The Renaissance Supermen

This portrait of Francois I at Chambord makes it clear to those of us who concentrated on English history at school and barely skimmed over the French that he is an exact contemporary of Henry VIII of England. (It helps of course to have done some costume or art history in the meantime too.) The two men were born within a few years of one another and died the same year. Neither were the expected heir to the throne when they were born. Both were very big men, physically, for their time, being 6' or more. Very sporty and active, both were handsome charmers in their youth, although increasingly crotchety with age and accumulated medical problems. They famously met on the Field of the Cloth of Gold* to cook up an alliance to keep their other great contemporary, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Spain, at bay.

Susan

*I have heard a story that the Cloth of Gold itself was woven in Tours, but I cannot find a reliable source for that information.

Through a Glass

A view through one of the oldified windows in the Chateau of Chambord.

The Connection Between Cold and Gigantism

This huge Polish ceramic stove is one of three installed at Chambord by the Marechal de Saxe. He was appointed Superintendent of the Chambord Hunt in 1745 by King Louis XV and then obliged to live in the by this time run down royal chateau. He spent his personal fortune on renovations, purchasing the stoves in a vain attempt to keep at least some of the rooms warm.

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There is an outing to learn about lichens at the Etangs de Narbonne on Sunday 25 November. Meet at 14.00 in the carpark of the Maison-pour-tous at Joué-les-Tours (from Boulevard Jean-Jaures, turn at MacDonalds in rue de la Douzillere. The Maison-pour-tous is at the base of the water tower.) The lichens collected will be identified at the end of the afternoon by experts from the Association de botanique et mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. €3 per person.

Arc de Triomphe

 The Arc de Triomphe is fantastic entertainment value. We can spend at least an hour standing on the side of the road watching the traffic negotiate the Etoile. Traffic from 12 major avenues feed into the roundabout, which is 10 lanes wide. The Magic Roundabout in Swindon eat your heart out!

Tourists gather at the edge of the Etoile ('Star') as the junction is known.

Contrary to normal roundabout rules, at the Arc de Triomphe traffic entering the system has priority, which means that traffic on the roundabout must give way to cars moving in from their right. French car insurance policies come in two types -- those that specifically exclude the Arc de Triomphe roundabout and those that include it. The latter are all on the basis of no blame equal share payouts.

Dignitaries being whisked to lunch in big luxury Citroens with a Republican Guard motorcycle escort through the roundabout. We encountered them a bit later at a fancy hotel restaurant, but we chose to have lunch around the corner in rue Miromesnil.

In addition to exclaiming at the courage of cyclists serenely pedalling through the chaos, gasping at the foolhardiness of ducking and diving scooter riders and being thankful that it isn't you out there, you can watch the gypsy woman working the gold ring scam or the young Australian musicians in crazy costumes making a video for their latest single.

High-End Shopping

Peugeot 402 convertible from the inter-war period.

Each of the big three French car manufacturers has a showroom on the Champs-Elysées. You never know what they will be displaying -- it can range from the very latest concept cars to rare and fabulous classics.

Pimp My Roof

You would think that the major attraction of Chambord was the fiendishly clever double helix staircase, but in fact, since it is impossible to a proper idea of how the famous staircase works without looking at a diagram rather than the real thing, the true glory for the visitor is being able to wander about on the spendiferous roof looking up at the many turrets, domes and chimneys, and out over the equally splendiferous views of the hunting park.

The View From the Roof

Looking down the canal from the roof of the Chateau of Chambord.

Chateau de Marmande, Vienne

Driving around one day we came across this impressive medieval structure. It can be seen for quite a distance and is clearly something a bit special and unusual. On returning home we discovered that our friends at Braye-sous-Faye had beaten us to it and written about their visit quite a while ago.

The buildings turn out to be the Chateau de Marmande. The place is near the village of Velleches in the Vienne, so not to be confused with the Cathar fortress of the same name in Lot et Garonne.

According to French Wikipedia, it is an exceptional collection of fortifications from the 12th and 17th centuries, adorning the plateau of an escarpment. The castle keep and the 40m high staircase tower were constructed to a very high quality. In addition, the chateau has a significant underground network of galleries, restored, but not open to the public.

Burping Batraciens

It seems a little odd for a king to choose a small, slimy, rarely seen amphibian (sometimes referred to as les batraciens in French) as an emblem*. Even stranger for them to be depicted throughout Chambord as belching out a stream of bubbles. In other chateaux they are shown breathing fire, like a dragon, but here at Chambord, they are burping. Too rich a diet in those heady Renaissance days?

This one is on some old decorative stone carving from the roof which has been brought in from the weather and is now housed under the coach house.

 This one is on a fine old panelled door in the Francois I section of the chateau.

Susan

*The salamander in legend is said to be somewhat like the phoenix, able to survive unscathed or rise up out of the fire. The modern theory for the reason behind this reputation is that salamanders, which are native to the Loire area, like to live in dark, damp places, such as the firewood pile. When the log sheltering a salamander is placed on the fire the salamander scurries out - surviving the fire unscathed...thus making it a fine emblem for a powerful monarch such as Francois I.

Grapey Goodness

Finally, last Friday, I managed to get my act together sufficiently to strip the grapevine of its fruit. There was 5 - 6 kg of dark purple grapes. Thanks to the loan of a juicer from Tim and Pauline I made half into about a litre of tangy ruby coloured fresh juice. Simon made the other half into 5 jars of wine dark jelly.

Célestine at Chanceaux

Célestine parked by the chapel at Chanceaux-pres-Loches.

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There is a fungi foray to the Etangs de Narbonne on Saturday 17 November. Meet at 14.00 in the carpark at the Maison-pour-tous at Joué-les-Tours (from Boulevard Jean-Jaures turn at MacDonalds in rue de la Douzillere. The Maison-pour-tous is at the base of the water tower.) The fungi gathered will be identified by experts from the Association de botanique et mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine at the end of the afternoon. €3 per person.

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Tomorrow is Orange for Orangutan day. Please support the conservation groups and individuals raising money to save this gravely endangered and thoroughly endearing species. Wear orange, do something creative in the kitchen with orange ingredients and give generously if anyone near you is staging an event. You can also give directly by going online to Just Giving.

A French senator is (somewhat inadvertently) doing his bit by proprosing a 300% increase on the tax for palm oil. If it goes through it will be a nice little earner for the central coffers, specifically the state health insurance pot, and the aim is also to reduce the quantity of this widely used saturated fat consumed. The tax has been dubbed the Nutella Tax, as this popular spread is eaten in vast quantities here and contains about 20% palm oil. A by-product of this tax will hopefully be some respite for the rainforest habitat of the orangutans, currently being clearfelled to make way for vast palm oil monocultures in Borneo, Sumatra and Indonesia.

The new tax would apply equally to other imported fats, such as coconut oil, and bring them up to the level of locally produced olive oil. With any luck it will therefore result in traditional products such as savon de Marseille being made once again from locally produced fats. Savon de Marseille (an old fashioned, but extremely popular, soap) has no geographic protection or manufacturing specifications because with such an extremely old and traditional product that has become so widespread it is no longer practical to legislate.

Sadly, the Health Minister, Marisol Touraine (previously the leader of our local Conseil Général for Indre et Loire) is not enthusiastic, and although it will be debated in the Senate it is unlikely to be passed.

Saint Martin's Donkey

The big saint here is Saint Martin, a 4th century, Hungarian born, Roman soldier who legend says cut his cloak in two and gave half to a beggar. In his dream that night the beggar was revealed to be Christ and Martin realised he had to quit the Roman army and serve God. He became a famous hermit and then, by popular acclaim, Bishop of Tours. Marmoutier, the monastery he built on the banks of the Loire just outside Tours is still there, albeit with buildings renewed and now a school.

A donkey - probably not Saint Martin's.

He was a thoroughly peregrinatious type, constantly travelling throughout his diocese on his donkey and this aspect of his life is remembered in the Chemins de Saint Martin pilgrim trails. He is credited with bringing from Hungary the Chenin Blanc grape used in Vouvray and Montlouis, either side of the Loire near Marmoutier. Consequently, he is not only the patron saint of beggars, soldiers, tailors and equestrians, but also vintners, innkeepers, alcoholics and ... geese.

Heading for the vines?

His donkey gets its own 15 minutes of fame though. The story goes that it was partial to eating the grape vines that Saint Martin had brought back from Hungary. Saint Martin noticed that the grapes these vines produced made better wine that those from the vines the the donkey couldn't reach, and the vines were more robust and healthier. Thus the practice of pruning vines was invented and has been practiced ever since.


(Yesterday was Saint Martin's Day, the anniversary of his burial in Tours in 397.)

A War Memorial in the Paris Metro

The plaque says:

War Memorial

Sculptor: Carlo Sarrabezolles 1931

Created in 1931 in memory of the Metropolitan Railway employees who died for France, this monument is adorned with a caryatid in black marble at the heart of a semi-circle on which is inscribed the names of the employees who died during the First World War.

The base carries the names of the battlefields from 1914-1918.

After the Second World War the word 'Liberation' was added, to underline the participation of the employees in the Resistance network.

The memorial is in Richelieu-Drouot station.

Susan

The Cavalry's on its Way

While we were in Paris in September we happened to be walking past the Elysée Palace (the official residence of the French President) just before the arrival of the President of Azerbaijan for a meeting with Francois Hollande. A troop of the Republican Guard cavalry were forming up. They are the only horse mounted troops remaining in the French armed forces according to my internet researches, but this day they were sans les chevaux, malheureusement.

They lined up, got their rhythm and then quick marched in through the gate. Their officers ambled in after them. Cavalrymen always look ever so slightly ridiculous and self-conscious when unmounted.

I love the luxuriant ponytails on their helmets -- very swords and sorcery warrior class. These flowing locks are apparently exactly what they look like -- horse tails. The day we saw the Republican Guard they were wearing the version of the uniform that includes blue riding breeches. There seems to be very few photographs of them in this combination, so we are curious to know what the criteria for appearing in the various uniforms are. The three different units of the Republican Guard cavalry ride different coloured horses -- do they also wear different coloured breeches? Or is it the difference between summer and winter uniforms? Any militaria or costume buffs amongst our readers who can shed any light? The non-cavalry troops in the Republican Guard wear blue trousers and peaked caps, not riding breeches and shiny plumed helmets.

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There is a fungi foray in the Foret de Chinon today. Meet at 14.00 at the Carrefour Charles VII (from the carrefour de La Pucelle, take the route forestiere towards Rivarennes, on your right if you are coming from Tours).  All the fungi will be identified at the end of the afternoon by mycology experts from the Association de botanique et mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. €3 per person.

More Mushrooms

Here is a small selection of the fungi we saw in the Foret de Preuilly on 4 November. Colin and Elizabeth joined us and have already blogged about it (twice).

 In Jean Bouton's left hand, the highly regarded edible species Caesar's Mushroom Amanita caesarea. In his right hand, possibly the most iconic mushroom of them all, the Fly Agaric A. muscaria, only eaten by thrill seekers and the foolhardy. Don't get them mixed up!

 Leafy Brain Tremella foliacea -- just like silicone sealant.

 Orange Peel Fungus Aleuria arancea.

 Stocking Webcap Cortinarius torvus (Cortinaire à chaussette in French).

 Upright Coral Ramaria stricta (Clavaire droite in French).

Think this looks like a tasty Field Mushroom Agaricus campestris? Think again. This is a Yellow Stainer A. xanthodermus, clearly showing the strong yellow stain formed when the base of the stem is cut. This mushroom will not kill you, but your digestive system will not thank you for sending it through and will try to eject it as quickly and violently as possible.

Fraussie Grouet, a keen mushroom forager who writes the blog Aussie in France, asked me if I could find out from the experts what their opinion was on cutting or pulling as a method of gathering mushrooms, and so I put the question to Jean Bouton. He said he knew there was two schools of thought, but he would recommend taking the whole thing. His reasoning is that it does no significant harm to the fruiting bodies remaining and you are sure that you can make an identification if you have all of it. For ceps, he thought it was a reasonable compromise to cut them as low as possible, but it wasn't really best practice. Covering the remnants of the cut stem served no real purpose according to him.

Mincing Across the Road*

 Apparently Charles de Gaulle did not wish statues of himself erected, but in 2000 his family decided to relent, giving permission for this one and several now exist in other countries. This one is on the Champs-Elysées by le Grand Palais near Métro Clemenceau (totally overshadowing the nearby statue of Clemenceau himself, which is disreetly positioned on a rock under a tree on the side of the road near the Métro entrance).

There is an inscription which reads:

Paris
Paris outragé
Paris brisé
Paris martyrisé
Paris liberé

 Which I would translate as:

Paris
Paris violated**
Paris shattered
Paris martyred
Paris freed

They are the opening words of his speech to the crowd on the liberation of Paris, 26 August 1944.

 

 There is no question that de Gaulle was a great Frenchman, who played a vital role as such during the Second World War. I just wonder how much of his reluctance to have a statue is down to his unfortunate pear-shaped figure and how much is down to regrets about Algeria and other colonial wars. Quite likely it is neither of these things -- he was such a patriot that he may have genuinely believed that it was France herself that should be celebrated and honoured, not individuals such as himself.

Believe it or not, these photos were all taken on the same day, within minutes of one another, by Simon in mid-September.

*Thanks to Jonathan Meades this is how I will aways think of this statue. According to a fellow blogger friend, there are three people from French history that you cannot criticise -- Joan of Arc, Napoleon Bonaparte and le Grand Charles. What's the French for fatwah? I may have to go into hiding...

**Usually translated as 'Paris outraged', but I think 'violated' gives a better sense.

Le Tour Saint-Jacques, Paris

The Tour Saint-Jacques (Saint James' Tower) is the last remnant of a 16th century church built in central Paris (4eme arrondissement) in the reign of Francois I in the Flamboyant Gothic style. 

One of the statues on the side of the tower is Saint Roch. He is a saint much associated with pilgrim routes and the tower is one of the starting points for the pilgrim route first to Tours and then on to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. You can identify Saint Roch because he holds a staff and is accompanied by a dog. Usually he is displaying a wound on his leg too.

The Angel of Saint Matthew atop one corner of the tower.

The Lion of Saint Luke sits high up on another corner. I suspect the fetching cranial lightening rods are not original.

These lovely sinous gargoyles leer in gormless horror at you from a great height (c50 m).

The Wiki entry on the Tower is well written and informative if you want more details of its history.

Les Invalides at Dusk

Taken from Place du Trocadéro at about 8pm in mid-September, l'Eglise du Dome (which houses the tomb of Napoléon I) with the dome of the Panthéon further over to the left. L'Eglise du Dome is part of l'Hotel des Invalides, the vast military hospital complex built by Louis XIV and now still a hospital and residence for wounded war veterans, but also housing the Musée de l'Armée (the Army Museum) and offices for the Armed Forces. The Panthéon is the final resting place of many great French men (and the occasional great French woman).

A Classic Paris Scene

A classic view of central Paris, taken from the Tuileries gardens, looking past the Luxor obelisk (one of three known as Cleopatra's Needles, in Paris, London and New York) in Place de la Concorde, down the sweep of the Champs-Elysées and through the Arc de Triomphe to la Grande Arche in la Défense beyond.

Une Manifestation

Fraussie Grouet remarked on her blog recently that Aussies love to shorten words. It's true. We eat brekkie in the morning, have a cup of coffee and a biscuit for mornos mid-morning and arvo tea mid-afternoon*. We wear our sunnies on bright fine days and cook on the barbie outdoors. The habit seems to be accelerating too. We've noticed that firemen have become firies in the 15 years since we left, for instance.

We Australians are not the only ones though. The French shorten many words. You often see or hear resto for restaurant, organic produce is bio(logique), eco-friendly is écolo(gique) and economical is éco(nomique).

We were walking through le Parc des Buttes Chaumont in Paris one day and could hear a commotion coming from in front of the nearby Town Hall. A group of demonstrators had gathered to protest about the lack of social housing in the area. I can't read their banner except to note that they are a collective, angry and (something) is a right. A French couple walking in the opposite direction to us also noticed the protest -- 'Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ? Oh, c'est une manif...' (What's happening? Oh, it's a demo...)

*You will also hear these short breaks referred to as smoko, although it is probably now considered quite old-fashioned.

Ice Wine Anyone?

 We've now had several frosts, with temperatures going down to -3C overnight once or twice. The grape vines in the orchard have now shed all their leaves, but there are still unpicked bunches of fruit hanging from increasingly wizened stalks.

The frost doesn't harm the fruits, in fact it may even make them sweeter. There is so much sugar already in each berry that they don't freeze and turn to mush. Here in the Loire there isn't really a tradition of making ice wine from the frosted grapes, but I can continue to enjoy my table grapes for a few more days yet. Soon the sap will recede to such an extent that the stalks will give out and the bunches will all fall to the ground, but before that happens, I'll be making an attempt to eat them myself. Anything remaining I am happy to donate to the wildlife..

Going Behind the Fox's Tail

My friend Sweetpea, who lives in Angles-sur-l'Anglin, contacted me several weeks ago to say there was a new nature reserve in Angles that she thought I would like to see, and she particularly wanted to show me the very nice information board that had gone up to tell visitors what was so special about the site.

The trail through the woods.

So one fine crisp morning a few days ago (Tuesday, in fact) I drove over to Angles and we set off on foot from Sweetpea's house. We decided to go the indirect route and meandered out of Angles along various old rights of way before swinging back through some woods and ending up at the new reserve.

Trailside sign.

The site just looks like any other smallish field of unimproved pasture at this time of year. It's been mowed for hay and is uniformly shortish green grass. The excellent info board tells you what the real story is though. This is genuine pelouse ie flower rich grassland on calcareous soil. Most importantly, this is pelouse sèche (dry, usually calcareous, grassland), with very shallow topsoil on a south facing site. Although we in the central Loire Valley take this habitat a little bit for granted, in global terms it is one of the rarest and most threatened. A number of the plants which thrive here will grow in no other habitat. This site is home to nearly 15 species of orchids and the very rare Wild Paeony. Of course, where you get a very particular plant assemblage, you also get a very specialised set of insects too.

Tar Spot Rhytisma punctatum (a fungus) on fallen Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus leaves lining the trail.

The info board also points out that the term pelouse is used rather loosely by most people, and that what you mow in your backyard should more properly be called gazon (lawn). That's because the plant assemblage, underlying soil and aspect is usually nothing like genuine pelouse, even though they both may look like an expanse of short mown grass. The board also mentions that mowing your lawn (tonte) is different to cutting your pelouse (fauchage). In fact, it is that very regular and close mowing that turns a pelouse into a gazon. Pelouse is only mowed once a year, in the late summer or autumn.

Sweetpea and I were fascinated by this Dog Lichen Peltigera cf canina, growing on a moss covered tumbledown stone field wall opposite the nature reserve. When I first saw it I couldn't decide if it was a lichen or a fungus. Lichens are actually composite organisms, with one of the symbiotic partners often being a fungus, so my confusion is perhaps justified, as it turns out this is a lichenised fungus.  

As well as all this good natural history information, we also learnt a new word - vergogne. The board tells us that the plants are rare and threatened -- à ne pas cueillir mais à photographier sans vergogne -- 'not for picking, but photograph without qualms'.

Derrière la Queue du Renard nature reserve in late October - you might never guess what treasures it is nuturing now, to show off in spring.

The site bears the curious name of Derrière la queue du renard ('Behind the Fox's Tail'). There is a street in Angles called la queue du renard, and if you follow it from the village centre it leads you out to the Roc-aux-Sorciers museum. Follow the road beyond that and you get to the driveway of the Chateaux de Certeaux and the new nature reserve.

What people mostly come to Angles to see -- the ruined medieval castle on the falaise (cliff).

All in all an intriguing and precious site. I will be sure to be back in the spring.

Véronique Mauclerc, Baker

 I was delighted to discover several years ago that 'our' hotel in Paris is just around the corner from one of the finest boulangeries / patisseries in the city. Mostly the bakeries here are so good that one simply frequents the closest, but there are a few bakers people will make an effort to patronise from time to time, even crossing town to get to. Véronique Mauclerc's establishment in rue Crimée is one of them.

Female bakers are a little bit unusual in France, and Véronique's bakery is where it is because that is where the big brick wood fired ovens built in 1804 are. She cannot dismantle the ovens and set up shop anywhere she likes. If she wants to bake in these rather special ovens, she must make the best of her location. The area is quite residential and centred on the Parc des Buttes Chaumont so it's not like she's out in some banlieue (suburb) but it is double digits (19eme arrondissement).

You can just get a glimpse of the ovens through the open door.

The flour she uses is organic and the oven fueled by oak and ash wood. She makes a wide variety of breads and pastries. On the day we were there in September the bread selection included marjoram, fig, pepper and olives, pain de mie, brioche, fouace (made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, walnuts, cinnamon and saffron), 100% spelt and black bread (made from rye flakes, rye sourdough and sunflower seeds) as well as the ubiquitous baguette. The bread is all sold by weight (the marjoram bread is €10.40/kg for instance).

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There is a Fungi Foray on Sunday 4 November in the Foret de Preuilly. Meet at the Etang de Ribaloche at 2.00 pm. I am planning to be there and there will be expert mycologists to identify all the mushrooms picked at the end of the afternoon. The focus will be on fungi in general, not just foraging for edible varieties. €3 per person.

The Orthodox Theology Institute

The area in which we stay in Paris is extra-ordinarily multi-cultural and we are continually finding new things of interest there. On our last visit, in September to meet up with Uncle Geoffrey and Auntie Pat, we discovered the Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge. Apparently it is the oldest Orthodox theology institute in Western Europe, and has an important library containing old Russian books as well as modern texts in a variety of languages. There is also a parish church for the Orthodox community and they train priests and theologians to Doctorate level both on campus and through a distance learning programme, as well as run courses on iconography and liturgical singing.