karaoke are especially popular. Being away from the tourist hotspots of the Loire Valley mean it is more affordable too.
A burger and French fries costs €12, a PFC ("Preuilly fried chicken") €10, and a mixed charcuterie and cheese board €12. Service is at the bar!
Source: Article from the Nouvelle République (in French) https://www.lanouvellerepublique.fr/indre-et-loire/commune/preuilly-sur-claise/on-va-guincher-a-preuilly-sur-claise-le-succes-fou-d-une-guinguette-de-village-lancee-par-deux-copains