Fumigating Wine Barrels

 The other day when we visited Chateau Gaudrelle, Cyril, the maître du chai (cellar master) was fumigating the empty wine barrels. Everything has been bottled now, so he needs to maintain the empty barrels so they don't grow bacteria or fungus over the months before the next harvest.

To do that, he uses sulphur dioxide, applied by burning a small pastille suspended inside the barrel. He had a sort of hook which took the pastille at one end, which he then lit from a candle and placed inside the barrel via the bung hole. The barrel must be sealed up for a few minutes while the pastille burns and spreads its fumes throughout the interior. Then the hook is removed and the remains of the pastille, now just a block of ash, are carefully knocked off on to the floor, making sure none fall into the barrel. The pastilles contain 2.5g of sulphur and must be applied roughly once a month to dry barrels. If the barrels are wet you risk making sulphurous acid, which can lead to the barrels giving a bad taste to the wine.

Cyril showing me the sulphur pastille.

Getting the Chimney Swept

Earlier this month I made an appointment for Pascal the plumber to come and sweep our chimney. We are obliged to get the chimney swept by a professional once a year in order to ensure our house insurance is valid. The professional group entrusted with chimney sweeping in France are the plumbers. Pascal commented that we didn't have a lot of material accumulated in the chimney and was surprised to learn we use the wood stove every day in the winter.

Curiously, in the spring right at the end of the firelighting season, we had a couple of instances of something catching fire in the flue (at least, that's what we assume was happening -- there was a lot of noise of rushing air, and a few sparks and flakes of black material coming out the top). Probably birds dropping twigs down the chimney which then catch fire according to our neighbour.

We asked Pascal about the possibility of fitting a self-regulating trap on the flue, to slow down the draw. He said we could install such a thing, but the payoff is that they rattle.

Wasp and Helleborine

The orchids have more or less finished now in the Touraine Loire Valley, except for one or two late flowering species, such as Autumn Lady's Tresses  Spiranthes spiralis.

The last to flower in our orchard is Broad-leafed Helleborine Epipactis helleborine ssp helleborine, and it is just opening the last few flowers on the top of its tall spike of maybe a hundred individual flowers. The species is pollinated by social wasps, and a couple of weeks ago I photographed a wasp Vespula sp going crazy trying to access the nectar in the flowers. To be honest, I can't believe this particular wasp was doing any pollinating, because the flowers were past their best and I assume would have been fertilised some days earlier. I was surprised to see the wasp so excited and determined, as I would have thought the flowers had stopped producing nectar.

A Waterhole in the Desert

A tiny life saving waterhole in Kings Creek in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Mount Conner

Mount Conner appears out of the desert landscape on the road between Alice Springs and Uluru. It is a horseshoe shaped mesa, from the same geological substrate as underlies Uluru and Kata Tjuta.

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A la cuisine hier: Beef casserole, made with mince, carrots, tomatoes, celeriac, onions and garlic and served with cheesey cauliflower puree.

A More Than Five Hundred Year Old Door

This is one of the pair of 15th century carved oak doors on the north portal of Bourges cathedral. The portal itself is 12th century and the embrasure features a pair of columns in the shape of women (one is visible to the right of the door in the photo above). It is not known for sure what the women represent.

Detail of the carving.

A Visitor From The Alice

Early in July we had a visit from Denise, who I went to school with. It's been so long since we actually saw one another that neither of us can remember when the last time was. We think something like 30 years ago.

The photo was taken at the end of an excellent lunch on the wisteria shaded terrace of the Clos aux Roses in Chédigny.

A Bit Fishy

Do we have any readers who can identify fish species? We would be quite interested to know what these are. Simon photographed them in the river Cher at Chenonceau earlier this month.

The Children of France

The story of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII's marriage is not a happy one. Quite apart from Anne being kidnapped and forced to marry Charles for geo-political reasons, both of them die young and unhappily.

Anne is in part worn down by fighting to keep her beloved Britanny out of the clutches of the French royal family, but also by multiple pregnancies. She is dead before she turns 40.

Charles on the other hand, is just unlucky. Running through the chateau of Amboise to catch a jeu de palme (real tennis) match, he hits his head on a door lintel and some hours later dies of the injury. He is dead before he turns 30.

Saddest of all though are their attempts at parenthood and providing an heir to the throne. All of their children die in infancy and it is clear from contemporary records that both of them felt the loss of the little ones deeply.

The children are buried in Tours Cathedral of Saint Gatien, and their monument is the earliest Italianate sculpture in France. The effigies on top represent their first-born son, Charles Orland, dead at 3 years old from measles, and their next son Charles, who lived less than a month. Charles Orland in particular was doted on by his parents. These effigies are late medieval in style (15th century) made of Carrara marble in the Tours workshop of Michel Colombe. The sarcophagus itself is the work of another sculptor, Girolamo da Fiesole, working in an Italian tradition.

Girolamo employed typical Renaissance motifs such as winged paws, putti, dolphins on each corner, and a frieze featuring scenes from the lives of Hercules and Samson as well as weird mythological combi-beasts such as centaurs and sirens. The dolphins (dauphins in French) presumably reflect the fact that Charles Orland would have been the dauphin of France (crown prince).  Other royal insignia include coats of arms and one of their mother's personal emblems, the cord.

The two sculptors, working in different traditions, have nonetheless achieved a harmonious beauty and the tomb, originally placed in the Basilica of Saint Martin in Tours (now destroyed) in 1506, was a highly influential work of art in the early French Renaissance. Even centuries later, it was regarded as a touching and beautiful work, a sentiment that saved it from the destruction all around it during the Revolution.

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Neonics Extend Their Malign Influence: A paper newly released in Nature by Dutch ecotoxicologists indicates that there is a correlation between neonicotinoid insecticides and declines in farmland bird populations. They are the first to point out that correlation should not be confused with cause, (Bayer is using this argument to defend its product imidacloprid)  but in this case establishing a causal relationship would require extensive and probably unacceptable field experiments (ie deliberately poisoning wild birds). They speculate that the bird populations are declining because insect numbers are declining, thus birds are finding less to eat. It seems that quite low direct doses of neonics (ie if they eat treated seeds) also have a noticeable effect on birds, interfering with their ability to fly. They tested for other correlating factors such as changes in land use, but nothing showed such a close relationship as the decline in bird population since the introduction of imidacloprid in the 1990s. It all points to a cascade of effects that hasn't been seen since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in the 1960s.

The scientists tested for residual neonics in the environment and found that virtually everywhere had high enough levels to cause sub lethal or lethal consequences not just for insects but for birds too. In a way, the previous focus just on bees has not been helpful, because it meant up till now, no one has looked at the bigger picture. Neonics are highly soluble in water and can remain in the soil for long periods of time, possibly accumulating over time or migrating into the wild plant population. They are generally applied as a coating to seeds before planting, and provide a systemic protection against insect damage by making the entire plant toxic to insects -- roots, stems, leaves, flowers, pollen, nectar. They are highly toxic to invertebrates (worms, insects), reptiles and aquatic species (fish, frogs) but break down on exposure to light. A separate independent study concluded "that even when neonicotinoids were used according to the guidelines on their labels and applied as intended, the chemicals' levels in the environment still frequently exceeded the lowest levels known to be dangerous for a wide range of species—and were "thus likely to have a wide range of negative biological and ecological impacts.""

The results reported might seem obvious to regular newspaper reading members of the public. After all, the media has been catastrophising about the decline in pollinators and the evils of neonics in particular for several years now. But this is first time the actual numbers from broader and long term data have been crunched by scientific analysis (as opposed to newspapers selling opinion being reported as fact), and this was not quite the result that was expected by much of the scientific community. The research focus had previously been honey and bumble bees. There was a general feeling amongst scientists that habitat loss was the key issue, not biocides. And in some ways, that remains true. Habitat is being lost, not only by mechanical destruction, but by being poisoned.

The use of neonics is restricted in Europe, but not banned. The most common treatment for ticks on pets is a neonic, and they can still be used in agriculture and horticulture under certain circumstances. In North America there are many reports of so called 'pollinator friendly' and 'butterfly friendly' plants from major nurseries being treated with neonics, as well as seeds of all sorts.

This is a deeply worrying report, indicating that nowhere is safe from infiltration and contamination by neonics. The previous focus on bees has to some extent not been helpful. As Dave Goulson says, it's caused us to miss the bigger picture. Combined with habitat loss it means that the problem for natural ecosystems in Europe is far more widespread and far more serious than even many of the scientists realised.

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Tu or Vous ? : You will no longer have to worry about getting it wrong, with this handy flowchart at your fingertips.

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A la cuisine hier: Fried Rice for lunch, with a few prawns chucked in. Calf's liver with bacon and onion red wine gravy for dinner, served with mashed potatoes, grilled tomato and steamed broccoli.

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Loire Valley Nature: The following butterfly entries have been updated:

• Orange Tip
• Common Blue
• Marbled White
• Meadow Brown
• Silver-washed Fritillary
• Heath Fritillary
• Wall
• Dingy Skipper
• Large Skipper
• Small Skipper
• Grizzled Skipper
• Wood White
• Adonis Blue

Chenonceau At Its Best

We visited Chenonceau earlier this month and Simon took these glorious photos. We were there with my friend Denise, who I went to school with but hadn't seen for nearly 30 years.

Half Way Up Kata Tjuta

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Au jardin hier: I dug all the yellow onions (Stuttgarter Reisen). Since all my potager neighbours seem to have done so this week I figured I had better do it now. Then I weeded the beet bed (chard and beetroot). Then I dug a bed over so it is halfway prepped to take something else -- I'm thinking coriander, green beans and leeks. What do our veggie gardening readers suggest?

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A la cuisine hier: That French summer classic tomates farcies. I also did stuffed red peppers. The stuffing was a commercial pack of pork meat with parsley and garlic. I added more parsley and garlic, some rosemary, a slice of chopped veal liver, salt and the tomato flesh. 

There has been a minor scandal regarding beefheart tomatoes recently in France. Apparently, French supermarkets have realised that French consumers really like heirloom tomato varieties such as coeur de boeuf (beefheart), but these varieties aren't supermarket friendly. So industrial market gardeners have developed a hybrid tomato with a thicker skin that looks just like a beefheart. Unfortunately it doesn't taste of anything. To show I was up to speed with all of this I quizzed the Organic Amazon about her beefhearts and was assured they were the real thing.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Sainfoin Onobrychis viciifolia. This legume with lovely salmon pink flowers was once grown as a fodder plant. Its English name is the French for 'sound (as in healthy) hay'. The scientific name means something like 'vetch leaf that makes donkeys bray', a reference to how much donkeys love to eat the plant.

Where I Grew Up

A video of the agricultural show in the 1960s in the town where I grew up. I don't recognise anyone, but I've no doubt my parents can identify a few people.
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Car News: We picked up Célestine from Doctor Traction yesterday. She has had the pinion and crown wheel in her gearbox replaced, which means Simon now has to do maths whilst driving: the old pinion:crown wheel ratio was 10:31, the new is 9:31, which causes the speedo to read lower than is actually the fact. Although theoretically the speedo should read 10% slower than the speed over the ground, at first glance it just appears to read 10km slow at all speeds (it says she is doing 70kmh, the Renault speedo shows 80kmh following on behind). She also has a new clutch, which has caused even more headaches. The new part turned out to be faulty, but Jean-Louis installed it, tested it and removed it about 4 times before he figured out what the problem was. That part will be returned under guarantee and in the meantime he has installed a clutch from his own personal stock.

We had intended to swap the cars over, as Claudette needs a new silent block, but due to the delay caused by the faulty clutch, Jean Louis can't take her now until mid to late August at the earliest. She is currently running with Jean Louis's brake drums because the same company who supplied the clutch supplied faulty brake drums. He's had them re-engineered and will swap them over when she goes in for her silent block.

We are very relieved to Célestine back!

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry for Spotted Fritillary butterfly Melitaea didyma has been added.

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A la cuisine hier: Inspired by Ken's recent post on Italian style green beans, I made my own version, using the last of the haricots verts sold by the charming Amazon who runs the organic veg stall at the Thursday market in Preuilly. I added some of her tomatoes and tasty green peppers along with home grown onions, garlic, zucchinis and broadbeans.

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Asian Hornet Research: Chris Luck has just posted an outline of some promising research conducted by the François Rabelais University Tours. They have discovered that the native thick-headed fly Conops vesicularis will parasitise and kill the invasive alien Yellow-legged Asian Hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax, and therefore may act as a naturally occurring biological control.

The Roman Amphitheatre in Tours

The garden of the Musée de Beaux Arts in Tours. 

The wall behind the terrace is the remains of the Roman amphitheatre.

The amphitheater, the only [Roman] monument preserved, is unfortunately filled with houses or covered with earth. It was one of the largest in the Empire (143 x 124 m on the axes). The outer height may be calculated as ca. 20 m. The seats, which are cut in the natural rock to the N, rested on vaulted passageways. The walls are faced with limestone rubble with white mortar joints, often trowel-marked, and double courses of brick. Four passageways have been found, placed on the axes of the ellipse; at the entrance they are reinforced with enormous buttresses shaped like semicircular towers about 6 m in diameter. The size of the building and the moderate use of brick indicate that it dates from about the time of Hadrian (117-138). The remains can be reached through the cellars of certain houses.
The 3d c. surrounding wall, an irregular rectangle (ca. 340 x 240 m) enclosed half of the amphitheater on its S side, and formed an enormous bastion that dominated the plain (perimeter 1155 m, area 9.23 ha). The foundations were built of reused material (blocks, columns, capitals); the wall itself was 4.3-4.8 m thick, made of rubble dressed with small blocks of stone and with red mortar and double bands of brick every 7-10 courses. It was flanked with round towers filled with rubble up to the first floor, where small tegular windows were set. Remains can be seen at rue des Ursulines no. 12, the Musée des Beaux-Arts, and the N and S sides of the Cathedral. Source: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites.

From GoogleEarth.
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Preuilly News: The new police station (caserne in French), which includes accommodation for the gendarmes, has been officially opened. It is named after Denis Bonnaudet, a local policeman during the Second World War who became a member of the Resistance, captured by the Nazis in July 1944 and died in a deportation camp in April 1945. His two daughters were present at the inauguration ceremony.

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Au jardin hier: I weeded the potato bed -- took me 2 hours. I also dug the remaining white onions. They've formed bulbs the size of large marbles to golf ball size, so not huge, but good quality and no sign of onion fly. The yellow onions are ready to pull too, but they will hold a bit. The tomatoes are thriving, but I am slightly concerned about pollination levels. There was plenty of honey bee action, in the flowers that have come from a sowing of Vilmorin's 'biodiversity seed mix', and in the Virginia creeper, but honey bees can't pollinate tomatoes (or peppers, aubergines, chillies, zukes or cukes). My impression is that although the year began well for bumbles and solitaries, they are now much less visible and active. However, something has been pollinating the zucchini and the gherkin, so perhaps the slow development of fruit is more down to the recent lack of sun.

House Martins at Chenonceau

Every year these little birds fly in from Africa to nest on the Chateau of Chenonceau and other buildings in the Touraine Loire Valley. In French they are called les hirondelles de fênetre (='window swallows'), in English they are House Martins. Their scientific name is Delichon urbicum. 

In general, just as at Chenonceau, property owners leave them to get on with nesting, and they return year after year to the same mud nest, repairing it as necessary for the next year's brood (or broods, as they may have more than one if they are quick off the mark). Where one nests, others will join to form a colony.

They can be distinguished from other similar species by their white rump. 'Aerial plankton', tiny flies and aphids caught on the wing form the bulk of their diet. 

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French Expression: Parti en fumée = gone up in smoke. I heard this twice in one evening recently from different interviewees on different subjects on current affairs programmes. An expression of their frustration with how life and politics in France is heading.

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Quiz Results: The mystery chateau has not been openly identified by anyone, but I know Liselle knows it, as she was standing next to me when I took the photos. To find out where it is, go to the post.

The Streets of Bourges

Recently we went to Bourges and enjoyed this small city very much. Bourges is situated about 2 hours east of us. Here are some pictures of the centre ville.

A street in the really old quarter of town.

 I forget what this building is (the old Palais de justice maybe?) It's medieval anyway.

 I liked the juxtaposition of old and new here.

 A typical shopping street.

 A 15th century church.

Mystery Chateau

 5 points to anyone who can correctly identify this chateau.
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French Expression: Tout simplement = quite simply. Magazine programme and current affairs interviewees use this phrase a lot on the telly.  If they are talking about politics, French or Australian, at the moment, C'est tout simplement une honte! (= 'It's quite simply a disgrace!').

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A la cuisine hier: Cottage pie, with mushrooms in with the meat and carrots in with the mash, served with steamed green beans grown by our local organic market gardeners. Followed by home made raspberry sorbet, using fruit grown by our aged orchard neighbour.

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Quiz Results: This is the Chateau of Saint Florent sur Cher. The first photo shows the 19th century front, the second photo the late medieval gatehouse. It's not a Touraine Loire Valley chateau, but located in the old province of Berry (the modern départements of Cher, Indre and part of Vienne) right bang slap in the centre of France, between Chateauroux and Bourges. The chateau now serves as the town hall.

Liselle knows where it is because she was with us when we visited. As a result I don't think I can fairly award points. Jean wanted to know if she could visit and the answer is you can visit the grounds which have lovely views of the chateau and the river, but the interior of the chateau is office space (which you could get to see if you had business with the town hall).

Not Made for Walking

I really don't think these boots were made for walking...

Made by a master shoe and boot maker in the mid-19th century.

This one is tiny stones glued to cardboard.

Made in Bordeaux in 1865 the design shows Garibaldi mounted on horseback, triumphant after defeating the Austrians.

The second was created at Saint Etienne in 1839. It is 'seamless', ornamented with figures sewn on leather from women's hair, glorifying the Emperor Napoleon I.

These boots are part of the collection on show at the Musée de Compagnonnage in Tours.

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French Expression: Eventuel, éventuelle = possible. As you can see, this is a 'false friend' as it does not mean 'eventual'. Perhaps most commonly encountered on food labelling, in the form of 'traces éventuelles de gluten' and the like. This is the equivalent of the English labelling 'possible traces of gluten', 'produced in a factory that handles nuts', or 'may contain traces of soy'.

At the Base of Kata Tjuta

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French Expression: Je regarde = I'm (just) looking / browsing. A very useful little phrase this one. It's polite and effective at heading off salespeople in shops when they approach.

Kata Tjuta Panorama

Kata Tjuta is a rock formation in the Northern Territory of Australia.
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French Expression: La permanence n'est pas assurée = the office is not manned; no one is on duty. Etre en permanence is 'to be on call'. The opening phrase is one I see more often than not on our town hall (mairie) noticeboard in relation to the absence of our town's weekly service visit by someone from the tax office based in Descartes. It is clear they don't really want to provide the service any more.

The Musée de Compagnonnage, Tours

The Musée de Compagnonnage (Trade Guilds Museum) in Tours houses a remarkable collection of master works by journeymen and master craftsmen in all sorts of fields -- carpentry, ropemaking, baking, silk weaving, harness making, boot and shoe making, wheelwrighting, blacksmithing, locksmithing, masonry and more. Some of the objects are quite fantastical, others are just beautiful examples of their craft. In addition to the master works themselves there is a myriad of documents and auxiliary artefacts which tell the story of the various guilds and how they developed and operated.

 Architectural models from the carpenters' guild.

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French Expression: Jaunâtre = yellowish; blanchâtre = whitish; verdâtre = greenish; noirâtre = blackish; rougeâtre = reddish; bleuâtre = bluish. You get these types of adjectives a lot in French field guides.

Villandry in the Sun

All photos taken mid-June 2014.

Villandry's visitor numbers are up by 8% this year, with 10 000 more visitors already than this time last year. They envision these figures holding for the year and next year will start a major (3 million euro) project to alter and improve the entrance to the site and the parking area. Over the past 30 years roughly 15 million euros have been invested in restoring the chateau and grounds (roofs, retaining walls, etc).

Last year Villandry had 350 000 visitors, compared to the most popular of the Touraine Loire Valley chateaux, Chenonceau, which got 850 000. Chambord got 750 000 and Azay le Rideau 320 000.

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French Expression: Une dizaine = ten or so. Une dizaine d'années is a decade. Des centaines = hundreds. Une bonne centaine is 'at least a hundred'. Une quinzaine = fifteen or so, eg il y avait une quinzaine de personnes (= there were about 15 people). Une quinzaine can also be a fortnight.

A Glowing Report

In mid-June Simon found a female glow-worm Lampyris noctiluca doing her thing on the deck of the mobile home we had rented for the week at Ville aux Dames. We have them in the orchard and I quite often encounter the larvae, but neither of us had ever seen an adult before.

Photographed with flash.

 Without flash.

A larvae, photographed in April last year.

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French Expressions: Tout sous la main = everything to hand. I wrote this down as a useful phrase I heard while watching television. I'm fairly sure it was a cookery show.

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A la cuisine hier: Walnut and Kidney Bean Spread, from Susan Voisin on FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I love bean dips and spreads and this one is a bit different and quite good. I served it on slices of baguette, along with tapenade on baguette, followed by a tomatoey couscous dish.

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Au jardin hier: I harvested the garlic yesterday. It has divided properly and formed quite sizable bulbs, despite the mild winter. I pulled some more white onions and picked the few berries that were ready (a tayberry and a few loganberries). The tomatoes, potatoes and chard are thriving. I picked a bag full of chard. We have a real mixture of varieties, thanks to seedlings from Potager Queen Pauline. Two of the plants are like wild seabeet, which is a real favourite with me. I pulled up the broad beans, which have finished. The coriander has gone to seed. The peppers and one of the aubergines are flowering. A gherkin had escaped my notice and has turned into a miniature watermelon lookalike. The zucchini has started to bear.

The sour cherries have been left too long and are now spoiled. I just didn't have the energy to deal with them earlier. The Black Hamburg grape has gone triffid and has huge leaves and quite sizeable grapes already.

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Bee Hotel: Ed Phillips, who writes an excellent blog about the wildlife he photographs in Warwickshire has provided an update on the progress of his extremely stylish and successful bee hotel which I thought some of our readers might be interested in.

The Nature of July in the Touraine Loire Valley

Longhorns to Look Out For:

Wasp Beetle Clytra arietas.
Here hiding amongst the nashis in our orchard, but usually more visible on bramble flowers and fence posts or other bare untreated timber.

Stictoleptura cordigera, a common and distinctive visitor to flowers at this time of year.

July is one of the warmest and sunniest months of the year here.

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French Expressions: Actuel, actuelle = current; actuellement = currently. This is one of the most commonly encountered 'false friends' in my experience. English speakers speaking French use actuellement when they mean en fait or vraiment (me included if I'm not careful). French speakers speaking English use 'actual' when they mean 'current'. For instance, I might inadvertently say 'Actuellement, je ne le connais pas' when talking about someone I don't know, but this would translate as 'At present I don't know him'. I guess this just about makes sense, but isn't what I thought I said. What I should have said is 'En fait, je ne le connais pas'. Likewise, Clément, one of the interns at Chateau Gaudrelle, might say 'The actual owner is Alexandre Monmousseau'. Again, it just about makes sense, but what he meant was 'The current owner is Alexandre Monmousseau'. In Clément's defense though I should point out that English is his third language and his Spanish is way better than mine.