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.

Walking From La Guerche

On Thursday 9 November I joined Joel and Denise, Helene and Dominique to walk 10 kilometres from La Guerche, in the wind and rain. With sheltering from the rain breaks it took two and three quarter hours.

A surveyors' marker on the side of an agricultural track.

False Turkey Tail Stereum hirsutum (Fr. Stérée hirsute) on a fallen birch branch.

A rather rotund solitary sheep sheltering under a solitary pear tree in a field watches us go by.

This is some sort of Agaricus sp mushroom, and I think it might be Great Wood Mushroom A. langeai. Last year I found a single mushroom in this spot, this year it is a colony of tens of mushrooms.

Sheltering from a heavy rain shower at about the halfway mark.

Walking through the forest near Rond du Chene.

A sacred well known as the Fontaine de Prélong. It is a spring protected by a small building made of chunks of flint.

Offerings on the well.

This is a Tremella sp. I assume it is Golden Ear T. aurantia (Fr. Trémelle orangée), as it appears to be feeding off False Turkey Tail.

This is the ancient border between Poitou and Touraine. In the 14th century where I am standing, in Poitou, would have been English territory and across the valley in the distance the Touraine was French.

A big patch of Ivy had been brought down by the recent storms and was blocking the track.

Walking Around La Guerche

On Monday 30 January Simon and I walked 5 km around La Guerche with the Phoenix en Claise group. We started off in the village itself, which is one of the loveliest in the Sud Touraine, then went up the hill.

A nicely maintained barn door in the village of La Guerche.

A charming house with a courtyard behind a high wall.

A narrow door gives access to this house from a quiet street corner.

A courtyard entrance to a house.

House built into the village ramparts and moat.

In one part of the forest there was a wooden hut surrounded by plastic bottles on stakes. I've no idea what that was about.

A vine hut is almost hidden by bushes covered in oak moss Evernia prunastri (Fr. mousse de chene).

A Bumper Year for Ceps

This year was a bumper year for ceps (also known by their Italian name porcini, and in French called cèpes). There are four species that are highly prized, and a few more, referred to as boletes (Fr. bolets) that provide tasty bulk.

Ceps foraged in the Forest of Amboise.

One of the surprises was how many Summer Ceps Boletus reticulatus (Fr. Cèpe d'été) there were in late October and early November. Normally they are a much earlier fruiting mushroom, and not the most abundant species. It was explained to me that the extremely dry conditions, followed eventually by moderate rain with still warm days and a few colder nights, provided conditions when everything fruited at once, all desperately trying to reproduce once the dry ended.

The man on the left turned up at the annual fungi exhibition in Sainte Maure de Touraine with a boot full of Dark Ceps, including the very large one he is holding, foraged nearby.

The Dark Cep Boletus aereus (Fr. Cèpe bronzé) also fruited in unusually large numbers. Whereas Edible Cep Boletus edulis and Bay Bolete Imleria badia (Fr. Bolet bai) seemed to be in normal to low abundance. Orange Oak Bolete Leccinum aurantiacum (Fr. Bolet orangé) was abundant and everywhere, just like in normal years.

Summer Ceps foraged in late October in a forest near Séligny.

Edible Cep and Orange Oak Bolete foraged in a local forest.

Orange Oak Bolete in the Forest of La Guerche.

Ceps from the Creuse at the market in La Roche Posay.

Ceps from the Creuse at the market in La Roche Posay.

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).

The South Touraine Population Decline

According to the French National Bureau of Statistics (INSEE) the South Touraine overall has lost 1189 inhabitants between the census of 2013 and the census of 2018, but there are a few communities out of the 67 in our corner of central France that have gained inhabitants.  The average municipality is made up of 767 inhabitants, down from 785 in 2013. Preuilly sur Claise has 1025 inhabitants.

Preuilly sur Claise.

 

Even Loches, the biggest population centre of our area, has had a net loss of people. Although an attractive residential choice, the aging population means that more people died than were born. The population is now 6232, down by over a hundred people from the last census. The mayor isn't surprised, but he points out that new incoming residents outweigh people who move away. This is actually causing a slight housing problem, which he hopes to solve by repurposing centrally located buildings such as the former police station and Alfred de Vigny school into residential properties. He is looking forward to an influx during 2021 of 40 public finance civil servants transferred or recruited there with their families.

Loches.

 

The municipality with the biggest percentage drop in population is Boussay, down to 215 people now. The place with the biggest percentage gain is Tauxigny Saint Bauld, a phenomenon which can be explained by geography. It is midway between the Tours conurbation and Loches, close to a big industrial zone and major arterial roads. The town offers lots of leisure activities and clubs, and housing is cheap. Other small towns which have attracted good numbers of new inhabitants compared to their size are Le Louroux, Chemillé sur Indrois and Saint Senoch. 

Descartes.

 

The two most attractive municipalities in terms of net migration are Preuilly sur Claise and Abilly. However, Preuilly has the worst natural balance figures, with deaths far outweighing births. Our mayor, Jean-Paul Charrier, acknowledges that we have a very elderly population, resulting in a lot of houses coming on the market when people die. But the town is attracting incomers because of its history, architecture and good location, which brings professionals and those in the arts.

Ligueil.

 

The smallest municipality in the South Touraine is Villedomain, with 117 inhabitants. Chanceaux près Loches, Esves le Moutier and La Guerche don't have that many more inhabitants, all under 200. The three largest municipalities are Loches (6232 inhabitants), Descartes (3427 inhabitants), and Ligueil (2159 inhabitants), all of them holding their own statistically in terms of population.

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