Sorry About That

No, we haven't been eaten up by a monster, we just haven't been blogging lately. With the weather as grey as it has been recently there's been no photo ops, and life is kind of getting in the way of being entertaining.

We did go for an opportunistic walk earlier this week. Look how calm it was.

Corsican Clementines

  Corsican Clementines are a winter treat. They are always sold with some leaves attached to indicate they are freshly picked (or at least, have not spent months in storage...)

Corsican clementines are a hundred years old this year!

'Born' in Algeria, the first clementine tree arrived in Corsica in 1925 and several orchards were planted in the south of the island. A century later, this little citrus has become the symbol of the island, and a veritable scientific treasure.

 

Corsican clementines on the supermarket shelf.

These clementine trees can survive to -8°C, and researchers discovered just how hardy they were right from the start. These early vigorous plants formed the basis of selections for production done by the National Institute of Agronomy Research in the 1960s.

The parents of the clementine are two Chinese species. In 1995 scientists showed that clementines were a cross between a mandarine and a sweet orange. Both these Asian species found conditions in Corsica to be ideal.

 

Price on the supermarket shelf, €2.39 for a 1 kg punnet if you have a loyalty card. The product has geographical protection certification, and the fruit is not treated after harvest.

Clementines are normally seed free. In a 100% clementine orchard, all the fruit will be seed free, unless there is a lemon or a mandarine growing nearby and cross pollination occurs. Then seeds will be produced in the fruit on the clementine tree.

Clementine trees can live and produce fruit for up to 60 years. Some of the original trees are still standing and still producing a harvest on Corsica's eastern plain.

 

Corsican clementines in the SuperU supermarket at la Roche Posay.

With climate change the harvest period is reducing and late harvest varieties are being developed to try to combat this. The challenge is to retain the fruits' pleasing natural acidity and not end up with something too sickly sweet.

The National Institute of Agronomy Research (INRAE) has its citrus conservatoire and research station on Corsica, where it grows 74 varieties of clementine, amongst a total of 1064 varieties of citrus. This biological resource is essential for the future of the clementine.

What the Heck is the Problem With the Train Line From Loches!?

There has been 64 million euros spent but the passenger numbers have been declining for years. What is it about this line that is causing it?

 

 Loches station, with rail replacement buses parked in front.

Everywhere else in the Region Centre Val de Loire is experiencing a rail revival, but passenger numbers travelling on the Tours-Loches line have diminished by 80 percent, despite the improvements.

In the mid-2010s the line was threatened with closure, but then a big works project in 2021-22 revitalised it. Now, a second round of works, which started in September and are set to continue to March next year, mean that once again, the service is not currently operating while 12 kilometres of track are completely replaced.

 

 Loches station, looking towards Tours.

The work is part of a much bigger Regional programme to save 6 small lines. The one from Tours to Chinon has been a great success, and passenger numbers continue to go up. The line from Tours to Paris via Châteaudun and Vendôme likewise has proved popular, with some stations doubling or tripling passenger numbers. There is clearly an appetite for train travel in the Region.

Meanwhile, even in 2024, a year with no work on the line, the Tours-Loches barely had any passengers. Montbazon, Esvres and Joué-les-Tours, the stations close to the conurbation of Tours, fared better, with passenger numbers in the tens of thousands. But Cormery, Chambourg, Courçay-Tauxigny and Reignac all recorded passenger numbers between 60 and 80% lower than in the past. Even Loches was 20% down.

 

A rural train.

You would think the line has enormous potential, but it is not attracting passengers. The reason is simple. A train ticket is 10 euros, but you can catch the bus and do the same journey in the same time as the train for just 3 euros! Obviously, people catch the bus!! Despite all the work on the line, the journey time has not improved. People are waiting to see what will happen next year when the current work is finished, but they are fairly disillusioned and not holding their breath for an improvement. SNCF has not committed to a reduction in journey time, nor any reduction in ticket price.

The main problem affecting journey time is the number of stops the train makes. For every stop the train loses at least three minutes, whether anyone gets on or off, or not. Just braking to halt at a station, then accelerating out of the station means more time is lost than just the two minutes in the station. 

 

 Tours station.

The other complaint that locals have is that with the current timetable, the first train of the morning into Loches arrives too late to be useful, and the last train leaves too early. It has ever been thus, with the American writer Henry James complaining about this very frustration when he and Edith Wharton were touristing their way through the Loire Valley in the 19th century.  In addition, the line has a reputation for cancellations, delays and travellers can never be sure of reaching their destination. Not the way to wean people away from their cars, or the bus.

At the moment there are six return journeys per day timetabled. The local transport policy is aiming to increase this to 18 per day or even 24 by 2040. But that will require even more work on the line! For instance, at the moment it is a single line, with no passing sections on three quarters of the route.

 

 The train coming in to Cormery on the Loches-Tours line.

Further reading:  Local news item (in French)   https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/centre-val-de-loire/indre-loire/tours/64-millions-d-euros-de-travaux-mais-une-baisse-de-voyageurs-pourquoi-la-ligne-tours-loches-peine-a-convaincre-3263714.html

The Hover Flies Who Pretend to be Wasps

All summer long, and up until a few weeks ago in November, we've had an active European Wasp Vespula germanica (Fr. Guêpe européenne) above our kitchen ceiling. The entrance is just above the back door and the wasps coming and going occasionally freaked people out. But they never caused us any bother. Nobody got stung. They occasionally found their way inside, from whence they would be evicted by me with one of those cheap wasp and spider catching tools. 

 

Hornet Mimic Hover Fly Volucella zonaria larva on our kitchen light switch, 16 mm long unextended.

The other place they found themselves sometimes was trapped in one of the light fittings. I looked forward to the end of the season when the queen would go into hibernation and all the other occupants would die off. I planned at that point to remove the glass on the light and see if there were any interesting species that had been living alongside the wasps. I was particularly hoping for some Volucella spp. They are a type of hover fly that is known to parasitise wasp nests. And I was not disappointed.

 

The dead insects which had accumulated on the kitchen light fitting.

One day recently we noticed that there was a grub attached to the side of the light switch. Once I'd put my glasses on I could see that it was a Volucella sp larva. So then I needed to identify the species. That was not so easy. Not much is known about them and there aren't that many biodiversity records of them. Based on the information in Graham Rotherhay's guide to hover fly larvae I thought it must be V. pellucens. 

 

 Three female Hornet Mimic Hover Flies found in the light fitting. They vary in size between 16 mm long and 22 mm long, which will be due to the available food during their larval stage.

But then I checked the dead insects in the light fitting. Amongst the wasps there were three Hornet Mimic Hover Fly V. zonaria bodies. The larvae of V. pellucens and V. zonaria are very difficult to tell apart. Nicola Garnham, who has done some work with hover fly larvae, said to me on Facebook that she suspected from the start that my grub was V. zonaria, and it seems her experience with these beasties paid off. The live larva has been safely rehomed to a box in the pantry, and I'll try to raise it to an adult fly. Then we will know for sure. But it seems most likely that it is V. zonaria, especially as that is a species I see in the garden much more often than V. pellucens.

 

 Hornet Mimic Hover Fly larva, rehomed.

Hornet Mimic Hover Flies Volucella zonaria (Fr. Volucelle zonée) are big, colourful, distinctive and impressive flies. At up to 25 mm long they are one of the biggest flies in Europe. With their shiny chestnut thoraxes and orangey yellow abdomens striped with black, they are very striking looking insects. The size and overall appearance of this species is reminiscent of a European Hornet Vespa crabro, but their short antennae and plumper shape mean that they are easy to tell apart once you know how.

 

 Adult female Hornet Mimic Hover Fly on Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa in our garden.

You can see the adult flies from May to October, buzzing around pretending to be hornets, and mostly, sipping nectar from flowers. Like most hover flies they are good pollinators. They favour a variety of habitats, from beech and oak woods, to scrub and increasingly even urban parks. 

 

Adult male Hornet Mimic Hover Fly in the grounds of the Chateau de Chaumont sur Loire. 

The larvae are detritivores (ie the clean up squad) in the nests of bees and wasps, as well as predating the hymenopteran (bees and wasps) larvae.

Annual Donation to the Fire Brigade

Every year in early December the fire brigade (Fr. pompiers) come calling. They are collecting door to door for their charitable funds by 'selling' calendars. Households contribute as much or as little as they wish. The money goes to fund the firefighters activities, both professional training and social events (team building). Some of the money will also be channelled towards the fund to support the families of firefighters who lost their lives in the course of duty.

 

'Our' firefighters with this year's calendar.

All our firefighters in Preuilly are volunteers. Because we had cause to call them out earlier this year when we had a chimney fire, we gave more generously than usual, to express our gratitude.

The firefighters work in uniformed pairs to conduct their collections, for both physical protection and to prevent fraud. I've no doubt this practice will be reinforced next year after an incident last week in the small rural town of Sainte Maure de Touraine. A firefighter, inexplicably and unusually working on his own, was attacked by two assailants, who beat him and stole his satchel. 

The patron saint of firefighters is Saint Barbara of Heliopolis (Fr. Sainte Barbe) and her feast day is 4 December. French firefighters throughout the nation gather on or about this date for their big end of year party and awards ceremonies. Here in Indre et Loire there are 2559 professionals, volunteers, administrators and technical staff attached to the county fire brigade. This year they've made 32 157 interventions, covering fires, road accidents and emergency rescues to save human life. They have also responded to emergencies outside of the département, offering their services in New Caledonia, Mayotte, the Pyrénées-Orientales and our neighbouring département of Vienne. As well, they have gone to Libya and Colombia to provide training. At home they have improved their service by modernising vehicles and adopting a video detection system for forest fires. Volunteers have been encouraged and there are now 592 young firefighters (Fr. jeune pompiers, a sort of cadet scheme for teenage volunteers).

Frites de carpe

Homemade frites de carpe, a delicious local treat.

Carp is a despised eating fish in the anglophone world. Unless they come from an Eastern European background, most Australians would not consider eating carp, for example. But here in central France we are neighbours with the important wetland known as the Brenne, where fish farming, especially carp, is traditional and is a significant contributor to the local economy. The favourite way locally to eat carp is either mashed into a paste called rillettes and spread on bread, or cut into strips (goujonnettes), battered and deep fried, and called frites de carpe.

A live carp in the water.

Ingredients
200 g goujonnettes (strips) of carp
100 g flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
150 ml cold water
1 litre canola oil

Method

1. Put the flour, baking powder, salt and cold water in a jug and blend with an immersion blender.
2. Cover the batter and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a large deep pot to 160 - 190 °C.
4. At the last minute, just before the oil reaches temperature, tip the carp into the batter and mix so all the carp is coated.
5. Gently deposit the strips of battered carp one by one into the oil. Take care because the oil will foam and is super hot.
6. Cook the carp for several minutes, until golden brown, stirring once or twice to make sure cooking is even.
7. Take the battered fish out with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
8. Serves 2, with chips and mayonnaise. 

 

Goujonnettes of carp.

The carp goujonnettes came from Fish Brenne and is priced at €17/kilo.

The secret to crispy batter is to keep the batter refrigerated until the last minute.

No Blog Today

There's no blog today, because yesterday was such an appalling day we didn't even feel guilty about doing nothing. It wasn't exactly cold, but every time we thought we'd do something it started to rain again.

This gave Susan an opportunity to cook, and me an opportunity to catch up on the cricket and plan next year's holiday.

We did remember to put the bins out. Does that count?

Be Careful!

There's no photos, because it was dark when we first noticed them, but there are a number of new stop signs around our end of Preuilly sur Claise.

They're all on the Route de Grand Pressigny: two are by the Chapelle de Tous-les-Saints on Rue de la Croix and Rue de la Chapelle, and the third is on Route de Chaumussay. On all of these the main road now has priority and the intersections are no longer give way to the right.

The new stop signs are marked with red dots

I can't recall any accidents there recently, but these intersections have been the sites of many a fright, as they are basically blind corners.

It's December Already?

How did that happen?

So what's Simon been up to lately?  Not much - we went to l'Image a week ago, and been on a couple of very shorts walks. We've had a couple of visits from friends, and had a few medical appointments. We had our flu jabs, too.

The fire has been lit for about 2 weeks now, after we had a sprinkle of snow - enough snow to be cold and wet, but not enough snow to tempt one outside. This means we've spent most of our time indoors keeping warm, doing bits and bobs.

We have had a slight lifestyle change. We have reverted to the traditional meal schedule of having our dinner in the middle of the day, and a lighter meal in the evening. This is quite easy during winter when we're at home during the day, but whether it will last through summer I'm not sure. 

As far as my cancer goes, at the moment it appears to be under control. I am still having the hormone treatments, but I don't have to go back to the oncologist until September next year. What happens after that I'm not sure.

And that's the minutiae of life in rural France for us at the moment. 

Egg Shortage in France

I must admit I hadn't noticed. Someone on Facebook pointed out to me that there had been a flurry of news reports about egg shortages in France, and the supermarket shelves were looking a bit bare. So next time I was in the supermarket I checked, and sure enough, there were obvious gaps. So what is it all about? France is Europe's biggest egg producer, and French people eat a lot of eggs (more than 4 each per week, and that figure has been increasing over the past few years)*. So that's one reason -- supply is not keeping up with demand, especially while we have bird flu doing the rounds (which has reduced production by about 4%).

Apparently, since the beginning of the year, demand has outstripped supply by 13%. Last year France produced more than 15 billion eggs, and the normal level of supply is about 2% less than demand. These days eggs are seen as an economical and ecologically sustainable alternative to meat or fish. But also influencing the market are changing ideas on cholesterol (it's OK to eat eggs again), the fashion for high protein diets (promoted particularly by sports nutritionists and scientist influencers such as Jessie Inchauspé the Glucose Goddess advocating savoury breakfasts), and how eggs lend themselves to quick and simple preparation.

 

How to decode your egg stamp: the top line is the best by date (dd/mm), 28 days after laying; the bottom line indicates how the hens live, with a number 0-3 (this one is 1, so this is a free range egg), then the country code (FR for France), then the département (county) code (02 is Aisne).

In order to meet this increased demand we will need a million more hens, and 300 more egg farms. French egg farms have on average flocks of 16 000 hens, but nobody wants to live next door to an egg farm, so permission to establish new farms takes time. French consumers want French produced eggs, preferably organic, Label Rouge and/or free range (Fr. élevée en plein air) ie the stamps on the eggs should include codes 0 or 1, not 2 (barn) or 3 (caged). For the moment France is making do with importing 4% of eggs in the market from Spain, Poland and the Netherlands, where much bigger egg farms are permitted, and French consumers are dubious about traceability.

 

Eggs at one of my local supermarkets on Tuesday.

 

*Australians eat even more eggs per capita than the French, but consumption is declining slightly. Average annual consumption in Australia is 259 eggs per person, in France it is 226 eggs per person.

Bogues and Borscht

The Galoches walk on Friday 17 October was a 5 km circuit, first along the river, then up onto the heights above Yeures sur Creuse, followed by Ukrainian food as part of the schools' Semaine de Goût ('Taste Week').

 

 Svitlana, her mum and Patricia the school canteen cook prepared about a dozen Ukrainian dishes for people to try as part of the annual food studies school week. Borscht and varenyky mushroom dumplings are always popular.

A replica of the Lourdes grotto, behind the church in Yzeures.

A wildlife 'highway', leading down from the heights into the village.

A rustic shed.

A horse chestnut conker above and a sweet chestnut below. Can you tell the difference? (Look for the way a sweet chestnut tapers to a fibrous point opposite the base pad. This base pad is also smaller, as is the nut itself in sweet chestnuts.) Don't eat conkers as they will give you gastro-intestinal pain.

The River Creuse.

Walking along the river path.

Sweet chestnuts which have fallen on the walking path from an overhanging tree. The extremely spiny outer protective sheaths are called bogues in French.

Japanese anemones.

Steely Bonnets

On our walk on Monday I noticed that the big old poplar trees by the plan d'eau (village pond) are not just covered in moss all over their lower trunks. At the moment there are also tiny white mushrooms peaking out from amongst the moss, as if the lush greenness is studded with pearls. Naturally I took a quick phone photo, and when I got home I had to figure out what they were.

They seem to be Steely Bonnets Mycena pseudocorticola (Fr. Mycène corticole bleue). They grow on the moss covered bark of living deciduous tree trunks. The Preuilly specimens seem to be very pale and white, but you can see a blue grey tint to their stems. These little mushrooms pop out when it is wet during autumn and winter. Typically they are apparently a bit darker and greyer than the ones in my photo.

Widespread and common they are nevertheless the sort of thing most people overlook, as their tiny conical caps are only a few millimetres across.

Sun and Sleet

On Friday 21 November I joined les Galoches for a five and a half kilometre walk in 5°C temperatures. We had a bit of sun, a bit of sleet.

An abandoned vine hut (Fr. cabane de vigne). Once upon a time it was next to the Chemin du Cardinal, a track which led from a spring on the slope above, and down to the village below. Now you need some imagination to see the track. The heights of Yzeures sur Creuse, like Preuilly sur Claise, were once covered in vineyards.

The intersection of three départements ('counties'). I'm standing in Indre et Loire (Touraine), looking at Vienne (Poitou) in the distance on the right, and Indre (Berry) in the distance on the left.

A poplar by a dam, covered in mistletoe.

A barn in a hamlet.

A private garden, on a 'balcon' above the river Creuse.

Wisteria (Fr. glycine) pods hanging over a garden wall.

The weather over Yzeures sur Creuse.

Village Nightlife

Simon's view of the performance.

On Saturday night we ambled up the hill in the rain and met friends for an evening of great music and gourmet food. Popular local duo Franquette were playing at the Restaurant l'Image. I enjoyed a meal of seared Brussels sprouts in a soy sauce based Asian marinade, followed by beef rendang, with a dessert of five spiced apple crumble. Franquette contributed their popular ballads and to my relief the acoustics in the dining room at l'Image are good. William Knox on acoustic bass and Astrid Veigné on vocals and baritone ukelele are always a treat. Simon had booked quite early and we got a table right next to the performers. The restaurant was full and the bar was packed. It was one of those intimate events that the best villages can offer.

 

My view of the performance.

 

Further information: 

Restaurant l'Image https://restaurantimage.fr/

Franquette https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsY4KxcVlRQ

 

The audience applauding enthusiastically at the end of the performance.

 

Managing the Traditional Fishponds of Central Lowland France

Every November some of the local fish ponds (étangs) are emptied. This is done on a rotational basis, so that individual ponds are emptied on a cycle that may be as short as two years, but could be as long as seven. Members of the public are invited to attend, and the resulting catch can be purchased in bulk very cheaply.

The process will begin with a controlled and progressive lowering of the water level over the period of a week or two. On the final day they will round up the fish and finishing the drainage of the lake. It's an excuse for a fête, and a most interesting day out. 

Water rushing out into the Echandon River from the étang at le Louroux through the sluice system (with flow directed by the clever and judicious use of haybales).

The emptying of the étang is necessary to manage and harvest the fish, but also allows work to be done to improve the quality of the water and to preserve and augment biodiversity. A traditional fish netting is organised to capture the pike (brochets), zander (sandres), perch (perches), carp (carpes), tench (tanches) and roach (gardons) living in the lake. It's very important for ongoing water quality that the base of the lake is aerated periodically, so the sediment is exposed from time to time in a managed way. The Etang in the photos, at Le Louroux, is drained every year or two, and about 10 tonne of fish recovered each time.

The fishermen use dragnets (sennes) of different gauges to catch different types or sizes of fish. Big carp and pike come out first, then the more fragile zanders. The remaining little ones are chased around inside the main net with hand nets. They are taken over to sorting tables, weighed and delivered to the sales tent or put into tanks ready to restock other nearby étangs. Small roach and some big carp and pike are put aside to restock the étang which has just been emptied.

Netting the last of the fish.

The étang at Le Louroux is the biggest fish pond in Indre-et-Loire and one of 10 'Espaces naturels sensible' (Sensitive Natural Spaces) owned and administered by the département since 1990. Its flora and fauna is exceptionally rich, with 200 species of birds recorded and it is a favoured site for passage migrants. The money raised by the sale of fish from here goes towards the management and development of the site.

The sludgy lake bottom.

The nature reserve covers 110 ha, of which 60 ha is the fish pond itself. Historically, the étang was part of the fortified priory at Le Louroux. As an ensemble, the village, dyke, mill, lake and priory present a rather fairytale aspect today, but the étang is the result of some hard working Benedictine monks (or more probably, their lay brothers...). The River Echandon was dammed, and the pond profile dug by the 11th century Benedictines. They would have managed the étang they created in an almost identical way to the way it is still managed today. In medieval times people here would have got about a third of their dietary protein from freshwater fish.

The real experts in étang management are the professional pisciculteurs from the Brenne, a wetland area a few kilometres to our east. When the big étangs of the south Touraine like le Louroux need intervention it is these Berrichon fish farmers who advise and supervise. Traditionally, the étangs of the Brenne are in series, with one emptying into another, from top to bottom.

Further reading: My habitat page on étangs on Loire Valley Nature https://loirenature.blogspot.com/2013/03/small-man-made-lakes-etangs.html.