Botany Outing to the Chapelle du Liget

On 11 August the Association de botanique et mycologie de Ste-Maure-de-Touraine had an outing to the woods around the Chapelle du Liget to see a very rare orchid that grows there. The Violet Helleborine Epipactis purpurata is on the western edge of its range here and is a very rare orchid in France and the surrounding countries to the north and east.

Pyramide de Chartreux and Hunters Lodge.

The meeting point was the Pyramide de Chartreux, on the D760 intersection with the route forestière Georges-d'Amboise. Four of these waymarking 'pyramids' in the Forest of Loches exist, at the major intersections of the old forest trails, now become roads. They help hunters and other forest users to orient themselves when deep within the forest. Each of the 'pyramids' is a slightly different design, so you can be in no doubt as to your whereabouts. (They are all known as pyramides but technically they are not pyramids because they sit on bases. Strictly speaking they are obelisks.) Niall and Antoinette have written about them more fully over on Chez Charnizay. The Pyramide de Chartreux sits in front of the old Hunters Lodge, now a private home.

Chapelle du Liget.

Once everyone had rolled up we drove down the road a kilometre or so to the Chapelle du Liget. The Chapelle is a neat round little building in a large clearing that this year was used to grow a crop of wheat. Now harvested, the stubble gives a lovely golden glow to the chapel surrounds. It's all locked up and you can't get inside if you just turn up, but if you want to see the recently conserved wallpaintings that decorate the interior you can ask for the key at the Loches Tourist Office. Once again, Niall and Antoinette at Chez Charnizay have much more information, and have visited when it was open.

Violet Helleborine.

Marc Fleury, our orchid expert, had brought along some Broad-leafed Helleborines Epipactis helleborine to demonstrate the typical Epipactis features that we were looking for. I think he has picked up how shocked I am that he takes samples like this, and was quick to point out that he only uses plants which do not have protected status. After this quick primer we walked along the designated path deep into the woods, then Marc dived off piste to the left. He pointed out a Bird's-nest Orchid, which he said the Violet Helleborine often grows with. Here in the Touraine, the Violet Helleborine seems to favour pockets of somewhat calcareous soil, although in other places it is found in slightly acid locations. In the forest, mounds of raised earth can indicate more limestone in the soil, so we concentrated the search on these bumps. The orchid likes heavy, but not total shade, growing out of the cool soil under the leaf litter of mixed oak / beech forest, to a height of 30 - 70 cm with many large (for a European terrestrial orchid) flowers on a spike. The low light made them very difficult to photograph well when we did find a colony. The plants here are quite pale compared to many places, where they have a strong purple flush over the whole plant - flowers, stems and leaves.

The woodland floor where the orchids grow.

Along the way we also noted the fungi, finding a number ranging from a deadly species to the most prized edible species of all. Apparently the club is planning to return later in the year, to focus on fungi. Jeannine our secretary has been corresponding with the National Office for Forests, who manage the Forest of Loches, to advise them of our activities. In the past this has just been a courteous formality, but to her surprise this time the ONF (Office national des forets) has gone all officious on her and demanded a complete outline of our schedule for the second half of the year. My impression is that the main concern of the forestry officer in question is the hunt and the possibility of us disturbing game. Jeannine is not impressed.

Midwife Toad, male and 3cm at most from nose to rump.

On our way back through the forest we came across an old quarry, probably where the stone for the chapel was extracted. Horseriders obviously use the paths here and in a deep hoofprint in a muddy patch I noticed some movement. I managed to get a few poor photos of the tiny toad which was in the process of crossing the path, and only later realised that this was my first sighting of a Midwife Toad Alytes obstetricans! You can hear their delightful tinkling call almost any night from March to October if you stand outside our house, but I have never before seen this elusive amphibian (you can play a recording of their call on HerpFrance).

Naturally, we rounded off the outing in traditional style, with drinks all round of Marc's homemade cider (we are on the 2011 vintage now apparently). He commented that he is starting to have trouble with the sanglier coming in to his orchard - presumably for the windfall apples. After relaxing and chatting for a while, we took ourselves home.

Susan

An Update on the Gears

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the problems we'd been having with Célestine's gearchange.

When we rang Jean-Louis to tell him the problem was sorted he suggested we visit him, just to make sure the job had been done properly, and that we weren't heading for more disasters. This we did, and after looking at the mechanism he decided it was time for it to be overhauled.

First problem was removing the mechanism: it sits screwed onto the back of the dashboard, a position not only difficult to access, but one which requires the bonnet (hood) and battery to be removed as well. This was achieved with not too many "mince's" and we could see what we had to do.

Removing the mechanism.

In the past various bits and pieces had been done on the mechanism by someone Jean-Louis quite charitably described as a "bricoleur". This included using wire ties - rather than rivets - to hold the spring that returns the gear levers to neutral (the original cause of our problem). We assume that one of these ties had become entangled, bent and then snapped the spring, causing her ladyship to maroon herself.

The wire ties on the return spring. Not optimal...

Of course, all of this took a lot longer than we had hoped, (and also longer than we expected) so we had to stop for lunch and then work on into the afternoon. The afternoon was hot, so we used a carton to create some shade while we put the mechanism back in.

So we are now back on the road, and the gear change is nice and positive and precise - or at least as precise as waving a stick that pokes out of the dashboard can ever be.

Simon

Protecting our roadside flora

With the pressure on natural environments from modern farming, roadsides are becoming more and more significant as repositories for certain sorts of wildflowers. Almost all of the substantial colonies of Early Purple Orchids in Indre et Loire, for instance, are to be found on roadside verges. Other plants, such as the gorgeous intense blue Meadow Clary, are declining and more and more dependent on the relatively stable environment of grassy roadside banks.

'Protect the flora on the roadside'

It is the plants associated with prairie habitats that are most affected. Prairies are rough natural grassland, traditionally used as cattle pasture. Many of the wildflowers associated with this grassland are now rare and protected. Modern farming has either ploughed the prairie up to plant cereal crops, or 'improved' the pasture by sowing more nutritious grass mixes so they can send the stocking rate up. Either way the wildflowers are ousted to the margins. In addition, modern farmland is over fertilised as far as the native flora is concerned. Roadsides tend to remain poorer in terms of fertility, although still not natural, as car exhausts provide a lot of extra nitrogen.

Since 2008 the Conseils généraux (local authorities) of the départements (counties or shires) around us have been modifying their roadside mowing in order to encourage and protect the more delicate and vulnerable of these prairie wildflowers. Likewise, these plants need undisturbed soil, so their presence has to be taken into account when doing any heavy roadworks.

No I didn't park on the roadside to take this photo...

The département of Vienne has chosen 20 stretches of departmental road to erect signs warning motorists to stay off the roadsides to protect the flora. The blurb produced by the Regional Environment Observatory rather tartly advises that 'it is not worth slowing down to try to see the flowers - they are mostly very discreet and sometimes difficult to see, even if you are on foot!' They suggest that if you want to see the plants up close you have to go on an outing organised by Vienne Nature or one of their partners.

'Intelligent mowing' is practiced in the Foret de Preuilly.

In Indre et Loire the signs announce that the Conseil général will be engaged in 'Intelligent Mowing' to preserve nature and Indre's signs say they are 'experimenting with late mowing'. The later the mowing, the less fertility from the cut grass will be returned to the soil, as it will be drier and more mature. The earlier and more frequently they cut the verges, the more lush green compost they will be returning to the soil, causing it to become eutrophic, with the result that plants like nettles dominate.

It all amounts to a campaign to educate the public about the importance of roadside vegetation as a refuge for once common and ubiquitous species, as well as a welcome means of justifying a reduced mowing regimen, thus reducing road maintenance costs. It's a simple thing that will make a big difference and everybody wins, but in garden and streetscape manicure obsessed France it is quite a big step.

Susan

Rillettes Ghosts

Mooching about in Tours the other day after work we came across these two ghost signs. We were intrigued by the larger one, with its English information. The signs are on the front and end of the same building.

Rillettes are slow cooked pork that is then pulled into strands and packed in little pots like a paté. Rillettes de Tours is the local version with its own particular traditional flavourings, and the addition of local Vouvray wine. There are currently 20 manufacturers in and around Tours making the officially certified product, and dozens who make it but just haven't bothered with the rigmarole of certification.

Susan

Where the Wild Boar Are

Where the wild boar are in France is pretty well everywhere, and over the past decade they've been increasing (although the recent very cold winters may have caused a dent in the numbers). These are genuine wild and indigenous animals, not feral pigs. They are incredibly secretive and discreet, so you hardly ever see them unless you are a hunter. I've only ever seen a small group of them once, at dusk in late winter, in the Foret de Preuilly.

Typical game fence, with barbed top wire and snout wire,
and additional fine netting on the lower third,
buried to a depth of 30 cm.

French wild boar are relatively small, with most coming in at around 50kg. Occasionally there will be a really big one of up to 170kg. They are a nomadic species, with solitary males often travelling long distances. Females tend to be more sedentary and live in small herds with their young.

A crop on the edge of the forest, enclosed by an electric fence.

While you may not see the beasts themselves, what you do see, very often, is the evidence of their presence. During the day they hole up in the besom heath and forest undergrowth, but at night they emerge to root about in the grassland and crops adjoining the forests. In the Foret de Preuilly and the Parc de Boussay they are mostly free to roam at will. Farmers can get a grant to erect electric fences to keep them out of crops and there are a couple of fenced private hunting estates. There is also a system of strictly regulated supplementary feeding (agrainage) of the boar during the crop growing season in Indre, to keep them in the forest and out of the crops. This is a double edged sword though, because despite its relative success as a means of protecting the crops, it results in an increased population that the hunters can no longer keep up with.

A chaisse de chasse in the Foret de Preuilly.
They look like giant chairs, but the
hunters stand in them.

I have been told that the Foret de Preuilly was gifted to the nation by Madame Hersent-Luzarche from the Chateau d'Azay-le-Ferron on condition that hunting was not permitted - with the single exception of wild boar, which were considered a nuisance species. There are chaises de chasse (raised platforms for the hunters to shoot from - literally 'hunt chairs') in many places in the forest and I often encounter the hunt when driving through. By law it is only permitted to shoot boar and they cannot be lured to a site by using grain feeding stations. Nor can they be poisoned or trapped.

Boar footprint.

The main style of boar hunt used here is la battue (beating). A group of men with a few dogs trained to find the boar by scent then 'beat' the chosen area and drive the boar towards men with rifles in the chaises de chasse. I imagine a lot of the boar hunted this way escape by doubling back or diving off to the side, or because quite a few of the hunters are fairly poor shots. There is some hunting on horseback in the forest, but the undergrowth is too thick to make it practical in many places, and I think at certain times of year the boar are stalked. Whilst primarily an autumn-winter activity, if boar are persistently causing damage to crops, pasture or vines, affecting sheep or goat breeding operations or causing road accidents, a hunt may get permission to shoot boar in the summer months too.

Boar are the most popular, but by no means the most formidable quarry that is hunted here. There is a much quoted French saying, the sense of which translates as 'a boar will send you home on a stretcher; a stag will send you home in a coffin'.

In most départements hunters must purchase tags which go on the leg of every boar killed. The tags cost 10€ if you are hunting in Indre for the 2012-13 season (1 September - 31 March) and are coloured grey. In Indre et Loire, where there is no organised plan to control the wild boar (presumably because they are less numerous and less of a nuisance in the Touraine) the tags cost €30. There is no mention of tags on the Féderation des chasseurs website for Loir et Cher, so I assume they don't use them in the Sologne. The tags may not be reused, exchanged or carried over to the next season, and there is a fine for not tagging and recording every kill. The tags are a way for the Féderations des Chasseurs (Hunters Association) to compensate farmers for the damage 'their' boar do. The hunters have a vested interest in maintaining a strong healthy population of boar, whereas the farmers (unless they are also hunters themselves) would probably like to see them eradicated altogether (or at best, corralled into enclosed nature reserves).

Wild boar habitat.

Since we've lived here I have witnessed the increasing corralling of the land. Game proof fences are going up all over and it is often difficult to tell if they are to keep game in or to keep it out. If they are to keep it in, it is most likely a private hunting estate run to cater for the weekend hunters from Paris. These are nothing like the traditional village hunts, where participants have to actually know something about the quarry if they are to make a kill. There is a tendency on the hunting estates to keep the game at too high a density in too small an area, and simply round the beasts up, forcing them past the shooters in their chaises de chasse like plastic ducks on a fairground attraction. The weekend shooters are not always used to handling guns or even being out in 'the bush' and the whole event is a travesty.

A wallow hidden in the forest.

Fences to keep game out are just as problematic, turning roadsides into one long game park with huge potential for serious car accidents. Once again the animals are forced into an area too small for their numbers.

Over half a million wild boar are killed by hunters in France every year. Probably less than 1% of that number comes from the Loire Valley forests, an indication that overly commercial private hunting estates have not established themselves here, and that most hunting here is done along traditional lines. The national population of wild boar is probably over a million, and they are involved in over 20 000 car accidents a year. There are maybe 50 000 registered hunters in the central Loire area, but their numbers are falling and boar numbers are soaring.

I've never been lucky enough to get a photo of our local boar, but friends Colin and Elizabeth got these serendipitous shots earlier in the year.

Susan

Wine Glazed Pears

Every year I discover at least one new, unusual and mega delicious pear recipe. Earlier this year my blogging vegan Canadian poet acquaintance Pearl Pirie wrote about making glazed pears for Valentines day. When I looked up the recipe she had used I was really put off by the hokey down home style the Modern Mrs Cleaver has adopted, and nearly didn't try the recipe myself. However, they looked fantastic so I waded through the cute asides and discovered a sensational pear dish.

I only wanted to cook 2 pears, so I more or less halved the recipe, reducing the spices so I could be sure they wouldn't overpower. For a pair of pears you will need 200 ml red wine (I used gamay), half a cup of sugar, 1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice and a strip of lemon rind, 2 wings off a star anise seed pod, a quarter teaspoon of cinnamon powder or half a cinnamon stick, a generous teaspoon of vanilla extract or a vanilla pod. The mixture smells divine once heated and lingers well after you've finished glazing the pears. The liquid turns into a glaze that can be spooned over the fruit every few minutes for a rich almost toffee'd look - and the taste is superb!

I cored the pears as instructed, which has the advantage that the glaze liquid can penetrate inside the pear, and makes eating it more straightforward. However, it does mean the pears lose strength and are prone to falling over in the custard when served, which is a bit sad. Do take the time to make a proper custard from scratch, with egg yolks and infused vanilla pod, although not necessarily the recipe that the Modern Mrs Cleaver provides (which works well, but is a bit aerated for my tastes - I like my custard smooth but not moussy).

As Jean of Baking in Franglais would say, the faff factor is *** (quite fiddly but definitely worth it).

Susan

Sunflowers

Villandry Takes on the Mitey Limes

The gardens at Villandry have a lot of lime trees (linden) Tilia sp - about 1200 of them in fact. They form the real skeleton of the garden, leading you from one area to another in stately allées.

Limes line the tops of the banks surrounding the mirror pond.

The problem is that every summer they get attacked by spider mites (Eotetranychus tiliarium) which cause the leaves to drop early. If the summer is hot or dry the problem is even worse as the trees are also stressed through lack of water.

Looking through the lime leaves towards the chateau
(and another row of limes).

Four years ago the garden started the process of going organic and introduced three species of predatory mite to control the pest species. The same predators had already been successfully used in nearby vineyards and orchards. They had to stop spraying pesticides to allow the predatory mites to do their work, and adopted what is known as an integrated pest management system. Variants of this approach are used in museums, farms and gardens all over the world these days.

A lime allée forms one of the main axes of the garden.

Part of the process of combatting the spider mites included upgrading and improving the irrigation system so the trees didn't suffer the water stress that exacerbated the problem.

An overhead view of the lime allées and raised hedges.

Four years later it is clear that integrated pest management is working and the garden is thriving under its new organic regimen.

Susan

Wasp Spider - Argiope bruennichi

One of the largest and easiest to identify spiders in the Loire Valley area is the Wasp Spider Argiope bruennichi (l'Argiope frelon in French). It is so named because of its striking black and yellow stripes.

You can encounter it anywhere there is rank grass for it to build a web and lay in wait for its main prey, grasshoppers. The ones you see are females. Males are tiny and brown and almost never observed.

Wasp Spiders typically sit centrally in their web, head down.

The Wasp Spider is an orb spider, building a large, strong, vertical web in the grass. A feature of orb webs is the thick zigzag of silk known as the stabilimentum. It seems to act as an 'eyecatcher', distracting potential prey who then don't notice the finer threads. These spiders require rough grassland that is not mowed if they are to thrive.

The one above was photographed last year in what was the hay meadow opposite our orchard. Yet another creature doomed by the farmer's actions in ploughing up the field and planting sunflowers.

Susan

The Compleat Angler

I took this photo surreptitiously from the car when I was dropping off some empties at the bottle bank at the plan d'eau. I love this guy's selection of fishing accessories - handcart, monopod table and patio umbrella. It's obviously all about the solitude and the quiet contemplation - I'd be very surprised if the plan d'eau was home to anything worth catching.

Today the plan d'eau will be covered in brocante, and this evening (assuming the weather holds) it will be home to the fireworks and bal populaire we should have had on Bastille Day.

Susan

Ultrasound games

The other day I flushed (literally I guess...) a female Jersey Tiger moth Euplagia quadripunctaria when I was watering what is left of my fernery after the cold winter. She looked a bit worse for the wear, but not because I had watered her. I'm speculating that she was actually very newly emerged from the coccoon, but had already been mated, even before she had a chance to pump fluid into her wings. Either that or her time in the coccoon has included some trauma that has caused a deformity.

Jersey Tiger resting on the slate dressing on our apéro terrace.

Tiger moths are big fat colourful moths that fly by day and by night. They would make a very hearty meal for a bat, except for the fact that they are poisonous. In order to advertise the fact that they are not suitable prey the moths have developed striking warning colours for the daytime. But these are no use during the night, when the bats are about.

Later on a flower pot.

Many (maybe all) Tiger moth species have a much more unusual nightime defense system. They can hear the bats' sonar clicks and pings, and therefore take evasive action. Some species have even developed sonar of their own. They can emit high frequency sounds that either warn the bat they are bad news to eat, or, if the frequency is very close the bat's own frequency, the bat cannot negotiate the barrage of ultrasound and retreats, disoriented and confused.

Susan

The Harvest comes home

A trailer load of straw passes a Michelin star restaurant in Le Petit Pressigny.

For much of the last half of July there was a frenzy of activity around all the villages here. The hot dry weather had finally arrived and the farmers mobilised to get the wheat harvest in. A seemingly endless stream of trucks and tractors pulling grain trailers lumbered down the narrow roads making deliveries from the fields to the silos. A pall of reddish dust hung in the air as the harvesters roared on through the night.

Harvested fields just outside Preuilly-sur-Claise.

Spilt grain lies in the gutter in Le Petit Pressigny.

Briefly idle, grain trucks parked in Le Petit Pressigny.

Finally, at the very end of July the weather broke again, and the activity was reduced to sporadic bursts when it seemed it could be trusted not to rain for more than a few hours. Much of the wheat crop was off, and now the straw was being raked up and baled.

Grain mountains at Le Petit Pressigny silos.

Our friends Tim and Gaynor got a these terrific shots of a harvester working opposite their house in Le Petit Pressigny.

Susan

Wildlife watching in the Claise Valley in August

The 10 or so days of hot weather near the end of July have allowed our butterfly numbers to make a recovery (for most species, anyway). There are still very few Common Blues, but the Short-tailed Blues are everywhere. Some of the Fritillary species just haven't put in an appearance (Glanville, Knapweed), whilst others are now very common (Silver-washed). This positive trend should continue, as August is traditionally the hottest month of the year.

In the Brenne and other damp habitats the extensive reedbeds will be flowering. Their beige plumes often form the backdrop to swallows hunting insects over the vegetation in the étangs once the crops in the fields have all been harvested and are no longer providing the prime hunting ground.

The Southern White Admirals have arrived.

Look carefully in shaded woodland areas or anywhere that is cool and a bit damp. The Common Dog Violets may be having a second flush of flowers. Even if you can't find Dog Violets, their pretty cousins the Wild Pansies just power on from spring to autumn, flowering continuously in their waste ground habitats.

Warmth loving flies such as Hoverflies, Horseflies and Robberflies have been building up in July and will continue in good numbers this month. Don't automatically dismiss flies as something nasty - many of them are beautiful and interesting to watch. Hoverflies and Robberflies don't bite and only female Horseflies do. Watch out for mosquitoes though - the silent, black and white stripey Tiger Mosquitoes have been around for a couple of months, and they can carry flu-like diseases.

Common Bluetail damselflies are with us from
spring to mid-autumn.

Another group that will be in their prime in August but dismissed by many people as weeds are the thistles and their kin. If you are interested in wildlife always check out flowering thistles, as they are host to an amazing number of insect species.

If you are very lucky (I hope to be, later in the month with the Association de Botanique et Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine) you might see the very rare Violet Helleborine orchid this month in the Forest of Loches.

Susan

A Memorial in a Forest Glade

In the summer of 1944 after the D-Day landings in Normandy (Operation Overlord) on 6 June, but before the Allied invasion of southern France on 15 August, the task of disrupting the German forces in Central France was given to the various Resistance groups with SOE and SAS support. Allied forces had been able to make a number of arms drops in the area, but the Germans were jittery and on the verge of pulling out. Heavy fighting ensued, usually hand to hand, field by field. The Resistance used the many forests in the Touraine as places to hide and the spot known as Péchoire in the Foret de Preuilly is a typical example.

Parading from the graves to the memorial.

Two Resistance groups, camped a few kilometres apart operated from this section of the forest. One was Communist, the other FFI, so no doubt the communication between the two groups was not good. Each group would have had a completely different vision of what France after the war should look like and so although both were fighting for the freedom of their country, opinion on what that country should ultimately look like was divided.

Remembering the dead.
The retired para in charge is centre foreground
with his back to the camera.

Nevertheless, the two groups were very effective guerilla fighters, and the Germans, in their amoured vehicles, were too afraid to enter the forest. They simply sat on the fringes, surrounding the forest and laid seige for about a fortnight. Finally the Resistance were betrayed, and the tanks rumbled in on 23 July. The fighting lasted two days and 8 Resistance fighters were killed and buried where they lay. Four of the graves are almost on the side of the road, in a beautiful clearing in the forest and very accessible. The others are a kilometre and a half away, much more hidden and you have to know where they are to find them.

Best dressed man at the service.

This year was the 68th anniversary of the action and looking at our photos, I would say about 200 people turned up for the memorial ceremony on Sunday 22 July. All the local returned services leagues were represented with their banners and the proceedings were directed by a retired paratrooper. By far the most smartly turned out person in attendance was a retired British officer who lives nearby, but everyone was here to remember fallen heroes.

The French approach to these ceremonies is rather nice. There is a plan - it's even on paper - but there is no dress rehearsal. People just turn up when requested and do their bit. We were lucky to find out about it, and have our friends Jill and John to thank. This is also typical of France - these ceremonies take place every year, and everyone is just assumed to know where and when. We would have liked to stay for the whole ceremony and the vin d'honneur afterwards, but we had to leave midway through. This wasn't an issue - people came and left throughout the whole morning. The important thing in these small rural communities is to turn up, no matter how briefly, and no matter if you are in your work overalls.

Susan

For a related post on remembering Péchoire see Chez Charnizay, as Niall and Antoinette went to the exhibition in the village that was part of the commemoration this year.

Biodiversity in the Vineyards - who needs it?

See my previous post on biodiversity in the vineyards for definitions of terms, some background and details of a specific project in the Loire.

There are two strands to the arguments about why biodiversity is important and why we should preserve it. The first are the economic aspects such as its potential to improve the production of agricultural commodities; its role in the regulation of soil fertility and the physical and chemical cycles of the Earth; and the possibilities for the tourist industry. The second is ethical and cultural - our moral duty to future generations and the need to maintain the potential of living organisms.

Grass between the rows.

Biodiversity is the key to sustainability and to reducing the high input style of farming where artificial fertilizers and phyto-pharmaceuticals are routinely used. The French scientists based at INRA are leading the way on the research into the benefits of biodiversity for farming.

Viticulture is an intensive monoculture resulting in a homogeneous landscape with low levels of biodiversity. If we want to challenge this approach to winemaking the attack must be two pronged. Chemical inputs and landscape homogeneity must be tackled simultaneously.

Vines surround a patch of woodland.

Vineyards and annual crops have the lowest levels of biodiversity in agriculture (pasture has the highest levels and forestry falls between the two). The use of biocontrols is now well established, but best practice today is to manage the landscape for conservation biocontrol so that natural predators and pollinators build up sufficient numbers to be sustainable and have a real beneficial impact. This includes creating a mosaic of habitats to provide shelter and food year round (for example, planting hedges).

A landscape scale approach allows the monitoring of both changes in the landscape such as the creation of hedges and crop margins to shelter predators, and the changes in the pest population. The main insect pests in the vineyards are leafhoppers, who suck leaves dry and spread diseases, and moths, who's caterpillars eat the grape flowers and the forming fruit.

Lots of groundcover, and woodland behind.

Ideally, no parcel of vines should be more than 400m from a patch of woodland. In order to reduce the isolation between semi-natural habitats, low hedges can be planted, which allow the insect meta-populations to flow, but also fit the requirements of a commercial grape growing operation. There is still a lot to learn about managing biodiversity for agriculture though. For instance, it turns out that the moth pests thrive in a monoculture and so landscape changes work well to control them. The leafhoppers, on the other hand, use all the available habitats and are not discouraged by having the vines broken up by hedges or crop margins. It seems the entomologists at INRA will be kept busy for a while yet.

Susan

Source: Protection des Paysages Viticoles, a paper by G. Pain et al, 2010, Mission Val de Loire.

A Leather Wall Covering

The dining room and its associated corridor at Cheverny is most famous for its painted decorative panels illustrating the story of Don Quixote, all done by a single artist from Blois, Jean Mosnier, working between 1624 and 1630. Earlier this year we came across an artist refreshing some of the more light damaged panels on the corridor window shutters.

The new Cordovan leather wall covering.

What perhaps many people don't notice (or at least, don't recognise for what it is) is the Cordovan (aka Cordoba) leather wall coverings that are fixed between the ceiling and the painted panels. It too has become torn, fragile and damaged in places and a few weeks ago we encountered one of the house maintenance men putting up a brand new section, and carefully supporting and reapplying some of the old leather.

The old leather rolled up for storage.

Cordoba leather wall covering was the height of fashion in the days before wallpaper and even before the fashion for silk damask. It has the advantage of being quite robust, and the embossed and painted Cordoba style is easily as decorative as any textile wall treatment. Later, in the 19th century, the early wallpapers like anaglypta would try to emulate the richly textured medieval and renaissance Spanish leather.

Cordoba leather is crimped, modelled or embossed by pressing the wet leather on to a hot bronze or wooden plate with the pattern engraved into it, or by working the leather from both the back and the front with a punch or spatula. Then the piece is gilded or silvered, painted and the background usually stained red or red-brown. I read something that indicated that the leather used for walls comes from horse skin, but I haven't been able to confirm it. The Cordovan origin of the technique led to the distinction between cordwainers (shoemakers using fine new materials) and cobblers (repairers of humbler footwear, reusing materials).

I bet not many people will even notice there is a new piece.

I asked the man installing it where the reproduction piece had been made. He told me it was not Spanish but had come from Normandy. Apparently, after the expulsion of the Moors from Spain (which ultimately led to the expulsion of anyone not of Spanish Christian background), Normandy and Flanders absorbed many refugees and became one of the centres of the artform, and there are still a few highly skilled workshops operating there today, as well as in Spain and in North Africa. This atelier has a rather good blog with fabulous pictures. This company has done work for Cheverny in the past, but they are based in Paris.

The realisation that Cordoba leather was not just made in Spain and north Africa, and is much more of a generic name for a style of leatherworking than an indication of geographic origin has made me wonder now whether the original leather wall covering at Cheverny was made in France or Spain. I will have to ask the head house steward next time we are there - he knows everything there is to know about the house.

Susan

International Rescue

When I were a lad...

But that's enough of faux Yorkshire-isms. This is about international co-operation, and the way the internet has shrunk the world.

On Wednesday Susan and I climbed into Célestine to drive to Amboise to do some work. On our way we came across a diversion (re-sealing the road to Charnizay), so we followed the diversion signs until Ferriere Larçon, at which stage I decided it might save us time if I found a route that didn't just return us to the road we originally intended to be on.

So I pulled into the parking in front of the church, and pulled out a map. Unfortunately I was a bit sharpish with putting the gear lever into neutral, and this caused the mechanism to lock up. No way could I make the gear lever move. We rang Jean-Louis, but he was attending to family business and couldn't come to perform what he described as "30 seconds work", and although he described the process to Susan over the phone I was unable to make it work.

This was a serious problem, requiring some serious teamwork. While I tried to unblock everything Susan rang Tim to ask if he could (a) come and rescue us and (b) find the phone number of where our client was staying.

Once Tim had arrived we tried together to fathom the instructions we had received, but eventually he and Susan went off to try find a mechanic who could see to the car immediately (without luck). Susan then came to collect me with our other car.

We spent the afternoon visiting various garagistes, all of who were working like fury trying to clear the backlog before they close for holidays on Monday. We also called in on Nicole and Alex, who suggested we contact "rétro-mécanique", Le Grand Pressigny's old car and machinery club. This paid dividends. We rang the president of the club (who was out harvesting) but when we finally made contact he suggested we speak to the people at Ligueil-Auto. So on Thursday afternoon we went to Ligueil, and spoke to the mechanic there.

He said he didn't really "know" tractions, but he rang the bodyshop next door who happened to have a Traction Avant in being rebuilt. This gave him a point of reference and access to the man who had disassembled the car in the shop. We agreed he would collect Célestine and repair the selector.

In the meantime, I emailed a couple of Australian Tractionista friends - Gerry Freed, who lives near Bordeaux, and Leon who is a bloggyfriend. Leon passed my email on his friend Ted (president of the Citroen Classic Owners Club of Australia), who responded immediately (or so it seemed) with the same instructions Jean-Louis had given, but in a language I understand completely. Gerry also responded with helpful hints, all of which I passed on to the mechanic in auto-translated French, along with the relevant section of the revue technique (the manual in French).

Yesterday after lunch, the phone rang. All that international co-operation had paid off, and the mechanic told us we could come and collect Célestine. He reminded us about treating "grand-mere" gently on the gear changes, and off we tootled, like nothing had happened.

Of course, it was really disappointing to have to ring our clients and cancel their day tour of the Loire Valley. It was the first time in 3 years we have had to do that, and it really reinforces the fact that our search for a friend for Célestine needs to take priority. We have saved about 50% of what we need, but the rest will have to come from our emergency money. That will reduce our emergency funds somewhat, but we can justify spending part of our emergency funds to avoid a situation that has the potential to seriously reduce our income.

Anyway then - when I was a kid, Thunderbirds was my absolute favorite TV show. International Rescue has done it again!

Simon

Look Up

Generally, birdwatching in Europe is a waste of time. Generally, the birds are too small, too brown, too hidden in the foliage or too far away.

But every now and then, usually when I am in the company of a proper birdwatcher, I get to see something worthwhile.

Crested Tit.

I think Crested Tits are actually fairly common here, but I'd never seen one before. My impression is that they like conifers, especially cedars. This one is in a Cedar of Lebanon in the park at the Chateau of Chenonceau and was pointed out to me by a birdwatching client in late May.

Nightingale.

Until recently I could not distinguish between the call of a nightingale and a robin, but thanks to a tutorial by Pauline I am now identifying nightingales left, right and centre. They truly are in every bush and tree here, giving it some wellie. I still don't see them very often - no one does - but I know they are there and can tell it's them. To be honest though, I am not sure what the fuss is about. The song is loud, but not that musical. Nevertheless, their iconic status is less surprising than the skylark and its scratchy old gramophone sound. This one was photographed by me in the Brenne in late May while I was showing my sister and brother-in-law around (both keen birdwatchers).

Nuthatches.

Nuthatches I've seen before, even in England, but these two were very cute. I think they might have had a nest in this Cedar of Lebanon at Chenonceau. They are one bird I see quite often there, even scavenging under the picnic tables like a sparrow! They are a lovely agile little bird, with very smart grey and buff plumage.

Susan

The Permeate Hits the Fan

I was first alerted to the gathering storm about permeate by my friend Louisa. She is an American who has lived most of her life in France, but she is, not to put too fine a point on it, a bit of a hippy. As such she is interested in matters of nutrition and the evils of modern food processing, and sent me an article about a substance which, at that stage, hardly anyone had heard of, but the first rumblings of a controversy were starting in Australia and the global nutrition emailing lists.

Raw milk, unpasturised cream and Ste-Maure-de-Touraine
fromage de chevre from my laitiere.

I have long had reservations about fat reduced and homogenised milk, as I believe there is evidence to suggest that there are issues with the smaller size of homogenised fat globules in milk. This means that instead of big fat globules that mostly get passed straight through your digestive system, it seems that the fat from homogenised milk may be easier to absorb. Conversely, to absorb the calcium from milk the fat content has to be right, and reduced fat milk doesn't contain enough fat to allow you to benefit from the calcium.

The sort of thing most people here buy - UHT
and referred to in our house as 'emergency milk'.

Milk from the farm is routinely deconstructed by the milk processing plants and reconstructed to create standardised products. The milk is filtered through finer and finer mesh to first extract the fat, then the protein and finally, the sugars and water (or permeate). Until recently the permeate was a waste product, sold off as animal feed to pig producers. But in Australia it has been permitted to include up to 16% permeate in milk without noting it on the label. The view is that it is a natural component of the milk so there isn't a problem. However, the end result has a higher water and sugar content than milk would naturally - it's just a bulking agent, and a way of discreetly dumping waste. Probably it makes no difference to the average consumer, but I wonder how many lactose intolerants the higher dose of milk sugar has created. The irony now is that several Australian milk processors are trumpeting their plan to produce permeate free milk - but it will be more expensive (presumably because of the requirement to dispose of the permeate in some other way).

Luckily, here in France, I have access to raw whole unhomogenised milk that is delivered to me twice a week by the farmer herself. We don't consume huge amounts of milk - about 3 litres a week. Until I mentioned this consumption level to various friends and family, I thought this was quite a lot of milk, but I am astounded by how much milk the tea drinking Brits get through! Still, I imagine we consume more milk than French couples of our age. We have milk in a cup of coffee and some cereal most days, and regular doses of homemade custard. Lots of French people think of milk solely as something you make riz au lait (rice pudding) with, and would feel distinctly queasy at the thought of drinking it, even in coffee. That's why French households habitually buy UHT milk - the slightly caramelised taste is perfect for puddings, and it just becomes a store cupboard ingredient, like cans of tomatoes (and in French homes, instant mashed potato flakes, but that's another story).

My laitiere (milk woman) tells me that she has less and less demand for the raw milk, but she isn't planning to cease offering it. The few French people who buy it are mainly elderly and don't shop much at supermarkets so they don't have access to the UHT milk. Their solution is to buy the raw milk and immediately boil it. We, on the other hand, recklessly, and with no regard for the myriad of possible diseases and bacteria, consume it straight from the plastic bag.

Susan