Roofers at the Abbaye

For a while now, the roof over a side chapel of the Abbey has been letting the rain in.

Work is now happening to fix the problem.

The Annual Sausage Walk

The annual Sausage Walk was in Paris on Sunday 4 October. I made it for the tail end. The event raises money for Dachshund (Fr. Teckel) welfare. There was merch, so I bought some. The exorbitant price (25 euros for a printed canvas bag) means that lots goes to the dogs charities. I used to be godmother to a pair of mini dachshunds so I am very fond of the breed.

For the first time it was held along the Champs Elysee, which is pedestrianised on the first Sunday of the month. Anyone can attend and profits go to l'Association Teckels sans doux foyer (Dachshunds without a loving home). The charity takes care of abandoned or mistreated dachshunds.

Everyone attending is warned that they may be photographed, so don't go if you are allergic to social media.

How to Cook Fresh Wild Mushrooms

Foraging for wild mushrooms is madly popular in France. You are allowed to gather 5 kg per person per day, for personal use and if you have the landowner's permission. Most people who gather this sort of quantity these days have a dehydrator and process most of their mushrooms this way. Note that the law forbids you from giving any of your mushrooms away (in case you inadvertently poison a friend), and you are certainly not allowed to sell any that are excess to requirements directly, although you may, in some circumstances pass them on to a licenced forager. I don't gather anywhere near this quantity, but I like to have a couple of foraging outings in a season, to keep my eye in. I don't gather more than a kilo over a season. I don't own a dehydrator and cook my mushroom bounty fresh as an occasional treat. 

 

Hedgehog mushrooms (Fr. Pieds de moutons) and a few Ashen Chanterelles (Fr. Chanterelles cendrées), foraged in the Foret de Preuilly.

There are relatively few mushrooms in the forest which are both edible, and worth eating. Make sure you can accurately identify them, because it's fairly easy to make yourself sick, even if you manage to avoid killing yourself. To be able to safely identify the edibles you need to be able to confidently identify their toxic lookalikes too. Make sure your basket is not full of a mixture of crumbling mushroom species. That's a common way of accidentally poisoning yourself, when there is a small piece of something highly toxic mixed in with your edibles.

 

Hedgehog mushrooms prepared for cooking.

 

These instructions are good for ceps (porcini), chanterelles, girolles, black trumpets, hedgehog mushrooms, oysters and wood blewits.

 

The liquid produced in the first cooking, ready to be drained off.

 

1. Only choose mushrooms in perfect condition. Any mushroom may become toxic with age, so don't eat any that are past their best. Prepare and cook wild mushrooms within hours of foraging, and no longer than 24 hours after picking.
   
2. Cut off the dirty stem ends and discard.
3. Brush the tops and check for invertebrates and dirt underneath, brush delicately if necessary. Be thorough because gritty mushrooms aren't nice.
   
4. For ceps and hedgehogs gently rub off the sponge (ceps) or needles (hedgehogs).
5. Slice or chop the mushrooms as desired.
6. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and add the mushrooms.
7. Cook on medium high heat for 2 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally. The mushrooms will release a lot of liquid.
8. Carefully pour off the liquid.
9. Add some more butter to the mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring and turning, for a further 5 minutes.
10. Serve immediately.

 

Giving the mushrooms their second cooking after draining the liquid.

Don't feed wild mushrooms to children under seven years old, and don't eat them yourself more than once a week. This is to avoid over exposure to either natural toxins or toxins the mushrooms may sequester or accumulate.

 

 Wild mushrooms served with white fish and potatoes.

Saint Sébastien

We've had a couple of German St George's, now for a slightly resigned looking St Sébastien from Beaune.

You see a lot of St Sébastiens in France, I don't know why. Maybe being shot full of arrows was a daily hazard in the olden days

Autobahnkirchen

One thing I noticed in Germany in June was brown signs pointing to Autobahn chapels, but none of the stops we made actually had one.

Germany has hundreds of Autobahnkirchen, small chapels and churches beside motorways and truck stops, offering travellers a quiet pause from the road's. 

This is the Ecumenical Autohofkapelle at Schwabhausen, off the A4 in Thuringia. In August I made a deliberate stop there to photograph it - we didn't need fuel, we had filled up 10 minutes earlier. I knew it was there, because they're marked on maps. Opened in autumn 2003, it was the third chapel built by the SVG Hessen cooperative at its truck stops. Services are held on special occasions such as truckers' weddings and bikers' meetings.

Saint George II

I posted a photo of the Saint George of Eisenach yesterday, and commented that he looks effete. Susan reckons that the statue of Saint George in the castle of Wartburg (above Eisenach) takes that prize.

It's probably because this one doesn't have a monumental 'tache.

St George, Eisenach

This particularly effete looking chap is St George, patron saint of Eisenach. His armour dates him to the period 1550 to 1560, and is he is thought to have been cast from discarded tournament armour in 1549. As far as I can make out, he was always guilded.

He stands atop a sandstone pillar in the marketplace, and for many years served as the town water supply, water being piped through wooden pipes from springs above the town. The pillar has 4 extra little dragons which are the actual fountain.

Nice 'tache, though.

Girolles, Chanterelles and Trumpets

The Cantharellaceae family of fungi are all edible, but their nomenclature can cause a lot of confusion, and they have a few toxic but unrelated lookalikes, so you can't relax too much. The key is that Cantharellaceae do not have gills. They have irregular pleats on their undersides. Beginners need to really study them to be sure they can confidently recognise the Cantharellaceae pleats and not mistake them for gills. All of the toxic lookalikes have gills, so make sure you look carefully.

The current officially sanctioned vernacular naming system is that Cantharellus spp should be referred to as Girolles, and Craterellus spp should be referred to as Chanterelles (except for C. cornucopioides, which is referred to as a trumpet).

The greatest prize is the Girolle Cantharellus cibarius (Fr. Girolle). But these are not very common in the Touraine, so you might have to resort to buying them at a market. 

Winter Chanterelle Craterellus tubaeformis (Fr. Chanterelle en tube) and Girolles at a market.

Winter Chaterelles at a market. This species is abundant in the Touraine forests so you can forage your own if you have a good eye.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle Craterellus lutescens (Fr. Chanterelle jaune), foraged in the Forest of Loches. A localised but abundant species where it occurs.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle found in a woodland near Séligny.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle, showing the distinctive yellow colouring under the cap. Winter Chanterelles are grey under the cap.

Blackening Chanterelle Craterellus melanoxeros (Fr. Chanterelle noircissante), an uncommon species in the Touraine. These were found in the Forest of Preuilly.

Ashen Chanterelles Craterellus cinereus (Fr. Chanterelle cendrée), foraged in the Forest of Preuilly, and being cooked by me at home.

Ashen Chanterelles are an uncommon species, which I found in a small quantity in the Forest of Preuilly last year.

Ashen Chanterelles are very difficult to spot in the leaf litter.

Black Trumpets Craterellus cornucopioides (Fr. Trompettes de la mort) at a market.

Black Trumpets in the Forest of Preuilly.

All of these edible mushrooms can be found in the forests of the Touraine if you get your eye in. The rules in France are that you can forage up to 5 kilograms per person per day for personal consumption if you have the landowners permission. The outdoor market in Loches has several stalls in October and November that will sell wild mushrooms such as this, gathered by licenced commercial foragers.

Studies show that mushroom foraging for personal consumption is no threat to biodiversity, unless a site is badly trampled (compacting the soil). Using a rake is forbidden, because of the habitat disturbance, and in any case counterproductive, as you have to spend so much time cleaning and sorting the mushrooms from the leaf litter.

Not Chagall

I said on Wednesday that I confidently pointed at some stained glass windows in Metz Cathedral and told Susan "that's got to be Chagall".

I should have known I was wrong: Chagall is all swirls and freehand, and these are definitely cubist. These are the centre three panels of that set of windows, and they show The Last Supper, the crucifixion and the wedding at Cana. Looking at them I can see the last supper - the row of apostles' heads and plates down the left side. I can see the wedding at Cana - all those empty jars of wine. What I can't decipher is the crucifixion. I can see Mary in her traditional place (bottom right) but the rest is too abstract for me.

Jacques Villon designed the windows in 1957 for the Blessed Sacrament Chapel at Metz Cathedral. Charles Marq and Brigitte Simon made the glass, using acid etching. Villon was born Gaston Duchamp, brother of Marcel. 

Powdery Piggybacks

 Powdery Piggybacks found by me in the Forest of Preuilly.

This tiny uncommon mushroom may look small and innocuous but it is much more enigmatic than its simple appearance. Its presence and ability to parasitise and decompose its host, Brittlegill Russula spp mushrooms, is an important indicator of the health of its forest home. 

 

Found on an outing to a woodland at Ferrière les Beaulieu.

The scientific name is Asterophora lycoperdoides and its French name is Astérophore faux-lycoperdon. The miniature mushrooms 'piggyback' in small groups on old Brittlegills, and after starting out powdered white, soon become covered with what looks like cinnamon powder. Hence the English name of Powdery Piggyback mushroom. Unusually for a gilled mushroom, this powder on the top of the cap is made up of asexual spore like reproductive bodies. This is quite unlike 'normal' gilled mushrooms, which produce sexual spores that are dropped from the gills to reproduce.  

Found on an outing to a woodland at Ferrière les Beaulieu.

The species is widespread, and considered to be uncommon, but because of its small size it may be overlooked and under recorded rather than genuinely rare. You are most likely to see it in beech forests, or mixed beech and spruce, in damp places.

Chagall Glass in Metz

Before we went to Germany in August we saw a TV program about Metz Cathedral. As a  family member had recently been there and raved about it, we thought we'd go, specifically to see the Chagall windows.

We were partially successful.

The photo above shows the first Chagall window in the north ambulatory and shows Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, Jacob wrestling the angel, Jacob's dream of the ladder, and Moses at the burning bush. Noah and Joseph appear to sit in miniature in the tracery, and an angel with a rainbow appears to crown the top.

This photo shows the second Chagall window in the north ambulatory. Moses receives the Law and, in some readings, leads the Hebrews across the Red Sea. In the centre, David plays the harp, (that's the green and yellow bit). On the right, Jeremiah mourns Jerusalem in purple and blue. Above the three lancets, a rose window is read as the Crucifixion, placing the prophets beneath the cross.

It's difficult to actually know what the windows DO actually show. Chagall is abstract enough that the windows can be interpreted, and some people have interpreted differently. I tried to use peer reviewed articles where possible.

What we do know is that Chagall drew the designs and applied highlights of grisaille (black and grey) to the glass. Charles Marq and Brigitte Simon, of the Atelier Simon-Marq in Reims, cut, fired, and leaded the pieces. Marq developed a process of veneering pigment onto glass, which let Chagall layer colors on a single piece.

And the partially successful bit?

That's because there are other Chagall windows we didn't see. We did see (and photograph) a window by Jacques Villon (born Gaston Duchamp, the brother of Marcel Duchamp), which I confidently identified to Susan as one of the Chagall windows. In my defence, Villon also worked with Charles Marq, so the glass may come from the same workshop as Chagall's windows

I give myself four out of ten, mainly for effort.

A Heart of Dough

I know we have a world of opinion (and one or two facts) at our fingertips wherever we go, but sometimes you have to ask yourself "why?".

We know what they are, and what you do with them, but why?

And how do you ask for one without resorting to just pointing?

It's Raining

We were woken up this morning by the most terrific clap of thunder.

The power then proceeded to go out (and come back on again) multiple times in rapid succession. I've never experienced anything like it before, with the power going off for up to a minute then coming back on again. In the 10 minutes leading up to 07:00h I'd say the lights went off about 30 times. It may be that now the house is lit exclusively by LED we'll never experience a brownout again: in the increasingly digital binary world lights will either be on or off.

Guess where we are

I don't know how much rain we'll end up getting, but we'll take anything, even though it's so dry at the moment there's the danger of fires. I think we'll accept that risk.

Autun at a Distance

It's only when you photograph Autun from a distance and crop out the obviously "modern" 16th century Burgundian roof of the military school that you realise how médiéval the place looks.

These photos were taken right weeks apart: we just happened to be driving through Autun for a second time when I took the top photo. We'll have to go back, there's plenty more to see.

WMM Hotels

When we were in Germany in June I booked us one night in a WMM Hotel near Eisenach. It appealled because I was looking for somewhere with a kitchen, and at a good price.

The business's method was new to me, and it didn't totally make sense at first. You book a room online, then on the day of your stay you'll receive an email asking you to check in. You'll need a photo of your ID to do so, but it's a simple process. You'll then get a second email with your room number and a big green button in it. When you arrive at the hotel you press the button to unlock the door. Don't press it before you arrive at the door to your room.

Ain't technology wonderful.

On our more recent trip to Germany we stayed in 3 WMM hotels, and they were all clean, comfortable, and well equipped. Rooms include a desk, a television and WiFi, as well as a mini kitchen. They're incredibly quiet even though they're inevitably in industrial areas or near the Autoroute - or both. The rooms are built as modules in Mindelheim and Illertissen, then assembled on site.

We like them. You know what you're getting, and although they're not exactly picturesque the rooms themselves are comfortable, and the bathrooms way bigger then you would find in most other budget hotels.

Back to Work

Yesterday I actually worked at what I consider to be my main job, for the first time in three and a half years.

It wasn't the longest days work I've ever done, but it was still a long day: picking clients up at 9:00am and getting home at 7:00pm, driving 170km in the process. Claudette was misbehaving slightly: her gear shift still needs fine tuning, but I managed the day without embarassing myself, and the clients left happy.

One of the reasons the gear shift has been thrown out of whack is that I put a new sort of battery in. It's a smaller physical size, but it's actually much more modern and more reliable. Unfortunately, we didn't realise that moving the battery forward as we had done meant that the battery leads interfered with the gear change rods. Oops!

She still isn't perfectly dependable shifting from first to second, which can be embarrassing. I'll have to get in touch with the guru to find out what the solution is.

Panthercap or Franchet's Amanita?

These two Amanita species are quite difficult to tell apart. Thanks to amanitamozart on iNaturalist I was given a few clues to help.

The main clue is that the flaky remains of the veil on the cap are subtley different. On Franchet's Amanita they are pale grey with a yellowish tinge. They are also less bobbly ie flatter, more attached and less projecting. The flakes on a Panthercap are pure white and more three dimensional, a bit like pearl sugar.

 

Franchet's Amanita Amanita franchetii (Fr. Amanite à voile jaune).

Franchet's Amanite is covered in a sulphur yellow veil and volva when young, and the scales on the cap, the 'skirt' around the upper stem and the 'sack' at the bottom of the stem are the remnants of that. With age these parts fade to dirty yellow. 

Panthercap Amanita pantherina (Fr. Amanite panthère).

Panthercaps have a lightly striated cap margin and a series of 'beaded' rings around the volva. The stem ring is plain, not striated, and not yellow edged. The cap is 4 - 15 cm across, initially hemispherical, then convex and finally flat, maybe even a bit depressed in the centre. When it's damp the cap surface will be viscous, if the weather is dry it will be satiny. The brown colour will lighten at the edge as the mushroom ages.

Panthercap.

The 'snowflake' like 'warts' on the cap will wash off quite easily in rain. The gills are pure white and quite tightly packed. The spores are also white. The white stem is 5 - 15 cm tall and 1 - 2 cm thick. And the flesh is white and does not react to being bruised. The mushroom doesn't smell of anything in particular.

Panthercap.

Both species grow in small groups in deciduous forest on calcareous soil, in association with oak, chestnut and hornbeam as well as other trees and sometimes conifers if the soil is flinty.

Panthercap.

Panthercap.

 

 

Panthercap. The volva ('sack' at the base of the stem, which most Amanita spp have in some form) is typical for this particular species.

As you can see by the number of photos I have, Franchet's Amanita is rare, whereas Panthercap is abundant in the Touraine. Both species are toxic, and can lead to convulsions, violent vomiting and psychodelic experiences but not believed to be normally fatal. Both species can be mistaken for the edible Blusher Amanita rubscens (Fr. Amanite rougissante), but it stains red when bruised.