Catching the Train to the Chateau d'Azay le Rideau

The station at Tours has a series of 18 painted ceramic panels decorating the walls. Their purpose is to beautify the station concourse and entice travellers to the destinations portrayed. At present the panels are badly in need of conservation and a crowd-funding campaign is underway to raise the money to save them. Each panel will cost €8000 to clean, conserve and reattach the tiles to the walls. You can see a small test patch on this panel where conservators have cleaned to see what the effect will be. To learn more about the restoration fund and the panels themselves go to Ulule Gare Tours (in French).

We thought that it might be fun to show one of the panels every now and then, with the timetable information for how one gets there from Tours today. Azay le Rideau is a simple half hour journey from Tours. The station is on the outskirts of this attractive village, and it is a walk of 2 km to the centre of the village to get to the lovely chateau from the station.

Update: The City of Tours announced today that it would fund the restoration of a panel and has chosen this one.

Coriander Induced Musings

Parmesan cheese smells of vomit. It actually does, and especially the ready-grated stuff. That's because the two things share some volatile chemicals that create aroma. However, even though smell and taste are inextricably linked, the human brain, a master of cognitive dissonance, is perfectly happy to focus on the delicious savoury umami taste and very few people dislike parmesan cheese. The British like it so much that the Italians can't believe how much they use -- more is consumed in Britain than in Italy. It's not the only cheese that has a pungent pong either, as anyone who has taken a Pont l'Eveque home in their suitcase after their holiday in Normandy will know (ahem...). Quite a few highly prized cheeses share volatiles with stinky feet. Whether you eat and enjoy them or not is a matter of exposure to them ie whether you are used to them or not.

About a fifth of people of northern European origin utterly loathe coriander leaf (known to you by its Spanish name cilantro if you are from the US). I remember being told years ago that the Vietnamese word for coriander was the same as their word for stink bug. I've been unable to verify that, but I have discovered that the word coriander itself comes from an ancient Greek word for stinking bug and that the ancient Greeks were very familiar with the herb (and, undoubtedly, stinking bugs...).

A Hawthorn Shield Bug Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale, an archetypal stink bug, ambling about in the Forest of Loches. 

Many smells come from a group of volatile organic chemicals called aldehydes. Many people, like me, will describe the smell of coriander as like that of stink bugs. It turns out that coriander shares an aldehyde called trans Decenal 2 with stink bugs. It's an aroma that occurs naturally in foods as diverse as milk, tea and caviar as well as coriander, carrots and pork, and has been synthesised or extracted for use in the food and cosmetics industries. It is described as a fatty orange rose aldehydic floral green and the taste is fatty fried citrus.

Some people who think coriander smells like stink bugs loathe the stuff. Others, like me, love it. The difference is how our smell receptors respond to certain aldehydes. For some people, some stinky aldehydes seem to overwhelm everything else. Simon appears to be one of these people. For him, lavender smells of  stale sweat, not a mix of lovely astringent herbal scents. Likewise he hates rosemary, sage, cloves, cinnamon, saffron and nutmeg. Neither of us are keen on mint of any sort.

Simon is one of a small group of people who say that coriander tastes metallic. He has the same reaction to parsley. This group of people seem to be very sensitive to bitter tastes. Simon will taste the bitter elements in many green vegetables that I don't even notice, or perhaps enjoy. I like a good combination of bitter and sweet, such as good honey has or intense dark chocolate. Endive doesn't have much to recommend it though, it has to be said.

A packet of coriander from the supermarket. 

Auchan in Chatellerault is one of the few places apart from the specialist Asian supermarket Paris Store in Tours Nord that  I can usually rely on getting coriander around here. Sometimes they even have big bunches.

The French for stink bug is punaise (='stinker'). A French person will often tell you that punaises smell like stale almonds. Frankly, I don't know what stale almonds smell like, but presumably that cyanidey odour that too much almond essence gives you.

These sorts of very intense differences in perception of  taste and smell appear to be genetic, involving two genes linked to bitter taste and one to pungent flavours. Nearly half of Europeans have two copies of one of these genes, some have none. A significant number of these people report that coriander tastes soapy. Describing coriander as tasting soapy seems to be the 21st century version of describing them as smelling of stink bugs. I guess fewer people are exposed to stink bugs these days. As usual though, genetics isn't the whole story. Cultural background makes a huge difference, and for coriander lovers or haters this is possibly more significant. If you come from an Hispanic, Near Eastern or South-east Asian background you are much more likely than not to love coriander despite any genetic indicators. Like the cheeses, it's a matter of exposure.

Here and There: Butcheries

 Above, the butchers in the small Australian town I grew up in; 

below, its equivalent in Preuilly.

I've blogged about the Preuilly butcher before.
*********************************

A la cuisine hier: Sag Aloo, South Asian style spinach (sag) and potatoes (aloo) served with rice.

Salt pork and beans -- soak beans (I used local lingots, a type of white dried beans like cannellini) then cook. Cook the salt pork (I used a jambonneau demi-sel, a brined knuckle, weighing just under 2 kg) in 3 - 4 litres of water with a bouquet garni or several sprigs of thyme and a couple of bay leaves. The pork will take several hours of slow cooking and needs to be just about falling off the bone. Dice two onions and fry them. Dice two carrots and four sticks of celery (I used our homegrown). Break up the pork and discard the bone, skin, fat and herbs. Put the meat back in the cooking liquid, along with the drained beans and vegetables. Cook gently until the carrots are soft. Season to taste with chilli or pepper and serve in bowls as a soup.

********************************************

Au jardin hier: I planted a row each of garlic and onions yesterday. My usual varieties -- Thermador and Stuttgarter Reisen. I'll plant another row of onions soon. The aged orchard neighbours are most impressed with Tim's mowing and my 'hay' raking. Other oldies have gone past the orchard and noticed the cut grass piled high around all the trees and it meets with universal approval as something very good for the trees. I was also interested that today one of them informed me that cutting the way we did is much better than whizzing around on a ride-on mower. This same person asked me what I did with my orchids -- soup? (that was a joke). I got teased a bit because their garlic is already 10 cm high and I am running late as usual. I also got asked if I was going to sow broad beans and peas and if I saved my own seeds. The answer to the second question is no, which induced teeth sucking -- buying seeds is expensive! I said I might sow broad beans to overwinter, but was worried the rodents would eat them. The aged one has a cat, but agreed it was a problem down at the orchard.

Rummaging around in the compost I unearthed several rose chafer grubs, a violet ground beetle larva, two disposable razors and a box for keeping AA batteries in for the camera. Hmmm...

Just as I was packing up to leave the orchard at about 5.15 pm (sunset at this time of year) a flock of 35 cranes flew over. As usual I heard them first. They were coming from the north-westish and heading south-eastish, for an overnight stop in the Brenne I would guess. Another small flock had gone through an hour earlier, but those I only heard, didn't see.

Life in the Colonies

Recently my father sent me some geneology research he's been dabbling in for the last few decades. Perhaps the most interesting family document of all is a letter from my great great grandmother in Australia to her sister back in Devon, England. My paternal great great grandmother was born Elizabeth Wickett, on New Years Day 1801 in Cornwall, England. She died near Geelong, Victoria, in the south east of Australia in 1874. The letter is dated 15 May 1854. Here is an extract:

Dear and Loving Sister, I have had a great desire for a long time to hear from you. I thought you would have writen to me, or one of my brothers long ago, but I think you have almost forgotten me or you do not think it worth your while to write to your eldest sister who is now in a distant land from you, but I can assure you I have not forgotten you nor my dear brothers ethor how it would rejoice my heart to see you all once more in time that I might tell you what I have seen and past through since I saw you last and also hear you talk about home and what you have had to pas through I suppose you are all getting on well as touching this worlds goods for we are informed that times are very brisk in England now: But I should still be much more glad to hear from you that you all are walking in the way of heaven for then by the help of God we should soon meet again where we might listen to each other tell how Jesus hath Done all things well. I am happy that Samuel hath chosen the Lord for his portion, happy choice may the Lord keep him in the Slippery path of youth. I have also heard By Mary Luxmore that Sarah Ann hath left Mr Walkey on account of bad health I was very sorry for that, But I do hope By this time she is quite restored and that she and all the family are now enjoying good health. I now hasten to let you know a little about our family and this colony, their is no doubt But you have heard of the Death of Elizth Ann. She was ill only one weekof typhus fever before she left this world, we hope to be forever with the Lord. it was a great treil to me to part with her. Charlotte is married with Mr. Richard Hamm sone of Henery, he is a nice young man and hath bin very Sucksesful at the gold diggings above one thousand pounds worth of gold fell to his share. John is lately married with his uncle Rogers daughter Fanny Ann, the rest of our children are living with us and enjoying tolerable good health. the times are very good in this colony for all sorts of industrious people. wheat is woth one pound per Bushel 60lb. Barley 10/- and strange as it is Oats is 15/- per Bushel 40lb.potatoes 6 pence per pound hay is woth £25 per ton. We shall make this year at least £1500 of hay. labour horses are worth £150 each a pare of Oxen £50 and a good cow £15. Masons and carpenters 30/- per day, labour men from 15/- to £1 per day, Ducks are £1 cupple fowls 10/-, eggs 6 pence each, butter 5/- lb. Money is very plenty I can assure you we have more of it than we should if we had lived in England all our days. John says if we were to give up Bisnes now our incom would be above £700 a year. I hope Dear friends you will not think I name these Bostingly I can assure you I do not it is only to let you know what people can do for themselves and theire familys with the Blessing of heaven on them in this colony.

When Elizabeth left England she was married and living in a farmhouse in north Devon. The farmhouse is now a listed historic building I see, but unfortunately I don't have a photo of it. This is a drawing of it done by my sister [photo courtesy of my father]. It is a Devon longhouse with later additions.

 Neither do I have a picture of the farmhouse where she lived in Australia, and it no longer exists. This is a painting of the homestead commissioned by my uncle just before the building was demolished [photo courtesy of my father].

River Bank Management

The Indre River at Pont de Ruan.

From this (above) to this (below).

The Ash Fraxinus exelsior trees on one of the islands in the river at Pont de Ruan were coppiced earlier this year. The trees grow right on the edge of the island and their roots form a retaining structure preventing the island from being undermined by the flow of water. Ash is often used in this way in France. It likes a moist environment and takes well to being coppiced.

Coppicing is the practice of regularly cutting trees back to a stump known as a stool then allowing them to shoot again. The word is an anglicisation of couper the French word 'to cut'. The cutting part of coppicing is done every 5 to 30 years, depending on what diameter of regrowth is wanted. The regrowth tends to be straight and often has a commercial value. The straight dense but flexible wood of Ash has been used in France for thousands of years for tool handles -- everything from prehistoric spears to garden forks sold in the brico stores.

The reason for coppicing these trees is primarily to keep the landscape stable. It reduces their tops so wind rock is not a problem. The trees develop massive root systems compared to their tops, which is ideal for stabilising the banks of the island. Coppicing has the added benefit that it will triple the lifespan of the tree (or even more). Unmanaged Ash has a lifespan of about 200 years, but a coppiced Ash could live 1000 years.

*******************************************************

Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Variable Bluet Coenagrion pulchellum damselfly.
A new entry has been added for big rivers habitat.

*************************************

A la cuisine hier: Keema a South Asian curry using minced meat, served with rice. The leftovers will get made into Samosas at some stage.

*****************************************************

Honey Decline: Chris Luck has written a sobering post on his blog. Every year his honey yield goes down. It's not because he has less bees or because they are unhealthy or dying. It's because there is less and less for them to forage on every year. The bees aren't starving -- yet -- but they can't produce as much excess over and above what the hive needs to reproduce and survive that Chris can harvest.

Reconstructing Agnes

The face of Agnès Sorel has been reconstructed in digital 3D. The result is striking.

Is it the beautiful face that caused Charles VII to fall deeply in love and proclaim Agnès the first official royal mistress? It seems very likely. As a rare blue eyed blonde Agnès certainly stood out from the majority dark haired dark eyed crowd at court, but she wasn't just a pretty face. She was educated (speaking several languages for instance), charming and cultured. The king openly involved her in and consulted her on matters of state and it was this public role that gives her historical significance and resulted in her becoming a romantic legend in France (although almost unknown outside the country).

 The copy of Jehan Fouquet's painting of the Madonna, for which Agnès is the model, that hangs in the Logis royal in Loches.

Philippe Froesch, from Visualforensic in Barcelona, has done many digital facial reconstructions, and the popular television programme Des Racines et des Ailes was the first to reveal the images. The Cité Royale de Loches website has an image of the new facial reconstruction of Agnès and a video of the section of the programme on Agnès embedded*. The programme is in French of course, and is about royal favourites.

The resulting reconstruction is impressive. With up to date digital imaging software it is now possible to show very fine detail of the skin texture, hair, eyes. Agnès's face had already been reconstructed in 2005, after her tomb was opened as part of reinstating it in the church of Saint Ours, but in digital terms, the technology used then is ancient. It meant that a scan of her skull already existed though, and the current reconstruction used it as a starting point. Her skull, which is housed in a terracotta urn inside the tomb is very well preserved and that combined with the new technology has allowed a very realistic and detailed reconstruction. The colour of her hair for example was based on the remains of her eyebrows still attached to the skull as well as on contemporary descriptions of her. Dr Philippe Charlier, who examined her remains as part of the 2004 exhumation and confirmed that she had consumed an extremely high dose of mercury prior to her death (about 10 ml) was also involved with this reconstruction. Whether the mercury was a mistake in the dose or a deliberate poisoning is something Dr Charlier refuses to be drawn on. (My money's on deliberate poisoning, at the orders of the future Louis XI.) He did note however that she had malaria, but that it was not the cause of death.

The marble effigy of Agnès on her tomb in Saint Ours church, Loches.

(taken by Simon who is tall and clever and can manage such things)

This new reconstruction shows a distinct resemblance to the woman in the painting by Jehan Fouquet. The painting is of the Virgin and Child, commissioned by Etienne Chevalier after Agnès's death, but it has always been accepted that Agnès was the model. Jehan would have seen Agnès often in life and probably had many sketches of her. You can see the same large eyes, small mouth and high forehead in the painting and the reconstruction. Fouquet's painting also shows us the full breasts of a nursing mother and a slender fine boned figure. Sadly, whilst the technology allows us to reconstruct Agnès's head in full detail, it is unlikely we will ever see a full body reconstruction according to Philippe Charlier, even if we had the rest of her skeleton.

Nowadays the only extant contemporary three dimensional representation of Agnès is the effigy on the tomb. This too matches the skull almost perfectly, probably because the sculptor would have based the work on a death mask. The modern reconstructor worked in a remarkably similar way. The image is 'sculpted' by hand, the software does not do it for you automatically. Surprisingly, the digital reconstructor relies more on contemporary painted images than on contemporary sculptures for certain information about an historical character's appearance. The reason is that all artists vary in skill, but lack of skill and errors in proportion are more exaggerated in a three dimensional work than in a two dimensional work.

*If you watch the video to the end you will see our friend Tony Williams talking about the Brenne. He's an LPO warden on a nature reserve there. 

****************************************************

A la cuisine hier: Lamb liver, marinated in buttermilk then crumbed and fried. Lamb liver is less than half the price of veal liver but often not available so I was pleased to get some at Loches market yesterday. Served with mashed potatoes and gravy made from onions, bacon and red wine. Followed by squidgy chocolate pudding made by Simon, with custard.

Big Laughing Jim

 A couple of weeks ago someone brought these big yellow mushrooms to a fungi foray. I'd never seen or heard of this species before, but it turns out to be very interesting for more than just its size and yellowness.

This is Gymnopilus junonius, otherwise known as the Spectacular Rustgill and it is one of the magic mushrooms. It is hideously bitter (as confirmed by someone on the outing who tasted a bit, then spat) and apparently turns green if you cook it. It contains the hallucinogen psilocybin and a neurotoxin as well as a couple of other mind bending chemicals. One of the various effects of psilocybin is uncontrollable laughter, leading to this species having the nickname of Big Laughing Jim. However, the quantities of interesting chemicals vary considerably from mushroom to mushroom and from place to place. Sadly for all you unreformed hippies out there who can't wait to get out foraging after reading this, the species is more likely to make you very sick than give you a trip. Plus, small ones can easily be mistaken for the deadly Galerina spp.

*********************************************

Moss Outing: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine has organised a joint outing with the Société des Sciences de Châtellerault to look at mosses on Sunday 23 November. Meet at 2 pm in the carpark for the Lac de la Forêt on the RD910.

Coming from Tours or Sainte Maure by the A10 or D910: From the A10 take the Châllerault Nord exit. Take the bypass to the right of the roundabout. 

Coming on the D910 from Ingrandes: At the second roundabout go towards the A10 crossing the Vienne and at the roundabout, take the second exit on to the bypass.

Then follow the bypass (several sets of lights) towards Poitiers. At the Châteauneuf roundabout continue straight through up to another roundabout and go right towards Le Lac. Then continue to the left at the roundabout then right at the following roundabout.

Catching the Train to les Gorges du Tarn

The station at Tours has a series of 18 painted ceramic panels decorating the walls. Their purpose is to beautify the station concourse and entice travellers to the destinations portrayed. At present the panels are badly in need of conservation and a crowd-funding campaign is underway to raise the money to save them. Each panel will cost €8000 to clean, conserve and reattach the tiles to the walls. To donate to the restoration fund go to Ulule Gare Tours.

We thought that it might be fun to show one of the panels every now and then, with the timetable information for how one gets there from Tours today. Sadly, getting to the Gorges du Tarn is obviously a long and convoluted journey these days if you want to go by train from Tours, but it does involve catching a sleeper train, so that could be fun.

*******************************************

Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Mosaic Landscapes, a sort of overview of typical landscape scale environments for the Touraine Loire Valley and Brenne. A single photo at present, but more will be added eventually.

********************************************

A la cuisine hier: Tomato soup, made by roasting boring supermarket tomatoes with onions and carrots then pureeing and adding vegetable stock, tomato powder, a dash each of balsamic vinegar and worcestershire sauce and some seasonings.

Drop scones, or as you may know them, pikelets, or Scottish pancakes, or dropped scones. I haven't made these for years.

Tombola Sage

I won this gorgeous fuzzy purple sage in a tombola (lucky dip) at the annual Verneuil plant fair in May this year. It was just labelled as sauge bleu, and I was assured it was a most beautiful plant. I love blue and lavender coloured sages so was perfectly happy, even though it was clearly something easy to propagate as the tombola prize room had dozens of them. I was expecting something like an inferior form of Salvia guaranitica, the stunning tall royal blue South American sage which I also have in the front courtyard.

What I got was completely unexpected. The flowers are white, with extraordinary fuzzy rich purple lavender calyxes. It is still flowering in mid-November! It is clearly a thoroughly gardenworthy plant.

A quick trawl around the interwebs tells me that it is Mexican Sage Salvia leucantha. I'd never encountered this plant before and I am really surprised. Obviously everyone who has one loves it. My only complaint is that in its native Mexico, hummingbirds find it very attractive and will visit eagerly to nectar at the flowers. Why haven't I had hummingbirds? I want hummingbirds.

I'll try and propagate it for anyone who reads the blog and has a garden in the Touraine who might want it. Email me if you are interested.

***********************************************

Loire Valley Nature: An entry has been added to help you understand and use the extensive system of walking trails in France, with links to sources for maps (printed and online).

Here and There: Ambulance Service

Above, the ambulance service base for the small Australian town I grew up in; 

below, its equivalent in Preuilly.

The ambulance service and the people who work for the service are habitually referred to these days as 'the ambos' in Australia. For a brief overview of the comparison between services in Australia and Europe, see this article by an ambo from my home town.

Flynn of the Outback

This unusual memorial on the side of the road just outside of Alice Springs is the grave of the Reverend John Flynn and his wife Jean. He lobbied tirelessly for those living in remote areas of Australia to receive the same 'mantle of safety' of services and communications that those on the coast had easy access to. As a result, the Flying Doctor Service was set up.

Choosing to transfer to a tiny and remote community in 1911 when he was in his early 30s, he initially set up several bush hospitals. But by 1917 he was thinking of the potential of radio and aircraft for an acute medical service, and the first flight of the newly formed service was achieved in 1928. It was the first air ambulance service in the world, and continues its vital work today.

Flynn died in 1951.

*******************************************

Fungi Foray: The Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine has organised a fungi outing to the Etangs de Narbonne for Saturday 15 November. Meet at the carpark for the Maison pour Tous, Joué lès Tours at 2.00 pm. The fungi gathered will be displayed and identified in the carpark after the outing.

From Boulevard Jean Jaurès, turn into rue de la Douzillère. The Maison pour Tous is at the foot of the water tower.

Humungeous Hornets Nest

Anyone who has driven into Preuilly from the Loches direction or who reads our friend Gaynor's blog will have noticed that there is a humungeous Yellow-legged Asian Hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax (Fr. le Frelon asiatique à pattes jaunes) nest in a tree close to the road just as you enter Preuilly. The nest is clearly very active (you can see hornets crawling all over it), and since this species is an invasive alien, you are obliged to report nests to the authorities. 

I figured someone would already have done so, but I emailed the mairie (town hall) anyway. I wanted to know how long it would take them to respond and what they would do (ie how seriously they would treat it).

A couple of days later our friend Dominique Robin, who is on the council, emailed me to say that the mairie already knew about the nest, the landowner had been tracked down and notified that it is his responsibility to deal with the nest.

So now it's a matter of waiting to see how quickly the landowner takes to get the nest treated and removed. What I am slightly worried about is that he will attempt a 'home treatment' rather than one of the approved professional pest controllers.  Hopefully it will be treated at dusk or early morning before the hornets have left home for a day of foraging, and the treated nest will be cut down and burned so there is no chance for birds to eat the poisoned grubs inside the nest.

 The nest will have been there all summer, but has only just become visible because the leaves have dropped from the tree. This is typical of how Asian Hornet nests are discovered. They are amazingly difficult to see until autumn.

By the time we had finished taking photos dusk was falling on a late October day.

A week later, this hornet and some of her mates were encountered feeding on ivy flowers. The nest is in a tree just the other side of a small valley to the ivy, so this hornet almost certainly came from there.

As of yesterday the nest is still there.

Update 27 November 2014: The nest features in an article in the local paper. Here's my translation:

Strange spheres have appeared in the trees and hedges of our region, posing some problems for the locals. Such is the case with a nest of Asian Hornets perched in the branches of a tree as you enter Preuilly sur Claise.

The destruction of these nuisances used to come under the responsibilities of the fire brigade. The current legislation envisages that these days the intervention is left to private companies and the fees are the responsibility of the land owner. The Asian Hornet is dangerous to man because of its sting, but is also one of the principle predators of honey bees. The disappearance of bees is a particularly worrying phenomenon. Not only is the apiculture sector significantly reducing, but bees are the principle pollinators of crops and wild flowers.  Without these precious insects a large part of the vegetation would no longer exist. Einstein said that if the bees disappear the human race would last no longer than four years. [This is utter rubbish, both in terms of attribution of the quote and the actual facts.] According to beekeepers the principle causes of their disappearance is sickness (brought by varroa mites and foulbrood), pesticides, monocultures and for some years now, the infamous Asian Hornet.

With this fourth factor, a problem arises when the land owners don't take up their responsibility, either through negligence or lack of resources. Many people are wondering whether the management of a plague of this magnitude should not be the responsibility of local or regional authorities, or even the national government.

For an alternative view on how much of a threat (or not...) they may be, Chris Luck has written an interesting blog post based on his recent experience of discovering an Asian Hornet's nest in his apiary. He's a beekeeper of many years standing as well as a very fine naturalist, who lives just the other side of the Brenne to us.

Faking Flint Flakes

The other day we were standing around in the garden of some friends and we noticed a pile of flint flakes. We didn't think they had just unearthed a hitherto unknown flint working site, although that is just what it looked like. I thought they must have accidently hit or dropped a flint nodule that was just lying around in the garden and it had shattered.

The real story was somewhat more interesting than just an accident though. They explained that last time local archaeologist and expert flint knapper Bertrand Walter had been giving a demonstration the heavens had opened and the demostration was hastily abandoned in a rush to get indoors. Our friends knew that Bertrand is very careful to clear away any trace of his demonstrations after they are concluded. So once the rain stopped they went in to the museum grounds and picked up all the pieces, removing them to their garden.

The reason Bertrand is so meticulous about clearing up is mainly because he is worried that unscrupulous people will pass the flint off as genuine prehistoric pieces, but also because flint shards are sharp and could injure someone.

Would You Eat These Mushrooms?

 Mushrooms on the table after a fungi foray waiting to be identified.

A basket of boletes.

The mushrooms in the basket are all edible. They belong to a group called boletes, of which the ceps are the best known and most prized. They grow in forests. There several species in the basket, mostly Orange Oak Bolete Leccinum aurantiacum, but also a few Bay-brown Bolete Boletus badius and Red-footed Bolete Boletus luridiformus. The person who picked them was only collecting for the table and has not touched anything they did not know to be edible. Boletes are the best beginners mushrooms here because they are safe -- none are lethal and the couple that will give you a stomach ache are unappetising looking (coloured or staining luridly) and/or bitter to taste. It's fairly difficult to poison yourself with a bolete. Boletes are distinctive and easy to recognise too. They are fat stemmed, nubuck capped, with thick spongey pores, not gills, underneath.

If you are picking mushrooms in the forest, make sure you do it by gently extracting the entire mushroom, root and all. This leaves the mycelia undisturbed and able to produce more fruiting bodies like the mushroom you have just picked. Don't use a rake to gather mushrooms as this will totally destroy the mycelia, and don't pick mushrooms by cutting through the stem with a knife. That leaves a wound which is vulnerable to bacterial attack, which will also kill the mycelia. Don't gather mushrooms from the side of the road or industrial sites either as they are known bio-accumulators, taking up heavy metals and radio-active substances.

The quantity here is obviously more than a nice omelette's worth, but never fear -- they freeze and dry well. To prepare them brush off all the dirt and bits of forest floor. Cut the bottom off the stem, then cut the mushroom in half. This allows you to assess how much fly larval activity there is inside. If you are lucky there will be none. In bad cases you may want to discard the mushroom. Otherwise, simply cut out the affected sections. You may also wish to peel off the spongey pores as they hold a lot of water and can interfere with cooking the mushroom. Slice the mushroom, including as much of the stem as you wish.

Boletes I picked in the Forest of Preuilly.
We ate them.

To freeze them my friend Paul advises preparing as above, then chopping the mushroom up. Spread out on paper towel and leave overnight, then freeze. Cook from frozen.

To dry them, slice them and lay on an oven rack at a low temperature overnight, perhaps with the door propped open slightly. Some species will go black, which makes them unappetising looking, but does not affect their flavour. Make sure they are completely dry or they will not store well.

To fry them from fresh Paul says that best practice is to cook them until they release their water, then drain the liquid before continuing to cook the mushrooms.

Boletes waiting to be identified after an outing in the Forest of Loches.

All of the mushrooms in the photo above are boletes too, but they have not been collected with the same aim in mind as the ones in the basket. These have been collected along with every other species of mushroom we could find in the forest. They've shared baskets with deadly poisonous species and with halucinogenic species. No one will be eating these mushrooms. They have been assembled simply to provide a learning opportunity. They will all be expertly identified and learners can discuss them and practice their identification skills in the presence of expert mentors. Then they are thrown away -- to prevent the possibility of an accident where pieces of toxic mushrooms get mixed in with the boletes someone eats.

Cornflowers for Remembrance

The cornflower memorial near Les Invalides, Paris.

The First World War was an historic watershed, in terms of its violence, duration and international nature. It marked the end of an era.

The end of the Great War in 1918 left a legacy of more than 20 million wounded and invalided, some severely disabled, who could no longer work. In addition, in the immediate aftermath of the war, all the effort was directed toward reconstruction, whether that be economic, human or infrastructure, and separate to programmes put in place by the State, private co-operative initiatives and associations of all sorts were born.

It was in this context that the Bleuet de France (Cornflower of France) saw the light of day.

The story of the creation of the Bleuet de France begins, having come out of the First World War, at the Institution Nationale des Invalides (the national military hospital and nursing home in central Paris). At its heart are two women of the time, listening to the suffering of their contemporaries: Charlotte Malleterre (daughter of the Commandant of the Hôtel National des Invalides) and Suzanne Leenhardt, both nurses at the Institution, who wished to help the disabled of the First World War. From 1925 they created a workshop for the pensioners of Les Invalides in which they made cornflowers from fabric in order to give them back some sort of normal life and partly support their needs by the sale of the flowers.

The wild cornflower was chosen as the national symbol of remembrance, but why? Several hypotheses exist.

• as a memory of the trenches, where new recruits would arrive in their blue uniforms and were dubbed bleuets by the older poilus (beardies).
• the wild cornflower, in the chaos wrought by man, despite the horror of the trenches, continued to grow on the field of battle.
• in hommage to the blue, the colour of the nation, the first colour on the tricolor flag.

Soon the initiative developed and became nationwide. People wanted to express their recognition  and come to the aid of these men who sacrificed their youth to defend France. That's why it was decided for 11 November 1934, for the first time, to sell the flowers made by the veterans, on the public street in the capital. 128 000 flowers were sold. It was a real success and followed by the State making the sale of cornflowers throughout France on 11 November official in 1935. After the Second World War, in 1957, the State created a second collection day on 8 May.

Then in 1991 the National Veterans and Victims of War Office decided to take on the administration of the work, which had been declining for some years. From a workshop making flowers a charity supporting veterans and victims of war has come through the 20th century with its goals intact and active.

Today, at the beginning of a new century, the work of the Bleuet de France continues on new fronts,  promoting alongside traditional social actions the transmission of memory as a real vector of solidarity between generations. 

For those of you who want to read all that in French, here it is. 

A poster calling for volunteers to help maintain and care for the graves of French soldiers in France and overseas, especially those which no longer have family to care for them. Le Souvenir Français is an organisation dedicated to maintaining the memory of those who have died for France. 

What is the Name of This Street?

We have blogged about this little dead end before.

However, I was looking at the cadastral map for Preuilly, and noticed there was punctuation shown on the maps on the new cadastre37 website run by the conseil générale of Indre et Loire.

When I came to writing this blog post I went to the French national government cadastral maps in error - and noticed that the punctuation is different.

 So - what IS the lane called?

Simon

Henbury Craters

 The Henbury Craters, 145 km south of Alice Springs, were formed by a meteorite impact about 4-5 thousand years ago. Several tonnes of iron-nickel fragments have been fossicked from the site. The largest of the dozen or so craters is 180 m across. The first person to study them was Arthur Alderman, a geology lecturer at Adelaide University. You can read his 1931 report here.

Exoprosopa sp

This Exoprosopa sp is one of a genus of generally large dark bee flies that occur worldwide. This one appeared to be common in outback Australia. They are related to Anthrax anthrax which we get here in the Touraine Loire Valley.

 

The Snail Farmer

 Petit-gris snail shell at back left with gros-gris shell next to it. The others are Roman snail shells.

Grégory Roy is a snail farmer (Fr. héliciculteur). His business, called L'Escargolette, is fully vertically integrated, as modern farmers like to say. That is, he controls the whole process from breeding and raising the snails to preparing them, marketing and selling them. The farm, near Ligueil, covers 300 m² (that's the size of our vegetable garden) and he has 80 000 head. He uses the words tête (head) and bêtes (beasts) just as any anglo grazier would.

Grég with a tray of snails in croustilles (edible shells made from flour paste baked in a special snail shell shaped mould).

 He has a nursery (he uses the English word) where he raises baby snails called naissains in French. They are tiny to begin with, only a few millimetres across and weighing half a gram. They are also delicate and very susceptible to overheating. He has to make sure to open up their greenhouse to ventilate it early in the morning before the sun hits it, or they cook and his whole next generation of stock is killed. He raises native petit-gris and gros-gris snails (Garden Snails) rather than the more usual escargots de Bourgogne (Roman Snails). The much larger Roman Snails make up 80% of the industry, but he prefers the flavour and texture of the smaller Garden Snails. The smaller snails also have the advantage that they are quicker to mature to consumable size. Garden Snails take about 4-6 years, whereas Roman Snails take 7 years. Customers can buy naissains or live fully grown snails if they have a yen to be a bit more hands on.

Toastines d'escargots on the left, escargots au court bouillon on the right.

 Once the snails are ready they are transformed into various traditional dishes -- Escargots farcis (snails in shells with parsley butter) €6.20/dozen; Escargots au court bouillon (jars of 4 dozen snails in bouillon) €16; Chairs d'escargots blanchies (purged snails without shells in bulk packs for restaurants); Toastine d'escargots (snails cooked in wine and parsley butter spread for toast) €6.80 a jar.

Escargot farcis.

 Grég didn't leave school with a burning ambition to become a snail farmer. He qualified as a plumber specialising in heating systems, but after a time wanted to get involved in agriculture as a sideline just because he was interested. He met a snail farmer, and initially he thought the idea of snail farming was a joke, but he slowly got more and more intrigued by the creatures themselves. He likes the problem solving aspect of snail farming. For example, snails have numerous predators, particularly birds and certain carnivorous mammals. Dealing with the birds was easy -- he just erected nets. But what to do about small mammals? His solution is ingenious to say the least. The farm has a perimeter track, which is patrolled by guinea pigs. The scent of these tame and strictly vegetarian rodents keeps away shrews and hedgehogs.

The snails get to eat about 30 different vegetable, forage and grass species, all grown on site without pesticides. In the mix are plants like Jerusalem artichoke, agricultural rape, clover, lucerne, rye and sunflower, to which Grég adds a supplement of powdered legumes. It's important to him to follow the traditional methods of raising snails, respect the soil, find locally sustainable ways of working and focus on the quality of the lifestyle and the product.

If you want to try snails, but are a bit hesitant, I suggest trying the toastine. It's a very tasty buttery garlicky parsley flavoured spread on a bit of crunchy toast. And if anyone can convince you to try some it's Grég. He's like many of these young men I see around here who are living and working their dream -- totally dedicated to making a success of his business, producing the best snails he can, educating the public about the product and spreading the word about how delicious they are. If you go to the farmers markets in the Touraine du Sud you will quite likely encounter Grég and his snails. I would have linked to his website, but he claims to be a paysan (peasant) living in the middle of nowhere, so he doesn't have good internet connection and doesn't use email or a website. These photos were taken at the annual autumn market held in the farmyard of Maison Perrin, a foie gras and fat duck producer whose farm is located between la Celle Guenand and le Grand Pressigny.

I first met Grég several years ago at an informal meeting of organic producers which we blogged about at the time.

******************************************

A la cuisine hier: Curry Goat, with bits of goat that have been marinating in a spicy rub for a couple of days. After frying the goat pieces I added onions, then garlic, a can of tomatoes, some water, coconut milk and lime juice. Then it got two hours of slow cooking on the wood stove. Jamaican food is not for the faint hearted. Not because it is spicy hot necessarily, but because it is rich -- if it isn't deep fried it is dosed with coconut milk. The curry will have potatoes added today and cook for another hour and be served with rice'n'peas (more coconut milk...).

Muesli, a simple matter of combining two packets of mixed rolled cereals (wheat, oats, barley and rye), a packet of sultanas, one of sunflower seeds and a cup of linseeds. Two cups of unbleached almonds were toasted and added, and a packet of the leatheriest dried apricots I could find, cutting each apricot into three. No added sugar or fat. No spices or chocolate.

Custard, made by heating a pint of milk containing a split vanilla pod and letting it infuse. Vanilla needs heat and time to give its flavour up. Meanwhile, four egg yolks are combined with three tablespoons of sugar and a teaspoon of cornstarch (cornflour). Reheat the milk to near boiling and pour it into the egg mixture, stirring all the while. Put back on the heat and stir until thickened, being careful not to let it boil. Strain into a jug to get rid of any stray bits of milk skin and coagulated egg white. If you use vanilla extract you can just chuck everything in together and heat from cold, stirring all the time. Last night's custard was served with stewed cherry plums from the freezer.