Manoir de Sansac, Loches

Loches is and was a town with a small population, but important despite its small size. It was (and is) a centre for tax collection, and situated on a major national crossroad.  In the 16th century, when the Manoir de Sansac was constructed, the population of Loches was about 3000 inhabitants. Today it is around 7000 inhabitants.

The Manoir de Sansac stands in rue du Docteur Martinais in Loches. It was built of tuffeau (limestone) in 1529 for Louis Prévost de Sansac, Grand Falconer of France and loyal personal friend of François I. He participated with distinction at the Battle of Pavia in 1525, and was taken prisoner by the Spanish alongside his monarch.

The glazed terracotta portrait of François I above the front door.

Sansac is hidden from the road and only open to the public a few days of the year. Even then it's just access to the grounds. Simon spotted that there would be a free guided tour in early September, so Niall, Antoinette and I turned up at the appointed hour. We were quite surprised by the size of the crowd that had already gathered. A guide from the heritage department spoke about the history of the house and Loches at the time of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor's stopover here, when he met François I and they travelled together to Paris. Tradition has it that it was at Sansac that Charles and François met on the night of 12 December 1539, although they seem to have slept at the chateau.

In 1539 Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, needed to get to Ghent in a hurry. He was based in Madrid, so despite the fact that he and François I had issues (over Pavia, Milan, Burgundy...) Charles applied to François to travel through France as the quickest way of getting to his troublesome territories in the Low Countries. François, unwell and unable to ride, grudgingly agreed. He travelled down as far as Loches to meet Charles. The locals were told to put on a spectacular to impress the Pope's appointed defender of the Catholic faith and they set up a fabulous pyrotechnical display of burning effigies of phoenixes and salamanders (the emblems of the two kings). The citizens of Loches were well rewarded financially for their efforts, receiving 400 livres. On the other hand, François and Charles did not exchange gifts and there was no banquet, due to the personal coolness between the two men.  

The Manoir de Sansac photographed from inside the grounds, situated on one of the channels of the Indre River between Loches and Beaulieu-lès-Loches.

The manor building originally comprised just a single range between two gables set at either side of a rectangular footprint. It was then enlarged by the addition of two short wings. The facade is broken by six mullioned windows surrounded by pilasters with capitals ornamented in volutes, cornucopia and the heads of angels. A twin curved staircase gives access to the front door, over which is the head of François I and an inscription which reads 'François de Valois, roi de France, premier de ce nom, âgé de trent-quatre ans'. The original medallion in glazed terracotta is reputed to be the best likeness anywhere of the king. It was probably made by the workshop of the potter Girolamo della Robbia. The one you can see today on the house is a copy. The original was sold and sent to the United States in the early 20th century. It was gifted in 1941 by George Blumenthal to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. He was described by the guide who led the visit as 'un grand collectionneur américain'.

The house was listed as a historic monument in 1927 and is currently privately owned.  I gather it was the current owner who had the copy of the terracotta portrait of François made, in 1991. The copy is not entirely true to the original, as it was made from a drawing rather than the real thing. The crown is not there on the original and there are some errors in the inscription. Nevertheless the copy is considered rather good. The original can be seen next autumn, on loan to the National Museum of the Renaissance in the Chateau of Ecouan. The Chateau of Fontainebleau also has a copy, made from a mould of the original.

Central internal staircase tower. 

The design is similar to the Chateau of Azay-le-Rideau.

An engraving from 1841 shows there were no angels either side of the front door like there are today. They hold shields with the Bridieu family arms on the right side and the Luzarche family arms on the left. The Luzarche family are connected to the nearby Chateau of Azay-le-Ferron and presumably married into the Bridieu family. The Bridieu family were the 20th century owners prior to the current owners. They installed the stained glass, which came from the well known workshop of Loubin in Tours. The intitials LB in the window by the entrance stand for Louis Bridieu.

Mullioned windows with leaded lights are not original, 

but the frieze with blank rondels is.

Also in the 1841 engraving there are no mullions in the windows. Were they replaced or has the house been 'enhanced' and romanticised? Service stairs have been added at the back but there were 19th century alterations too and it is not clear from existing drawings of the place exactly what work the Bridieu's undertook and what is earlier. Whoever is responsible we are left with an overlay of typical 19th century style pastiche on a genuine early Renaissance building that stylistically was a crossover between the late medieval (asymetric facade) and the renaissance (straight ramp on ramp internal staircase).

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Loire Valley Nature: An entry has been added for Beefsteak Fungus Fistulina hepatica. This edible fungi is best eaten raw and marinated in vinaigrette according to my friend Paul, but it is not a species he rates very highly for the table.

Apple Cider Jelly

In the unending quest to use up the billion trillion apples in our pantry I have reprised a jelly recipe that I came up with to use a surfeit of strawberries in a previous year. The campaign to use apples is slowly showing results and I am down to three big trays and three small trays.

Ingredients
8 leaves gelatine, soaked in 2 tbsp cold water
1 cup sugar
1½ cups hot water
½ cup clear apple juice
2 apples with red skin
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup sweet sparkling cider, chilled

Method

1. Mix the gelatine, sugar and hot water together until everything is dissolved.
2. Add the juices and the cider.
3. Put in the fridge and wait for gelling to commence (about an hour, but check every 20 minutes).
4. Quarter, core and thinly slice the apples.
5. Stir the apples into the gelatine mix and spoon/pour into a glass serving bowl or 6 individual glasses.
6. Chill until set.

Yum

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Loire Valley Nature: A photograph has been added to the Brown Hare Lepus europaeus entry. Hares are active all year round, so it is not uncommon to see their footprints in the winter snow.
A new entry has been added for Fungi Forays. If you want to learn about gathering fungi in the forest, join a group with experts on hand to teach you how to distinguish the edible from the toxic (and all the not toxic but not very interesting to eat ones in between).
A photo has been added to the Association de botanique et de mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine section of the Resources entry. It shows a basket full of Wood Blewit Clitocybe nuda, a common edible mushroom here.
A new entry has been added for Forest and Woodland, one of the richest and most important habitats in central lowland France.
A new entry has been added for Hornbeam Carpinus betulus, a common forest tree.

Mud and Misery

This highly evocative object is in the World War I galleries of the Musée de l'Armée in les Invalides. It is the mud-caked greatcoat and cape of Lieutenant Henri Gastaldi of the 72nd Infantry, killed at Hattonville in 1915. The items were donated to the museum by his family.

The coat is purposefully displayed horizontally and the mud has been deliberately left on the garment. It's what conservators sometimes call 'sacred dirt'. The acidic mud will eventually destroy the woollen fibres of the coat, but nevertheless curators have made the decision that to clean the item destroys something else of equal value -- the capacity for this garment to bring home the horror of the trenches in a way that a picture or text could not.

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Loire Valley Nature: An entry has been added for Yellow Woundwort Stachys recta. This is a species of warm chalky grassland slopes.

La Dame de Beaute Gets a Facelift

On Thursday afternoon we spent an interesting half hour or so checking out the work that has started on the tomb of Agnès Sorel in the church of Saint Ours in Loches. Agnès was the mistress of Charles VII and the first French royal mistress to be publicly acknowledged and given an official position. The Lady of Beauty, as she is known, is being conserved on site, with a corner of the church transformed into a workshop. The idea is to clean and conserve the effigy and return the tomb to something more like its original appearance.

The team of conservators is being managed by Olivier Rolland, who has also been supervising the stone conservation at the Chateau of Azay le Rideau. When we showed an interest and indicated that we knew a little about the subject he very kindly spent a few minutes chatting with us. He couldn't talk about the project in hand, because all public statements about the work need to come from the Loches authorities, but he was happy to talk to us about stone conservation in general. Where I have quoted him below it is taken from newspaper reports on the project.

 Sculpture conservation student Hoel Gaboriau at work on the black marble tomb.

He also picked our brains about the nuances of the terms conservator, curator and restorer in English. He said he'd just submitted an article for a British conservation journal and wasn't sure how he should translate his professional title of conservateur-restaurateur*.

 Olivier Rolland discussing the work with someone from the Loches works department.

According to Olivier one of the greatest problems he has to deal with in stone conservation in the Touraine is the widespread use of plaster of Paris to repair external tuffeau (limestone) walls in the 19th century. He took us round to a wall by the side of the church to show us what happens after time. The problem is even worse than the use of concrete on tuffeau. The effect is similar, with the stone crumbling behind and around the hard layer of plaster, but plaster of Paris is much harder to identify and often requires a laboratory test.

When we visited the effigy of Agnès had been lifted off the top of the tomb and was laid out on some trestles. Olivier was engaged in making an inch by inch inspection of the junction between the alabaster figure of Agnès and the slab of white stone she had been attached to in the 19th century. He says the work was restored in Paris between 1806 and 1809. It had been shattered by Revolutionaries who, coming from Indre, mistook her for a saint. The nose, the hands (which were originally holding a book) and the right elbow have been reconstituted.

 Olivier investigating the junction between the effigy and the stone slab.

The conservator's job is to mitigate the effects of time, and to clean up the results of 'certaines incivilités'. For example, Olivier says someone thought it was a nice idea to place a candle on the effigy and it has scorched the head of one of the angels leaning over Agnès' face. I often come across flowers that visitors have placed on her as well, and these could easily leave stains. Even if they don't leave objects visitors are prone to touching her and even the cleanest hands leave a slight residue which is acidic, oily and will attract dust which can make an indelible mark over time, especially if many people touch the same place.

 Olivier showing the work to one of the curators from the Logis Royal and a companion.

When both the tomb and the effigy are cleaned the sculpture is going to be replaced on the tomb, positioned centrally in the way shown in old drawings. This will be quite close to the way she looked originally, with the white sculpture contrasting with the black marble. She is going to be detached from the 19th century slab of white stone. Olivier wants her to give the impression she is floating, a bit like a ghost.

The sides of the tomb are going to be inverted, as they were accidentally installed the wrong way up when the tomb was returned to the church in 2005. Finally, they will reconstruct the canopy above the head of Agnès and the two angels. According to Olivier the sculptor will work in the same manner as a medieval craftsman, using the same tools. The canopy won't be of alabaster, to avoid giving visitors the false idea that it is original, but perhaps in white limestone, to best evoke the original and not merely create a pastiche. A slab of marble will be placed in front of the canopy, as shown in the old drawings as well. My guess is that this reinstatement of the canopy will cause some disappointment if the angels are not moved to a position more like they are shown in the drawing. Visitors are already disappointed at how obscured Agnès' face is but my suspicion is that the drawing is not strictly accurate (the angels appear to be at two different points on either side) and they will not be moved up to enhance the view.

A detail of a drawing of the tomb in the late 17th century, courtesy of Gallica, the Bibliotheque nationale's brilliant online service.

The team of four conservators have estimated the work will take six weeks and they are expecting the unforeseen complications that are always inherent in these very delicate conservation projects. Olivier was dealing with one when we visited, and at least four interested parties from the Loches authorities and the Citadel came to have a look while we were there.

Gypsum plaster and the damage it causes on a tuffeau wall near Saint Ours.

Olivier clearly loves this monument. He says despite working on funerary memorials all the time you never lose your sensitivity to them. He finds such tombs very touching, and mentions the tomb of the children of Charles VIII in Tours cathedral, which he worked on prior to it going off to an exhibition in Paris, as similarly affecting him.

Facts and Figures:

Conservation Work - the team of four undertaking the work are Olivier Rolland, who is in charge, two independent sculpture conservators, Fabienne Bois and Emmanuelle Sédille, and a trainee, Hoel Gaboriau, a sculpture conservation student at the Upper School of Fine Arts Tours-Angers-Le Mans.

A Much Manhandled Tomb - at her death in 1450, the remains of Agnès Sorel were deposited in a triple coffin of oak, cedar and lead and transferred from Jumièges (Seine Maritime) to the collegiate church of Saint Ours in Loches. Her coffin was placed in a tomb of black marble.

Even though Agnès had left a great deal of her estate to the canons, they asked Louis XI to move the tomb, which was situated in the middle of the choir of the church. Curiously (given that it seems likely he had her murdered) Louis ignored them, and it took until Louis XVI for the clergy to achieve their aim, in 1777.

The tomb was then placed in the nave, but desecrated during the Revolution. The effigy was restored in Paris between 1806 and 1809, then installed in the Donjon up until 1970, from where it was transferred to the Logis Royal. In 2005 it was brought back to the church of Saint Ours.

Financing the Project - the conservation of the tomb is an initiative of the town of Loches authority. The technical and scientific survey was overseen by Gilles Blieck, Curator for Historic Monuments at DRAC Centre-Val de Loire (regional cultural affairs department).

The work will cost €38 429.40 and at the last council meeting the heritage deputy requested a vote on asking for a grant from DRAC of 60% of the project funds. The remaining €15 371.76 has been donated by Loches Patrimoine et Culture so the project should break even for Loches council.

Definitions

*Conservator = conservateur-restaurateur

  Curator = conservateur

  Restorer = restaurateur

Conservators and curators are specialists usually working with museum quality collections or objects, often in the public sector. A conservator's work is to consolidate and stabilise the condition of heritage objects, using the lightest possible touch, careful scientific methods and using only techniques that are reversible should best practice change with further research. A curator is responsible for the display, historical research and interpretation of museum objects. The monetary value of the objects they work with is secondary to the heritage value. Restorers are usually working for private collectors and their aim is often to return an object to 'as new' condition or maximize the auction value.

Further Reading (not directly related to the project at hand, but worth reading if you are interested in heritage building and sculpture conservation).

What's the difference between lime and gypsum plaster (Platre.com forum).

The Use of Lime and Cement in Traditional Buildings (Historic Scotland Information for Historic Building Owners).

Decorative Lime Plaster (by Trevor Proudfoot, Cliveden Conservation, for www.buildingconservation.com). Trevor is an ex-colleague of mine and I owe everything I know about stone and statuary conservation to him.

Traditional Lime Plaster: Myths, Preconceptions and the Relevance of Good Practice (by Ian Constantinides, St Blaise, for www.buildingconservation.com). Sadly, I don't recall ever meeting Ian, but colleagues worked with him from time to time.

The Use of Gypsum Plaster (by Tim Ratcliffe for www.buildingconservation.com).

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A la cuisine hier: A creamy chicken and bean casserole, with some of Simon's homemade homegrown tomato sauce, and served with his homemade naan bread.

Caramelised figs with raw cultured cream and raspberry coulis. The figs came from Antoinette, who brought round a bag of twenty ripe little green figs from her garden.

Sgraffito

This fine sgraffito decorated cornice and external wall is on one wing of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. I'm guessing that it is part of the post World War II restoration, but it is a technique of wall ornamentation that was common in Italy in the Renaissance. It is related to fresco, in that it is a technique that manipulates layers of renders and pigments while they are damp so that the final design is chemically bonded to the wall, not just a surface layer.

This particular wing of the Sforzesco houses among other things the last, unfinished, work of Michelangelo. Unfortunately the interior is such a maze that we never found his Pieta. We did see lots of other fab things though, so we weren't too disappointed.

For more about the technique of sgraffito see my post on the Villa Rose in Saint-Aignan.

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Au jardin hier: Garlic planted. This year I've used my own garlic cloves, the best and fattest cloves collected from the best bulbs from my very good crop harvested in the summer. I still have plenty left to cook with until the new season's crop is in.

A small black and white woodpecker turned up and investigated the paulownia by tapping on some of the upper branches. It was a bit bigger than a sparrow so I think it must have been the Middle Spotted Woodpecker. The call matched the recording I listened to on the internet.

Aboriginal Rock Art

A naturalistic wallaby.

The Aboriginal rock paintings in various caves and rock overhangs in the Kakadu National Park are some of the best in Australia. Kakadu, despite its remote location, is famous enough to be relatively easy to get to and the rock paintings on fairly easy walking trails. The creation of the paintings is a sacred act in Aboriginal culture, so it is a great privilege to be able to view them here.

An x-ray style wallaby.

These particular paintings are at a site widely referred to as Nourlangie, but strictly speaking this place is called Anbangbang. They are a mixture of x-ray and naturalistic styles and include spirit figures and prey animals. The pigments are naturally occuring local iron or manganese rich clay and kaolin made into powdered ochres and mixed with water. Brushes are made from hair, feathers, fibrous bark and other plant materials. The paintings in the park date back 20 000 years, but the main images in these photos were painted in 1964. Because the act of painting is more significant than the painting itself many images are overlaid with completely different paintings done at a later date. Others are faithfully refreshed as required by local Aboriginals who have the traditional right to do so (usually the right is handed down through kinship). Paintings serve to record events, ensure animal abundance and educate children.

Lightning Man (on the right, holding an arc) and other Creation Ancestors.

These paintings have many levels of understanding and stories attached to them. As a visitor you are told the 'public' level, but Aboriginal elders would know other stories too. The more knowledge you have about the message the images convey, the more responsibility you have within the culture they belong to.

Pulling the Parsnip

Over a few days at the end of October, beginning of November we had some remarkable weather, with the maximum temperatures getting up to 20°C, mild nights and sunny days. I took the opportunity to prepare the potager for onions and garlic.

Wild Parsnip pulled from the potager.

Our potager has a tendency to get over-run with certain native plants which are a nuisance in the garden so I consider to be weeds. These include Bristly Oxtongue Picris echioides, Creeping Thistle Cirsium arvense, Dandelion Taraxacum agg, Field Bindweed Convolvulus arvensis, Wild Carrot Daucus carota and Wild Parsnip Pastinaca sativa. Of that list the two that annoy me the most are the first and last. As friends and regular readers will know, I am extremely tolerant of weeds, but Bristly Oxtongue and Wild Parsnip are vigorous, tall, stiff, deep rooted and self-seed enthusiastically. They are a complete pain in a working garden. I'm also sensitive to Wild Parsnip, which leaves me with phyto-photodermatitis (burns caused by skin contact with compounds in the plant that then react to the UV in sunlight to redden and blister).

Often I deal with weeds in a quick and dirty manner, by chopping them off at ground level. This gets them out of my way and prevents them seeding if I time it right, but doesn't kill the plant. When I eventually get round to pulling them out entirely they can put up quite a fight. The one in the photo above was right on the edge of a fallow row, so had been chopped off several times and lived through several seasons because I hadn't needed to remove it. Now the row is back in service and planted with onions, that parsnip had to go. 

Looking at that impressive tap root you can see why some enterprising Roman gardener looked at Wild Parsnip and started cultivating it deliberately for the table though. Even on a wild plant there is obviously considerable carbohydrate potential.

Fungi and Friends

A couple of Sundays ago (October 25 to be precise) I invited our friends Rosemary and Jean-Michel to take the trip down from their home in Blois to visit us. It enabled me to unload a couple of dozen apples on them, along with some saffron bulbs and some garlic. Plus it meant we could pop over to Maison Perrin and order our fresh foie gras, to be picked up in early December and processed by us ready for Christmas, at a workshop held at Rosemary and Jean-Michel's, like we did last year.

Jean-Michel being tutored by Paul in sniffing out the characteristic odour of the False Death Cap mushroom.

Just as importantly it allowed me to take Rosemary and Jean-Michel on a mycologie outing in the Forest of Loches. Rosemary and Jean-Michel are keen mushroom foragers for the table and are already very knowledgeable but had never been on a science focused fungi foray before. Jean-Michel was particularly looking forward to meeting my fellow members in the Association de botanique et de mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine, who were leading the outing.

I made sure we hooked up with Paul, one of the real experts and Jean-Michel had lots of questions. Paul loves to pass on his knowledge and all sorts of snippets of information were exchanged. I lurked around in the background and took photos and notes. The False Death Cap Amanita citrina (Fr. La citrine) for example has a strong and characteristic odour of raw potato and radish. Ironically, the False Death Cap isn't toxic, but isn't especially tasty, whilst its lethal lookalike the Death Cap Amanita phalloides, smells sweet and tastes pleasant. The latter is so poisonous that even the spores dropped accidentally on edible mushrooms can lead to symptoms of poisoning that if not treated can result in liver damage.

Rosemary on the left and Jean-Michel on the right take in every word as Paul explains how to identify a particular mushroom.

Paul showing me some Candlesnuff Fungus Xylaria hypoxylon (Fr. Xylaire du bois), still white and immature.

Inside a ripe black Candlesnuff are the spores. Paul deftly cut this tiny fungus the diameter of a piece of string to reveal the surprising structure .

Candlesnuff fungus has quite complicated life cycle. If you are interested in the details, see here.

Not everyone was focusing on fungi. 

François was collecting botanical specimens, in his typical chaotic but brilliant manner.

Flagging Up the Orchids

Just recently I received the most splendid gift imaginable. It came suitably wrapped in a gold plastic bag, with a bundle of wires sticking out the mouth of the bag.

A Lizard Orchid Himantoglossum hircinum flagged near the potager fence.

Tim had been putting an order in to NHBS for some new toys (err, I mean equipment...) and spotted some marking flags in the catalogue. He got some for himself and very kindly got some for me too. The flags come in red or yellow vinyl and are for use by botanists to mark individual plants in the field. To avoid adding further to the environment's contamination with heavy metals they do not contain any lead. Routinely added to plastics intended for the outdoors to provide UV protection, lead just as routinely leaches into the environment as these plastics break down. It will be interesting to see how long the flags last, as they will have to be out in all weathers all year long. 

A little group of Ophrys spp orchids flagged in the potager.

Every orchid in the orchard that has poked its leaves above ground so far for the coming new year has been given a flag, carefully and consistently placed just to the west of each plant. I've also marked a couple of Glanville Fritillary Melitaea cinxa caterpillar nests and a Praying Mantis Mantis religiosa egg sack, so that they are not stood on or mowed over.

I reckon it's up there in my list of top 5 best presents ever. Thanks Tim!

The Saint Ours Trunk

Local readers will probably have seen the strange object to the left of the door in the porch of Saint Ours church in Loches. Until recently there was no explanation of its history, although there were instructions for using it.

Say a prayer or make a vow, then hammer in a tack. Put a coin in the 'urn' on the door (it's a box with a slot in fact). €1 + €1 + €1 + ... = the amount collected which helps the work of the French agency of Caritas International (Fr. Secours Catholique), the Catholic Church's confederation of aid agencies. 

 The porch (narthex) of Saint Ours church in Loches.

It used to be €1 for three tacks, the number presumably a reference to Christ nailed to the cross. Secours Catholique works internationally to help those in need and is currently involved in trying to improve conditions at the notorious unofficial refugee camp near Calais known as the Jungle. They are also in Nepal since the earthquake in April and gearing up to help communities all over the world combat climate change. Last year they worked in Réunion after a devastating cyclone and just last month they were in the south of France working to help people cope with the really extraordinary recent floods there.

Secours Catholique don't just makes sure people are fed and housed. They also ensure people know their rights and they assist with legal procedures and insurance claims for those whose life situation puts them at a disadvantage when dealing with these sorts of issues.

One of our clients hammers a tack in.

Launched in 1962 by Jean Rodhain, founder of Secours Catholique, the idea of setting up 'trunks' in churches to fundraise for the poor was copied in Loches as it was in numerous other French towns. 

Only two 'trunks' have stood the test of time. One is in Lourdes, and the other is this one in Loches. It has been in the porch of Saint Ours for over fifty years.

Should you be unable to visit Loches and use the trunk in person, I am sure Secours Catholique would be grateful for anything you can give via their website.

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I spent the most frustrating morning yesterday - all in the name of trying to check our phone bill.

Every couple of months we receive an email from Orange for our fixed line telephone. This month there was 4€ of calls on the bill, unusual as we always use Skype. So I thought I would check what calls were made. I followed the link on the email that said "Votre facture du 4 Novembre 2015 est disponible sur orange.fr > espace client " which took me to a page that refused to recognise my password.

After a while, I reset the password, then logged on. Could I find the bill?? No - when I clicked on the access facture link - it took me back to the previous page. Continually. I followed every link on every page. The Orange website is a great place if you want to be sold something, but apparently they have no interest in telling what you previously spent your money on.

So I logged out, closed firefox, and started the process all over again. Guess what - my reset, brand new, I even wrote it down, password is wrong.

Why are Orange determined to live up to every stereotype about French customer sevice?

Simon

Gateaux Titou aux pommes

The theme of the last Loire Valley Clandestine Cake Club meeting was 'fruit'. I thought about making a boiled fruit cake to a family recipe, but then I thought about the billion trillion apples on trays and in boxes in the pantry. The cake must have apple in it, and the more the better!

I chose a recipe from a little cook book which had been created as a fund-raiser for the primary school here. The recipes were submitted by the kids and were all simple dishes that they could make themselves. The last couple of Cake Club meetings have been dominated by outrageous confections and bountiful buttercream. It was all a bit icky and I thought something simple and undecorated would be a nice change. As it turned out, I wasn't the only one and only one of the cakes presented on the day was iced.

Gâteau Titou aux pommes on the table with the other Cake Club offerings.

I wondered who the Titou in the cake's title was so I looked him up. He turns out to be a small boy in a children's book which in French is called Titou fait un gâteau ('Thomas Bakes a Cake'). It's an illustrated book for parents to read to little kids and uses nice everyday language. It features Titou baking a cake with his father, in a comfortable rural family home. It is also notable for openly depicting breast-feeding and nudity. Titou is a diminutive of Antoine. The author, Gunilla Wolde, is Swedish and Titou was originally Totte. The book does indeed contain a recipe, and the author encourages fathers to make it with their children. Wolde died earlier this year.

The recipe in the fund-raiser book is a bit different to the one in the story book, and is typically French ie not well written compared to modern English language recipes. Some of the instructions are vague ('un peu de levure') and the steps not well thought out in terms of their logical order (you are not told to peel and chop the apples until just before they need to go into the mixture, for example). I've translated and improved the instructions below.

Ingredients
3 eggs
150 g + 1 tsp sugar
200 g flour
1 tsp baking powder
100 g butter, melted
3-4 apples, cored, peeled and diced
Few drops vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease a loaf or springform tin with butter.
2. Beat the eggs and sugar with the whisk attachment of your stand beater for 5 minutes (until they are white and quite aerated).
3. Gently mix in the flour and baking powder, then the butter, then the apple and vanilla.
4. Transfer the mixture to the baking tin and bake for 55 minutes.
5. Sprinkle top with sugar and leave in tin for 5 minutes.
6. Turn cake out and cool on a rack.

My cake cut so you can see the inside.

After about half an hour of cooking my cake had crisp edges and a madeira cake style crack down the centre. A lava like flow of batter erupted from the crack and I'm not sure what caused that. It didn't really spoil the appearance of the cake and it was properly cooked all the way through when I took it out of the oven. The apple stays suspended in the mixture very well.

Yum

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A la cuisine hier: I made myself Cream of Carrot Soup for lunch. Simon doesn't like carrot soup so he fended for himself. The soup was seasoned with ginger and white pepper which I thought was considerably nicer than the usual coriander or orange juice.

Castello Sforzesco

The Castello Sforzesco sits in the heart of Milan, one of the largest citadels in Europe. It was built in the 15th century by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan. There had been a fortified building there from the 14th century, the work of Galeazzo II Visconti, who ruled Milan in the mid-14th century. Francesco, a condottiere (mercenary), had married the Visconti heir and after some dirty dealing with a faction in the city who wanted to restore a republic, took over the Visconti duchy of Milan.

Approaching the Castello Sforzesco.

Like for the Visconti before them, the Castello was the main residence of the Sforza dukes. Much of the interior decoration dates from the time of Ludovico Sforza, who became duke in 1494. François I of France took the Castello in 1515 and several years later the main entrance tower blew up when it was being used to store weapons. In 1534 the last of the Sforza dukes, Francesco II had the Castello refurbished for his 12 year old bride, Christina of Denmark. The next year he was dead and his young widow became a contender as a bride for Henry VIII (the portrait of her done for Henry by Holbein hangs in the National Gallery in London and is one of my favourites).

A corner tower from outside the complex.

In the 16th and 17th centuries under Habsburg and then Austrian rule the Castello was modernised and strengthened. Under Napoleon's rule at the end of the 18th century the outer defenses were demolished and a huge parade ground created at the back. After the unification of Italy in the 19th century this parade ground was transformed into a park.

The main entry tower as seen from inside the complex.

The main entry tower was reconstructed at the beginning of the 20th century, based on 16th century drawings. The Castello was badly damaged in 1943 by Allied bombing and after the Second World War the complex was rebuilt to house a number of museums. 

Inside the vast main courtyard.

 The rear entrance to the Castello Sforzesco.

Waterlilies in Kakadu

Australian native waterlilies, Nymphaea violacea I think, growing in Yellow Water Billabong, part of the World Heritage Listed Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory. The name Yellow Water comes from a yellow algal bloom that sometimes covers the billabong.