Lichens on the Puy Besnard (Chinon)

The Puy Besnard, a dry limestone ridge near Chinon, is a nature reserve run by the Regional Nature Conservancy that the Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine visits at least once a year. This year it was on Sunday 13 March and it was to look at lichens. The outing was organised in conjunction with the Ecomusée du Véron.

Marie-Claude introduces the site.

Lichen is not one but two organisms, living symbiotically. A fungi captures an algae or a cyanobacteria and protects it from dessication. The two organisms are then able work together to extract and share nutrients from their environment (they photosynthesise). Many species grow on trees, but they are not parasitic. They come in many physical forms, from flat and leafy and tiny multi-branched tufts to crusty growths, powdery dustings and blobs of jelly.

Reindeer moss Cladonia rangiformis (below) can be distinguished from lookalike
C. furcata by tasting it. The latter tastes bitter. Reindeer moss is a typical lichen of
dry limestone sites, growing on the ground. Despite its English name it is not a moss.

 Field Dog Lichen Peltigera rufescens (below). The ash grey colour tells you it is dry.
It is a locally common species of well drained calcareous soils.

Placidium squamulosum (below) a widespread but localised species of calcareous soil and rock crevices. It looks just like dirt. Marie-Claude could spot it from standing a couple of metres away. 

I had to get down on my hands and knees with a loupe.

Scrambled Egg Lichen Fulgensia fulgens (below) a rather uncommon species that grows on exposed chalk or limestone, usually amongst a moss, where there are no competing plants, but this one is going it alone on a piece of limestone in full sun.

The view from the sunny slopes of the Puy Besnard (below) looking south.

Looking for lichen on a tree (below). Note the small break away group on the right,
looking at the ground. They've been seduced away by a fungi on a stump.

The lovely Physcia leptalea (below), scarce, localised and declining,
a lichen of slightly base pH bark.

Below, a malaise trap set up to catch insects. The Conservatory is creating an inventory of the insect species on the site and by extension for the departément of Indre et Loire.The insects come flying across this sunny clearing and hit the vertical screen. Their instinct is to crawl up the screen. When they reach the top the slope of the 'roof' directs them to the front corner, where they will fall into the alcohol filled collecting bottle. This trap looked brand new, fresh out of its packaging, so it seems like some lucky person has got some funding to do some actual science. Mostly this trap will be catching flies, bees and wasps.

Grape Stakes

This time last year Christophe Davault from Domaine de la Chaise was busy making dozens of vineyard stakes. You can see how they are used in the vineyard in this post about the nearby vineyard of Clos Roussely. The vines are pruned and vine supports renewed over the winter. In fact, talk to any winemaker and they will tell you that winter is the busiest time of year for them.

That's quite a lot of kindling too.

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Tableau Noir: A couple of nights ago we watched a documentary on TV5Monde about a little one teacher school in the Jura mountains. It was called Tableau Noir, which means 'Blackboard'. If you have intermediate or better French I highly recommend it. Gilbert Hirschi, the teacher at the school for 41 years, is wonderful. The children are an absolute delight and the film maker has done a fabulous job of capturing them behaving naturally. Sadly, the documentary is the story of the last year of the school's operation, and it closed a couple of years ago. Tears all round at the end. It got a special mention at the Locarno film festival in 2013. I can't find it in full on line, but Gilbert Hirschi tells you where you can purchase it on DVD in the comments after the promotional video on YouTube.

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Brexit: If you are British and living elsewhere in the EU, please make sure to register to vote in the upcoming referendum to decide whether or not Britain withdraws from the EU. It is easy to register as a UK voter living abroad and easy to apply for a postal vote. It just takes a couple of emails. The information you need to register is here. As British citizens* we currently have the right to live and work anywhere within the EU. What would happen if Britain withdraws is anyone's guess, but it will undoubtedly be a pain in the neck at the very least for those of us established in France but without French citizenship.

*We have dual Australian and British citizenship.

The Forest of Montgoger

The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine had an outing to the Forest of Montgoger on Saturday 5 March. We were promised 'une promenade botanique et autres curiosités'. I expected the 'curiosities' to be manmade, but they turned out to be entirely natural and a function of this old, and until recently, abandoned forest.

Oak trees, still bare of leaves in March.

The forest was once the hunting domaine of the old Chateau of Montgoger, a stonking great early renaissance structure, now a ruin, but retaining its exterior walls and round corner towers to a considerable height. It is visible from the road as you head towards the forest from Saint Epain.

An oak tree with plenty of horizontal branches,
a form that is highly desirable for biodiversity.

Holly takes advantage of the gap in the canopy provided
by a dead oak, which it will replace.

It is now owned and managed by the Office National des Forets (ONF), who are currently in the process of encouraging the forest's 1.66 km² to naturally regenerate after purchasing it in 2009. Effectively, they are managing the forest for biodiversity, not timber, hunting, leisure or any of the other activities one might manage a forest for. As a consequence of a complete lack of management for years and a very light touch by the ONF, Montgoger has many mature oaks with dead and horizontal branches, as well as many dead trees both standing and fallen. This is perfect for the big beetles whose numbers are generally in decline because of insufficient suitable dead timber. Some of them are surprisingly picky, requiring a specific species of tree, or dead branches on a still living tree, for example. Many forests are way too tidy to suit those beetles that need years as a larva to mature -- their lovely rotting home will get cleared up long before they have a chance to turn into adult beetles.

UPDATE: Chantal, who led the outing, has emailed me to say that she deliberately kept to the untouched sections of the forest, but in fact, hunting is allowed once a week during the season and timber is taken from certain sections. She sees signs of wild boar sometimes where they have rooted around trees and the hunters paint the base of certain oak trees with pine tar as the smell attracts the boar. She also occasionally finds the remains of corn cobs.

About 10 years ago some of the oak from this forest went towards making the replica of the Hermione, the ship that Lafayette sailed to the US in when he went to aid the Americans in the War of Independence in 1780.

The eggs of an Agile Frog, near, but not in a pond. Has it been so wet the frog got confused?

The forest sits on a rise overlooking the small river Manse. The valley of the Manse is the most typical Touraine countryside you could possibly hope to see, and the mosaic of habitats it offers (forest, water meadows, limestone cliffs and ridges, ponds and marsh, pasture for goats and cattle, cereal crops and vineyards) is the subject of an ongoing botany project to create a complete inventory of the flora of the valley. The river Manse eventually flows into the Vienne at l'Ile Bouchard.

The inconspicuous flowers of Besom Heath, a plant which dominates the wet heathland here.

Corinne pointed this delightful little object out to me.
It is an egg sac, I think belonging to the pirate spider Ero aphana.

Marie-Claude demonstrates her baguette bag as lichen sample on stick storage system.

Two members of the club have uploaded their photos from the day onto their websites. To see Louisette's terrific coverage click here. You will see me in a couple of the photos, and I highly recommend her blog (you don't need to read French because it's photos). André has also uploaded his photos of the day. He's also captured me in a couple of his photos. I'm wearing a green hat and coat and fingerless gloves.

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 Au jardin hier: Alex came over to rotovate one of the fallow vegetable patches. The Lady Orchid leaf rosette is up. The apricot is flowering. Primroses, sweet violets and wild pansies are flowering in the grass.

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A la cuisine hier: Garbure, with smoked pork belly and shredded chicken, celeriac, potato, carrots, leeks, onions, garlic and cabbage in homemade veal stock. It was rather good. 

Pasta twists in a simple homemade store cupboard tomato sauce, topped with grated cheddar cheese.

Walnut cake, made gluten free with a mixture of buckwheat flour and ground almonds, and using walnuts from Niall and Antoinette's trees. Apple snow, made with our own frozen fruit, and eggs and fromage frais from the laitière (local dairy farmer who delivers).

What's Unusual About This Scene?

Early March sees the beginning of the season of outings and events for the classic car club that we belong to. These photos are from the annual swap meet (Fr. bourse) at Noyers sur Cher (just across the river from Saint Aignan). An aperitif for members who are attending is being prepared. The golden squares in the plastic box above are either goats cheese puff pastries or potato cakes. Below, the new president of our chapter of La Traction Universelle, Jean-Marc, cuts up a savoury bread. The drinks include some sparkling wine, some homegrown homemade pear juice and a rosé from Joel Delaunay. He is a winemaker from Pouillé, not far away from where this meet was taking place, and a lot of the club members buy wine from him.

So what is it that is so unusual about this scene?

Isn't She Lovely?

La Dame de Beauté, Agnès Sorel, has been cleaned and her tomb restored to the way it looked in the 17th century (and presumably the way it looked originally). Her alabaster effigy hasn't been so stripped of the patina of age that she looks brand new, but she has been removed from the limestone slab she was attached to in the 19th century when she made one of several moves between and within the church of Saint Ours and the Logis Royal in Loches.

The current restoration is so new that the mortar attaching her to the black marble tomb is still wet and clearly visible. I assume this will dry pale and effectively invisible. The idea of removing her from the 19th century white limestone slab and putting her directly on the black is so that she gives the impression that she is floating, which was the original aesthetic.

The canopy over her head has been recreated and replaced in limestone (not in alabaster as the original would have been). The decision to use limestone is in keeping with modern conservation practice, to make it clear that it is a reproduction, but still provide the appropriate look to the sculpture as a whole. The original was destroyed during the Revolution I would guess, when the tomb was desecrated. Also replaced is a black marble plaque with a poem carved into the back. These features may not be to everyone's taste as they tend to restrict the view of the lovely Agnès herself.

The other thing viewers may be disappointed by is the heavy barricade surrounding the tomb at some distance. It is intrusive but it will certainly prevent visitors touching the alabaster effigy, and perhaps most importantly, stop people placing offerings on the effigy. Olivier, the conservator, was clearly quite exasperated by the evidence of there having been a lit candle placed on her breast, which had left scorch marks on the statue and he was worried he wouldn't be able to get them out when we spoke to him.

Nautilus Goblets

Mondays in Milan / Les lundis en Lombardie

Two nautilus shells displayed on 16th century pedestals of chased and gilded silver, now in the Castello Sforzesco. Nautilus shells were highly prized as objects to be displayed in Medieval and Renaissance cabinets of curiosities and goldsmiths were commonly employed to create extravagant mounts for them. The shells themselves come from the western Pacific (Malaysia, Vietnam, China) and documents of the time comment on their rarity and high cost.

The one on the right in the background shows its natural stripey pattern, but the one on the left, in the foreground, has had the stripey layer scraped off to reveal the mother-of-pearl below. Northern Italy and Southern Germany, especially Padua and Nuremburg were the main centres of manufacture. These two are simply decorative objects but occasionally they were made into drinking vessels, ewers or inkwells.

The foreground shell has been additionally decorated by engraving butterflies and flies into the side of the shell, making them stand out by rubbing them with a mixture of powdered coal and wax or oil. The innermost curl of the inside of the shell has been cut to look like the helmet on a suit of armour. Some of the decorative elements of this shell indicate that it is from the end of the 16th century or even into the 17th century and may have been made in Flanders.

Blue Skimmer Dragonfly

This male Blue Skimmer Orthetrum caledonicum was photographed at Fogg Dam in the Northern Territory of Australia. The species is widespread and abundant throughout Australia, using a range of water habitats. They are not very big, with a wingspan of about 7cm.

House Hunting Ten Years Ago

It is ten years ago today that we started looking at property in France.

The search started in the Charente because we had been there and rather liked it, but looking at the internet in London it seemed like there was little available in the area. (We know - but the internet wasn't as developed as it is now, and we may have been a little naive as well...). Then we looked at Deux-Sèvres and saw a property we thought we liked, so a quick phone call to the real estate man later we were organised for a visit.

We looked at a house overlooking/overlooked by this chateau, which

had been blown up by its owner in 1949 as a tax avoidance measure.

It was an inauspicious start in a couple of ways:
The flight (from Gatwick to Nantes) was delayed by 4 hours and 59 minutes (not 5 hours, because that would have meant serious compensation from the airline).  BA had given us food tokens at Gatwick, but only one restaurant was open (and that was closing as we walked in) so we bought about £30 worth of biscuits and bottled water. After pushing out from the gate 4 hours and 59 minutes late, we sat on the tarmac for a further 25 minutes, which meant we arrived at past 2.00am in Nantes, where BA booked us a hotel for free because the car hire place was closed.

When we arrived at the house we wanted to look at we discovered there was a compromis de vente already signed, so we trawled around various other properties (none of them meeting our strict requirements) until Susan got bored. We were then shown a house in Argenton-Chateau (now called Argenton-les-Vallées) near the church.

On our flight back to London there were no delays, but the effort of the trip was too much for one of us, so on the Monday we came to an agreement and phoned the agent to make an offer on the property by the church. Luckily, that was declined, which left us free to continue our search.

The house we didn't buy after all

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Monetising the Blog: It is already clear to us that this year could be financially difficult. Bookings for tours are down - everyone in the tourism industry here is saying the same. We've decided to allow ads on the blog to earn a bit of pocket money. The ad will appear on the right hand bar (unless you've got an ad blocker installed). We choose or ban the general categories of ads that appear, but we can't control what appears at an individual ad level within the allowed categories. Every time someone visits the blog we will get a very small payment and every time someone clicks on an ad we will get a marginally less small payment. This will vary from ad to ad, depending on the deal the advertiser has negotiated with Google. It will be interesting to see what it all amounts to. We won't see the ads here, but if you notice anything off colour, please let us know.

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A la cuisine hier: I made up a batch of pickling brine to cool overnight. I've got some beef, pork belly and a beef tongue to brine today.

The Biencourt's Drawing Room, Azay-le-Rideau

The Biencourt's drawing room on the ground floor of the Chateau d'Azay-le-Rideau has been refurbished, the better to reflect the spirit of its private owners in the 1890s. Twenty-four pieces of furniture have arrived from the Mobilier national (National Furniture Collection) and have been arranged with meticulous precision.

The Biencourt family occupied the chateau for a hundred years, from 1791 to 1899. As part of the major restoration of the chateau which is about half way to completion, a plan to refurnish their drawing room was drafted. With the introduction of seats, curtains, day beds, carpets, portraits and arm chairs the room has been recreated according to inventories and photographs from the 1890s.

A team of more than sixty people were involved in the project to bring the drawing room back to the way it looked when the Biencourt family lived there. Some pieces of furniture have been restored, other pieces, such as the velvet curtains with fleur de lys, have been woven to order by the Gobelins workshop. It is an interior of refinement, as befits collectors and art lovers such as the Biencourts were. In their day the chateau was famous for its collection of portraits from the 16th and 17th century. This new presentation seeks to replace the original portraits (which were purchased by the Chateau de Chantilly and are now on display there) with their equivalent so the room has the same feel as in the 19th century.

Every piece in the room has been carefully researched and nothing has been introduced that there is no evidence for. The curators involved feel they have recreated something of considerable historic importance. Almost all the other comparable French 19th century interiors have disappeared.

To modern eyes, the drawing room, or salon in French is an appalling mishmash of styles, patterns and shapes. But the late 19th century homeowner wasn't interested in creating a cohesive interior decorating scheme, with identical chairs with identical upholstery. They were more interested in cosiness, comfort, a certain richness of texture and materials, and practicality in terms of the family using the room. In fact, a room like this would most probably have been divided into about three distinct areas. There might have been a desk in one part, for someone to write at or strew with research material. Often there would be a comfortable arm chair nearby for reading (or even for a companion to sit and read while someone worked at the desk). Around the fireplace would be chairs and settees. In another part of the room there might be another small group of chairs near a window or with a lamp for reading or doing needlework or other hobby activities. Because the room is open to the public the path through the room has been clearly and unnaturally defined as around the outer edge. In reality the path through the room would have been an irregular diagonal, a line of desire that isn't possible or practical today.

For another room restoration project, of a renaissance bedroom, in the chateau, see my post here.

What the Fulk is he Doing!?

Fulk Nerra (970 - 1040) Count of Anjou is one of our favourite local historical characters. He is buried in the Abbey Church La Sainte Trinité in Beaulieu lès Loches (referred to by Fulk as Belli Locus and dedicated to the Holy Sepulchre) and recently with some time to kill, we, and medieval historian friends Niall and Antoinette, went to visit the church.

The eastern windows are stained glass and right in the middle, at the bottom, is a rather odd scene depicting a barefoot knight on his hands and knees. Niall correctly assumed it was Fulk, but since he only knew Fulk's story in fairly broad terms he asked us if we knew what the window was portraying.

Luckily, we did know the bones of the story, and it is one of the best associated with Fulk. Fulk died in 1040 and around 1100 a monk from Anjou sat down and wrote a history of the Counts of Anjou. This is one of the stories he told about Fulk Nerra:

Fulk went on pilgrimage, initially to Rome, where he received the Pope's blessings and a papal letter, which he was to take to the Emperor in Constantinople. When he got to Constantinople he ran into Robert Duke of Normandy, who was also on his way to Jerusalem. Robert was making the long and dangerous journey in penance for having poisoned his brother seven years earlier in order to gain the dukedom for himself. He had by this time already fathered William, who would become the Conquerer of England.

After presenting the papal letter to the Emperor, the pair were introduced to some men from Antioch who happened to be in Constantinople. They agreed to guide Fulk and Robert through the lands of the Saracens. Robert died on the journey, but Fulk arrived safely at the gates of Jerusalem. However, he was not permitted to enter the city without paying a hefty fee. Having done this, and payed for all the other Christian pilgrims hanging about the gate in the same situation, he swiftly made his way to the cloisters of the holy tombs.

But he was barred entry to them as well. The Saracens knew his reputation for quick temper and goaded him. They told him that if he wished to enter he would have to piss on the tomb he wished to see and on the cross. He wasn't happy about it, but he agreed to the conditions. Fulk may have been quick tempered, but he was also clever. He had a ram's bladder brought to him, cleaned it, filled it with fine wine and hung it between his thighs. Approaching the Holy Sepulchre barefoot, he allowed the wine to flow over the tomb. He and his companions were allowed to enter the tomb and pray. They were overcome to the point of tears.

After a time, Fulk sensed the divine power. He realised the wine had softened the hard stone of the tomb. Reaching forward as if to kiss the sepulchre he bit a piece off and concealed it in his mouth. The guards did not notice he had stolen a piece of the tomb and he was able to smuggle the holy relic back to Loches. He was also given a piece of the True Cross by the Syrian Christian guardians of the tomb, after he distributed generous gifts to the poor. Once back in France he had a church built at Beaulieu lès Loches and there installed the relic of the Holy Sepulchre and appointed an abbott. His piece of the True Cross and a piece of the thong used to bind Christ's hands that he had also acquired were installed in a church in Amboise.

Jerusalem, as depicted on a shield held by a sadly mutilated angel in the church at Beaulieu.

Although the monk writing the history doesn't specify when these events took place, the pilgrimage when he was accompanied by Robert of Normandy was Fulk's third pilgrimmage to Jerusalem, in 1035. Robert, who was known as Robert le Diable, had indeed gained the dukedom on the sudden and unexpected of his brother Richard, but there is no real evidence that Robert had a hand in his death.

The incident where Fulk supposedly acquired a piece of the Holy Sepulchre was during his second pilgrimage, in 1008. The records show that he certainly had a relic which he believed to be from the True Cross, but it was donated to Belli Locus, not Amboise, and he had probably acquired it from a relic dealer in Rome. He was always extremely generous to the abbey at Beaulieu, which he had already endowed by 1004 and was dedicated in 1007, before his return from his second pilgrimage. I have read somewhere (but can't now find the reference) that this relic of the True Cross still exists, and is now housed in a church somewhere in the Berry.

There are other stories of pilgrims being so overcome when faced with holy artefacts (in particular, the True Cross) that they have bitten pieces off. It seems to be a story that conflates the ritual of kissing a relic and taking the Eucharist wafer during Mass and all are now considered to be apocryphal.However, Niall has pointed out to me that there must have been some contemporary concern about people getting up close and personal with the relics, as he has found an ordnance which forbids pilgrims to lick them.

Fulk made four pilgrimages to Jerusalem over the course of his life. The first was in 1003, and as usual with Fulk there are conflicting stories as to why he went on pilgrimage. One story, the best known, is that it was to atone for having burnt his first wife at the stake (and for burning a considerable portion of the population of Angers in their own homes before this when laying seige to his wife, who was holed up in the city, after he accused her of adultery). The other story, probably more likely, is that it was to atone for the loss of Christian life in his battle against Count Conan of Rennes in 992.

The second pilgrimage was in 1008, when he was ordered to go by King Robert II as penance for murdering an enemy. Once again, there are two different versions of the events that led to Fulk going on pilgrimage. Much of Fulk's life was concentrated on acquiring the territories around Tours and Blois, and there are indications that he killed an unnamed opponent inside the cloister of Saint Martin's in Tours. The monks, horrified, performed a curious ritual where they scattered their holy relics on the floor of the church and surrounded them with thorns in response. They only restored order once Fulk had formally repented and been sent on pilgrimage. The second version is that he killed Hugues de Beauvais, the King's favourite, right in front of the monarch and on the orders of Queen Constance, who was his cousin and to whom he was close.

I'm inclined towards the first version of events because although it is nowhere clearly stated that Fulk murdered someone in the cloister, the monks did respond to something he did in this peculiar and distinctive way. He and Queen Constance were undoubtedly close, and she gave him a piece of the Virgin's girdle, which he donated to the church in Loches, now known as Saint Ours, but then dedicated to Notre Dame. However, no one seems to be able to establish exactly who this Hugues de Beauvais was (as in his parentage, birth date, etc), and I would have guessed that cold bloodedly killing the King's favourite in his presence on a hunting trip might have resulted in a more severe and long lasting punishment than being ordered to go on pilgrimage.

His third pilgrimage, in 1035, was in the company of Robert of Normandy, who died on the return journey. Fulk himself died while returning from his fourth pilgrimage in 1038. On the third and fourth pilgrimages Fulk appointed himself as protector of pilgrims to the Holy Land, travelling with troops he employed to guard all pilgrims against robbery, enslavement and murder.

Where's Wally?

The building is the town hall in Beaulieu lès Loches, for those of you who like to know such things.

Mysterious Masonry

Betcha don't know what this is.

I didn't. I was confident it was a fancy well cover, but I was wrong. It's not a truncated lookout tower either.

It is early 18th century, on the front of the former priory at Beaulieu-lès-Loches. It is apparently, according to the ever useful Compagnonnage (Artisans Guilds) website, an architectural structure called une trompe ('a trunk'), and a very beautiful one at that.

It seems to have been a sort of outdoor pulpit for the prior, as well as providing internal access to the upper floor of the priory. The technical term in English for its pulpit function is a 'tribune'. In French this architectural feature is often referred to as une trompe de Montpellier, and for those of you who read French there is a nerdy discussion of what the specification for une trompe de Montpellier is and whether this structure fits the description (read the comments). There is also an interesting link to some similar structures known as coquilles ('shells').

It has been 'restored' in the past using cement, which hasn't done it any favours, and it isn't currently in particularly good condition. The soft limestone (tuffeau) has suffered over the years just with the action of the weather upon it.

Fifteenth Century Milanese Champleve Furniture

Mondays in Milan / Les lundis en Lombardie

The photo above shows a detail of the champlevé decoration on the front of a cassone (chest). Chests like this were often painted, but when unpainted were decorated with intaglio (ie part of the wood was carved away to reveal a low relief decorative scheme). Sometimes sections of the raised decoration were built up with a paste and gilded. On the one above, the background has been filled with a dark green paste, in order to make the bright colour of the natural wood stand out in the raised parts. The scene shows people gathered around the Fountain of Life. The technique and the decorative motifs such as the animals in foliage volutes indicate a Northern European taste that was fashionable in Milan at the time. Because they were so decorative many of these chests (or at least, their decorated front panel) survive.

The photo above shows a detail of a champlevé decorated table top displayed in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. The top is engraved around the margin with various scenes from the popular romances of the day -- the Stag Hunt, the Fountain of Love, the Legend of Tristan and Isolde and the Judgement of Paris. This section must be part of the Stag Hunt. 

These romances functioned at one level as popular entertainment for the aristocratic households, but they are also moral tales. Today the most well known is Tristan and Isolde, which for modern audiences is a fairly straightforward tragic love story, with a beautiful young doomed heroine forced into a distateful marriage with a much older man, a handsome young doomed hero forced to watch his beloved in a loveless marriage, and a ruthless old villian who cares nothing for any of this. On the other hand, for medieval audiences, Tristan and Isolde are more like tragic anti-heroes. The medieval audience recognised the tragedy, to be sure. They acknowledged that the love affair was fate and that neither character could help themselves, but the story also carries a strong and darker message about how selfish they were and how much they hurt the people around them by their uncontrollable urge to be together. In other words, King Mark is not necessarily the villian of the piece, and Tristan, by his desperate marriage to the other Isolde, does not come out of it very well.

Comb-crested Jacana

The Comb-crested Jacana Irediparra gallinacea can walk on water (or at least, on floating vegetation). It is a native of the tropical north and east of Australia, Borneo and the Philippines, living on freshwater bodies amongst the lotuses and water lilies. This one was photographed at Fogg Dam in the Northern Territory.

They have extremely long toes and weigh well under 100 g, allowing them to simply stride across the water, skipping from water lily leaf to water lily leaf, catching insects and pecking at seeds. They even build their nests on the floating vegetation.

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QUIZ UPDATE: The results of the quiz about the park bench have been added to the post. The winner on points is Lapre Delaforge.

Thinking About Lait Ribot

I've written about lait ribot before, but just felt like writing about it again.

If you are Breton drinking lait ribot is a traditional alternative to cider with your galettes. It's a product that has a myriad of modern uses in the kitchen as well.

When you make butter by churning cream, a whitish liquid appears. This is called buttermilk in English, petit-lait in French and lait ribot in Breton.

Nowadays real buttermilk, with its slightly lumpy consistency, isn't available. Instead what you get is skim milk fermented with certain bacteria (different to those in regular yoghurt). Essentially it's a drinking yoghurt, more liquid and more acidic that regular yoghurt. In French supermarkets it's always sold fresh, in tetrapaks or plastic bottles, in the refrigerated dairy section. It lasts for weeks in the fridge (much longer than yoghurt, even after you've opened it). Shake it before pouring as it tends to separate a bit.

Generally it is used cold, although you can use it in baked goods. Here are some great uses for it:

• pour a little over your galettes (Breton buckwheat pancakes) or boiled potatoes (a Breton tradition).
• use it instead of milk in muffins, scones or pancakes. It will make them more moist and aerated.
• use it instead of cream in a cold soup (zucchini, pea...).
• make a marinade for chicken, with curry powder and coriander leaf. Brush the chicken pieces with the marinade and barbecue or grill. It will tenderise and flavour the chicken.
• use it to make low fat versions of desserts such as clafoutis or panna cotta.
• make Indian style fruit milkshakes (lassis) by blending with peaches, raspberries or mangoes.

Hanging from the Ceiling

This year's annual hibernating bat survey took place on 23 January. We saw more individual bats than last year but fewer species.

Can you spot the Lesser Horseshoe Bat snoozing amongst the stalagctites?

In the cellars of the chateau de Cingé we saw 15 individuals.

Stalagmites forming on the floor of a cave under the houses
along rue des pavillons, Preuilly sur Claise.

In the abandoned limestone quarries of Preuilly sur Claise we saw 22 individuals, comprising:

• 13 Lesser Horseshoe Bat (Fr. Petit Rhinolphe) R. hipposideros (compared to 10 overall last year).
• 5 Greater Horseshoe Bat (Fr. Grand Rhinolphe) Rhinolophus ferrumequinum (compared to 4 overall last year).
• 2 Geoffroy's Bat (Fr. Murin à oreilles échancrées) Myotis emarginatus (none recorded last year).
• 2 Whiskered Bat (Fr. Murin à moustaches) M. mystacinus (compared to 7 overall last year).
• last year 5 additional species were seen.

Greater Horseshoe Bat, Preuilly.

Because we were encountering so many horseshoe bats we had to try to move through the caves quickly and quietly whilst not missing any bats hiding away in crevices. The horseshoe species are especially susceptible to disturbance and wake from their torpor relatively easily. For this reason I have very few photos, and none taken with flash, so the quality is poor. If the bats wake up to the extent that they are alert and / or fly they expend a lot of valuable energy. It could mean they don't have sufficient reserves to make it through the winter, and the smaller the bat the worse this problem could be. Lesser Horseshoe Bats are very small indeed and need a particularly good fat reserve because they tend to hibernate longer than other similar sized small bats. We found horseshoe bats in several surprising places, such as in amongst the stalagctites (photo above) and hanging from a rock in a side gallery, less than 20 cm from the floor of the cave.

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A la cuisine hier: Chicken escalopes with well seasoned roast vegetables and salad.

Rustic Park Bench

We haven't had a quiz for a while so I thought this rustic park bench was a good opportunity.

• 1 point if you can tell me where this is (there is a fairly obvious clue in the photo).
• 2 points if you can tell me what the bench is made of.
• 2 points if you can tell me when this bench was installed here (I don't know exactly but can make an educated guess. Anyone who gives me the right decade will get points. There is a possible clue in yesterday's post.)
• 1 point for every other example of this type of rustic architecture or park furniture that you can list.
• Points will be awarded for any other interesting or entertaining information on the subject.

UPDATE

The bench is in Bléré and made of concrete (see the comments below for a description). I suspect it was installed in the 1850s when there was a real craze for it and when the establishment and improvement of public parks was at its peak. There are many examples (too many to list) of this faux bois all over the Touraine Loire Valley and in Paris. The Parc des Buttes Chaumont comes to mind immediately, but also house just a few doors down the street from this park bench has an entrance made of it too.

2 points to chm, who has correctly identified the material the bench is made of. He made a good logical guess for the place, but he is wrong, and I suspect, much too late with the decade.

Lepre Delaforge is exactly right about how it is made (2 points) and when it became fashionable (1 point for this as he didn't say when he thought this bench dated from). A point for naming another example and 2 more points for all his extra information. A total of 6 points.

Mary and Bill get a point for their example.

Blog reader J-L M sent me an email to tell me he was very familiar with this particular bench and sent me a Streetview link to prove it. He gets a point for knowing where it was and 2 points for his extra info. Apparently his grandmother was installed in the maison de retraite signposted behind the bench, so he passed it quite often.

La Chapelle de Jehan de Seigne, Blere

The small town of Bléré sits on the left bank of the Cher, to the east of Tours. In a park in the middle of town there is a funerary chapel. It's there because the park was once a cemetery, that was closed in 1840. This small solitary building is a rare example of its type, constructed in 1526 in the style fashionable in the Touraine in the early Renaissance.

Guillaume de Seigné was the Lord of la Lande, Boispateau and Bois-Ramé, Governor of Montrichard, as well as Treasurer General of the Royal Artillery between 1518 and 1526. In 1515 he participated in the victorious battle at Marignano near Milan with his new King, the 21 year old François I. In 1520 he was responsible for the manufacture and transportation of the tents and pavillions for the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold gathering, where Henry VIII of England and François I met, embraced and proclaimed their enduring friendship, jousted, danced and schmoozed their opposite number's Queen, all with very few long-term results.

The chapel was probably begun by Guillaume, but we know it was finished by his son Jehan in honour of his father. The building is a cube with a polygonal apse and topped by an octagonal stone cupola resting on a plinth. Originally it had a lantern at the very top, finishing the cupola. The robust classical entablature still has some elements of a balustrade and gargoyles. The treatment of the three facades is equally robust. There are hints at triumphal arches and the corners are buttressed so they appear thrusting and accentuated. The door opens under a basket handle vault that joins two columns and is topped by an architrave with foliage, military paraphenalia and a curved pediment. The windows are a hybrid of two styles. The vaulted interior of the chapel is Flamboyant Gothic, with capitals and Renaissance style niches. Today there is no trace of a tomb or the original furnishings.

The style of ornament, consisting of diamonds, candelabra and scrolls, is typical of the early Renaissance. The military paraphenalia (cannons and flaming grenades) refer to the career of the deceased. The elegance and refinement with which the motifs are carved suggests an Italian artist was responsible for the work.

Last year an association called Les amis de la Chapelle Jehan de Seigne was formed to raise money to restore the building. Donations to the fund can be made via the Fondation du Patrimoine website. They are aiming to raise over €700 000 through donations and grants and have the total support of their local council.

In 1913 the chapel was in a poor state, damaged and with the lantern already gone. A restoration project was started, only to be halted by the outbreak of the First World War. Since then it has had no major work done on it. The Friends of the Chapel association and the local council plans to do the restoration in four phases: first the upper parts, costing €300 000; then the western facade (the front of the building), €150 000; then the apse, €100 000 and finally the interior, €150 000. The direction régionale des Affaires culturelles (DRAC) will provide 40% of the funding, the Region Centre Val de Loire 20% and the Conseil Géneral d'Indre et Loire 15%. That leaves €175 000 for the Friends and the council to find from beneficiaries, corporate sponsorship and a subscription. The council has promised €50 000 per year (1% of their operating budget) over the life of the project, if possible as a sort of bridging finance, so the amount which needs to be actively raised from small individual donations seems much more realistic.

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Au jardin hier: Wild grape hyacinths, wild violets and wild pansies are out in the grass and vegetable beds. The apricot is showing a bit of pink in its buds, but not out yet.Yellow crocuses have been replaced by purple ones.

Cowslips Already

The cowslips are well and truly out in the Touraine du Sud. These were photographed last Friday in Niall and Antoinette's lawn. They've been out for several weeks, as have grape hyacinths, and our hyacinths are out too. The orangey red cowslip in the photo below is quite a common mutation. I've seen it in the wild in several places locally.

Last year's cowslip photo was taken a few days prior to this year's, but it's obvious the flowers this year have been out for longer before we got to them. This is the tenth year we have posted a photo of cowslips in flower.