Architect's Report on la Chapelle de Tous les saints

La Chapelle de Tous les Saints.

Regular readers will be aware that we are involved in a campaign to save the Chapelle de Tous les Saints in Preuilly, which has rare and important wall paintings. The Chapel dates from the early 16th century and is in very poor repair. It is owned by the town of Preuilly, who have passed over the responsibility for managing the restoration campaign to the local history society, known as the SAP. We have written about the chapel a number of times before:  La Danse Macabre; A Chapel at Risk; Assessing the State of the Chapelle de Tous les Saints.

On Monday 5 January I attended a meeting of the local council. It was a special meeting, open to the public, so that the architect engaged by the SAP could present his report on the condition of the Chapelle de Tous les saints and propose a programme of works and expenditure. Nine members of council, 3 observers including me and the architect Monsieur Barthel were present. The meeting was not minuted but most people attending took notes.

A video on the Chapel made by our friends Dominique and Dominique Robin.

He began by describing the building as 'a little jewel' with 'hidden treasures' and outlined a programme of works which would restore and maintain the building little by little. He reckons the programme could stretch to as much as 10 years, but might be done in five.

There are serious structural problems which must be addressed first. The three main elements of this are:

• The arrangement of interlocking masonry at the corners has been altered.
• The buttresses need repointing.
• The roof is in a bad state, therefore the carpentry is in a bad state.

These three major problems have knock on effects, leading to further problems:

• the side door is collapsing.
• the roof is not sitting on the gable squarely and the gable is disintegrating.
• the buttresses are dissolving from the inside because water is getting in through the gaps at the top where mortar is missing.
• passing heavy vehicles are causing vibration damage.
• cracks in the walls are primarily just a visual problem, but should be filled with liquid mortar to prevent them becoming more serious.
• the roof can be repaired but it is a big job and can only be done once the carpentry is sorted.
• once the roof and carpentry are fixed it will allow gutters to be added.
• the windows need to be glazed.

All of this work is to protect the building from water damage -- as he put it, 'giving the building a hat and coat'. Once that is done we can think about the following problems:

• the algae visible on the north wall is symptomatic of water trickling down. The raised soil level above the foundations means the water is not escaping and the building is 'floating'.
• everything about the interior needs restoring -- carpentry, woodwork, walls, floor, and of course the precious paintings.
• the cement block western gable end needs to be covered with render to disguise it.
• at the moment rain, wind and snow are all getting in and slowly destroying the paintings.
• everything is rotting and falling apart.
• he agrees with Sabine de Freitas' assessment of the paintings and how to conserve them.
• he proposes rendering the interior where there are no paintings.
• ideally, we should consolidate but not immediately restore the paintings.

Doing all of the above will make the building more attractive, but also in the process protect it. Both will help when seeking funding grants.

Specifically, he suggests the programme of works should go like this:

Phase 1: Repair carpentry, roof, ceiling vault, exterior masonry as necessary eg gable.
Phase 2: Restore the interior (glazing, masonry, paintings, joinery such as doors) once the building is watertight.
Phase 3: Restore the exterior.

His argument for restoring the interior before the exterior is that once the interior is finished we can start to show the building to people. The most difficult part of the interior will be the painted vault and he has taken the advice of the regional curator regarding this who has proposed a solution that I didn't entirely follow. It sounded like they suggested making a sort of sandwich of the wooden panels in situ rather than dismantling them, cleaning, repairing and reinstating.

You can clearly see that the roof does not sit on the gable squarely.

Phase 1 can be split into three main stages -- carpentry, roof  and vaulted ceiling. His estimate for the carpentry is €34 840, the roof €33 180 and a total including the ceiling of €121 000 (or €179 000 including tax). That figure does not include doors and window glass. The glazing he estimates at €5328 and the total for Phase 2, the restoration of the interior, at €109 000. Phase 3, the facades, would add another €82 232, so we are looking at a €300 000 project over 5 - 10 years.

He suggested ways of using the building once restored, by thinking of it as an extension to the mediatheque across the road. It could act as a complementary space for educational activities and exhibitions. He had gone to the trouble to design a possible interior layout for displays which had visitors entering by the front door and exiting by the side door. He pointed out that one problem with the building is that it will need to be supervised when open. He also suggested making some small improvements to the park to make it more attractive.

The sloping top of the buttress is degraded and the gable is disintegrating.

The big question is how to fund all of this. It is clearly way more than the commune can afford. The Société Archaeologique de Preuilly (SAP) needs to raise 5% of the project money and then apply for grants. Donations are about 60% tax deductible for French taxpayers, so roughly speaking, a donation of €100 has a real cost to the donor of €40. Grant giving organisations would be prepared to fund 20% of the project. One of the grant giving organisations, the Fondation de Patrimoine, can also help manage the fund raising. All grants are a function of the donations received, so the more we can raise ourselves the bigger the grant we would get.

DRAC would also be able to help, especially with the paintings, as would Sauvegarde de l'Art Français. What is needed is a definite programme with possibly conditional phases. It's a real juggling act to manage the fund raising, the grants and the work. It's important to have a dossier that one can present to potential donors and grant givers. Monsieur Barthel observed that in his experience when public aid is difficult to get, private aid goes up.

A detail of the Danse Macabre wall paintings.

Once the meeting was opened to discussion one of the council members asked about the possibility of repairing the building bit by bit using volunteers or trainees. Monsieur Barthel responded that it would indeed be cheaper, but it makes the project longer and harder. The work has to be very well supervised and managed and you still have to have a qualified professional organisation to do that and to sign off the work.

Bernard de la Motte, president of the SAP has already raised €2300 and has pledges which will bring that to €4000. He feels that we need to focus on the rarity of the Danse macabre paintings to encourage funding. He reported that curators and architects from Batiment de France, the Fondation de Patrimoine, la Sauvegarde de l'Art Français, DRAC and the Conseil Général have all been to see the building and all are positive and supportive of the project.

The ugly cement blocks of the rebuilt western wall and the parlous state of the wonderful vaulted ceiling.

He wants to be able to present a dossier to the grant giving bodies as soon as possible, but asked if the meeting felt we should be asking for aid just for Phase 1 or for the entire project. The concensus was to go for the whole project. Some of the council members were visibly shocked by the amount on the bottom line and mentioned what you could get as new build for that amount of money. Others were of the opinion that if that's what it cost, that's what it cost to restore this important little building.

Anyone who wishes to pledge a donation to the project may do so by contacting us or Bernard de la Motte.

The chapel in the snow.

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Au jardin hier: More making like a sanglier. And picking up dog poo, which was everywhere. Obviously someone has been regularly walking a large dog up the track to the orchard and it is slipping through the fence to do its business. I'm thoroughly irritated, but there isn't anything I can do about it to stop it.

Once again it was warm enough to have to take my jacket off to work, and there was a honey bee buzzing around.

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A la cuisine hier: Cheese Crisps, which are super easy and moreish.

Turkey escalopes flashed with lemon, salt, mixed ground peppercorn blend, garlic and thyme, served with grilled tomatoes and steamed spinach.

Soda Bread, dense on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Tarte fine caramélisée aux pommes, simple and stylish.

La Marche Silencieuse

In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings France has been the focus of world attention for a few days. French people and those of us who live here are mostly in shock at the horror of the events and seeking ways of responding and recovering.

Every night since the shootings took place there have been gatherings in public places. People wanted to express their sorrow, their condolences, their outrage and their support for freedom of expression. The Twitter hashtag #JeSuisCharlie and the phrase Je Suis Charlie is to be found everywhere.

The mayor of Preuilly makes a speech, surrounded by elected officials from the Touraine du Sud.

Occasionally someone will question what it means. A fellow blogger has written a post entitled I'm not Charlie, I'm the Doorman. Another reader has commented on a friend's blog that they suspect the phrase means different things to different people. Maybe it does. For me it's a reference to the famous scene in the movie Spartacus, and is primarily a way of simply expressing support. In addition, and most importantly, combined with the carrying of a pencil, it indicates that the cartoons and writing will go on and cannot be killed off by violent acts.

The cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo were frequently offensive, but in France, my impression is that is seen as neither here nor there. It is the viewer who chooses to be offended and that is their problem would be the attitude of many French people. Satire wins over offense every time in France. But of course this is complicated by the fact that the satirists are entirely self appointed, as are those who are offended and those judging the quality of the satire. Added to that, to be effective, satire has to be funny as well as pointed. Mostly Charlie Hebdo managed that, but sometimes they were just crude and offensive for their own amusement. Allowing this sort of freedom of expression also means having to managing the line between insulting derision and inciting hate crimes.  It's a complicated old world, and freedom of expression is more complicated than most issues.

This is about half the crowd, heading down to cross the bridge.

One of the reasons behind the huge outpouring of grief in France for the cartoonists in particular is that they were associated with more than just political satire. A couple of them also illustrated kids comic magazines and all of them worked for other magazines and papers besides Charlie Hebdo. Even if you didn't read Charlie Hebdo (and the reality is not that many people did) everyone knew who these people were and had read them. Several of them also worked for the much more widely read satirical magazine Le Canard Enchaîné.

Ideas of solidarity, liberty, citizenship and secularism are widely disseminated in the French culture and education system. After the success of the spontaneous rallies on the night of the initial shootings at the Charlie Hebdo offices, the energetic, decisive and omnipresent Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, proposed a march to demonstrate support for Republican values. Political leaders were summoned and invited so that it would be a cross party event. The march was set to take place simultaneously throughout France at 3pm on Sunday. Some places, like Preuilly, held their own march, other town authorities organised a bus so that residents could travel to a larger town and participate in the march there.

The march turned out to be extraordinarily well attended, with our estimate being around a thousand people. I asked a policeman what he thought and he agreed and said it was maybe even a bit more. What the march was not was silent, but talking was kept to a low respectful hum and everyone was quiet for Bertu's short speech.  Then the national anthem was sung, rather beautifully it has to be said. By chance there were some very good singers in the crowd, but as a French friend rather ruefully pointed out, the lyrics of the Marseillaise are absolutely frightful!

Some people, including Bertu, were referring to it as a marche blanche (a solemn march). Preuilly organised the march as principal commune in our communauté des communes, so many of the people attending were from the surrounding villages. Lots of people had stuck pens in their hats or were wearing Je Suis Charlie badges. People of all ages, colours, and presumably creeds were there. The march made its way down the main street from the town hall, across the bridge, around the fire station to the bourg neuf and up again to pick up the main road and retrace our steps.

The back half of the march rounding the corner at the fire station.

Like I said, it's a complicated old world. After some thought we decided to participate in the march in Preuilly. We didn't want to be supporting political opportunism, but we did want to support our neighbours. We have never been Charlie Hebdo readers, but did feel that the lives of everyone involved should be acknowledged in some public and official way, and more widely, that free speech and the law should be defended. Publishing provocative cartoons should absolutely not be countered with guns no matter how offended you are. Whichever way you look at it, the recent events are a tragedy and leaves the world divided into those who are sorrowful and those who are angry.

When it comes to reactions to the past few days I fall into the sorrowful camp and it can knock the stuffing out of you for a while. Those of us who react with sorrow do so quietly and rarely raise our heads above the parapet. But we hope we can recognise the moment to do so when it is necessary. I do think that the gathering together of so many diverse heads of state in Paris was a remarkable thing and that it is not all just lip service. I also think that this could be the beginning of a genuine grassroots movement to improve relations between the religions. We may have to guard against threats to freedom of movement and heavy handed security measures as the politicians struggle to deal with the terrorist issue though. We've demonstrated our support for freedom of speech. It would be a shame to have that undermined by the loss of other liberties.

Here and There: Banks II

Above, my former bank, in the small Australian town where I grew up. 

Below, our bank in Preuilly.

Bertu Bows Out

Norbert Bertucelli, ably assisted by his wife Raymonde, set up as a plumber in rue de cygne, Preuilly sur Claise, in September 1952. He just had a single van as his work vehicle. His son Gilles, who started as an apprentice in 1967, took over in 1985. By then the business employed 6 people and was based in rue Léon Berthier (where the farm supply shop is now, opposite the Claise restaurant). They expanded by buying a business in nearby La Roche Posay and an agency was soon opened in Chatellerault. In 1998 the business started to specialise in renewable energies such as geothermal, heat exchange and wood heating. In 2008 the business moved to the new industrial zone Le Rond, on the outskirts of Preuilly. In October 2014, having reached retirement age, Gilles Bertucelli sold the business to Sylvain and Christelle David.

 SARL Bertucelli headquarters on the outskirts of Preuilly.

They've taken over the business in its entirety, in particular retaining all 35 employees and even recruiting. A new business manager will join the team at the beginning of 2015. The Davids have spent the past few months observing the operation and developing their plans for the future. They intend setting up a training programme, networking with the existing partners of the business and doing some advertising. They will retain the four principal activities of the business -- heating, electricity, plumbing and air conditioning, whilst adding a focus on the latest technology such as wood pellet heating. One of their first jobs was installing a pellet burner in the neighbouring business on the idustrial zone, DTM (who manufacture plastic packaging and moulds.)

 Bertu in fiesta mode...

Françoise Bertucelli, Gilles' wife, will continue to run the office for another month during the transition and after that they will both take retirement.

 Mayor Bertucelli officiating at last year's Victory in Europe remembrance ceremony.

The above information has been gleaned from the local newspaper. Gilles Bertucelli is also mayor of Preuilly so it will be interesting to see what impact his retirement has on his political activities. His sale of the business is not unexpected. He announced a year ago that this was his plan.

To read about our plumbing adventures click here. Bertucelli's replumbed our house, supplying two hot water systems and installing our bath, shower, sink and toilets as well as the gas for the kitchen stove top. They also clean our chimney annually.

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Les Voeux du maire: Yesterday evening we attended the cérémonie des voeux in the salle des fêtes in Preuilly. The gathering began with a minutes silence for those killed in the Charlie Hebdo attack. It was a serious silence too, with no shuffling or whispering. The mayor, Gilles Bertucelli and the President of the Communauté des communes de la Touraine du sud, Gérald Henault, then gave overviews of 2014, bemoaning the tight finances which required cutbacks and economies yet again. One bright spot was the success of a grant programme which provided funds to assist people to insulate their houses or make alterations to help the aged or handicapped. It was so successful that it ran out of money in October, but all grants submitted but outstanding would be processed this month as the new financial year means new funds are available.

The mayor announced that a remembrance ceremony for the Charlie Hebdo dead will be held at 15h (3pm) on Sunday 11 January. Gather out the front of the Hôtel de Ville for a march to avenue 11 novembre.

Half Mast

The flag at half mast on the town hall in Preuilly yesterday at 12 noon. The flag is bundled up and tied to the pole rather than being dropped. This seems to be how you do it in France when the flag pole isn't long enough to pull the flag down half way.

Things We Never Said III

We have written about the Chapelle du Liget  before, but until we were looking at it as somewhere new we might add to our itineraries we had never visited before. The chapel is in the Loches forest, down a side track from the road to Montresor. It is locked, but the keys are at the tourist office in Loches and can be collected during business hours in exchange for a piece of official ID (passport, ID Card, Driver's licence) which you redeem when you return the keys.

The chapel was built by King John (I assume that means he paid for it, rather than getting his hands dirty*) to celebrate the foundation of the nearby Chartreuse du Liget by his father - part of the work Henry II undertook in atonement for the murder of Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury. What you see of the chapel today is the original building. A nave was added slightly later and then subsequently demolished. As you can see from the photos the main interest is in the wall paintings which are late 13th century and restored in 2008, but some of the restored corbels on the outside are pretty amusing.

The interior is accessed using the key, which admits you to a small area behind a metal fence. The lock is stiff  - we weren't even sure at first if we were trying to open the correct door, and once the door was opened we couldn't relock it, resulting in 10 minutes of serious concern until Susan held the key just so.

*not something he was totally adverse to, it has to be said...

Simon

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#JeSuisCharlie: Yesterday gunmen attacked the headquarters of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Within hours a Twitter account was operating and a demonstration of solidarity with the magazine organised. We do wonder what the people who perpetrate these sorts of attacks think will be the result. As far as I can see, the result is that Charlie Hebdo will continue in its usual manner but now everyone will think of the journalists and cartoonists who work there as heroes. Ordinary Muslims will be more and more reluctant to practice their religion because they simply don't identify with its public face and would be horrified to be associated with its extremist elements, just as more and more people of white western backgrounds are unwilling to identify as Christian because of the evangelicals and fundamentalists. It's hard to tell if there is a connection or whether it's coincidence or irony, but the current issue of Charlie Hebdo lampoons Michel Houellebecq, whose latest book, Soumission, about France with a Muslim president, was released yesterday.

10 000 people gathered in Poitiers with less than 24 hours notice to express their solidarity. There were 3000 in Tours. I don't know how many thousands in Paris. I especially like the reactions of cartoonists from around the world.

I feel terribly sorry for Corinne Rey, the designer who was forced to let the gunmen in to the building. Today is a national day of mourning and there will be a minutes silence at midday to remember the dead.

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A la cuisine hier: Simon made a huge batch of savoury mince and turned half into shepherd's pie (or haché parmentier). Some went in the freezer, some was served to guests who came to dinner prior to us going to the cinema to see the latest Asterix movie. The guests brought salads and I made a galette des rois/gigantic Eccles cake.

Civet de Sanglier

The round dish on the left is a civet de sanglier prepared by these charcutiers/traiteurs at the truffle market in Marigny Marmande.

The word civet tells you that this dish is a game stew, traditionally made with the blood of the animal. Sanglier is wild boar, so in English the dish would be called Jugged Boar. That's always assuming it's made in the old way, which it almost never is these days. Usually civets are now made using red wine and some liver to provide an approximation of the colour and texture of the original recipe. Often the liver is omitted and it's just red wine, making it Boar Bourguignon, as Ken pointed out when I mentioned this recipe last year.

Ingredients for Boar Bourguignon.

Ingredients:
1kg wild boar meat, cut into 2cm cubes
½ - 1 cup of blood or 100g pork or chicken liver (optional)
Olive oil
200g salt and smoke cured pork belly, cut into 2cm cubes
A large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 carrots, cut into chunks
A bouquet garni made of parsley, celery leaves, bay leaves, sprigs of thyme and a strip of orange peel
10 juniper berries, roughly crushed
A bottle of red wine
A can of tomato paste (optional)
1 tsp Lapsang souchong tea, ground to a fine powder (optional)
200g mushrooms (ideally wild forest mushrooms such as ceps)

Slow cooking on our ever reliable wood stove.

Method:

1. If your wild boar is genuinely wild and not farmed, put it in the freezer for 3 weeks to kill any parasites.
2. Defrost overnight in the fridge, ideally in a marinade made of the blood, wine, some oil, the bouquet garni and juniper. 
3. Drain the meat and brown in some oil. Transfer to a casserole dish.
4. Brown the vegetables and cured pork belly and add to the casserole.
5. Deglaze the pan with the marinade and tip the hot liquid into the casserole, along with the bouquet garni, the juniper berries and finely chopped liver.
6. Add the can of tomato paste and the smoky tea powder and stir to mix all the ingredients.
7. Cook at a slow simmer for 2 hours, either on top of the stove or in the oven at 150°C.
8. Sauté the mushrooms and either add to the casserole for the last half hour of cooking, or serve them as an accompaniment.
9. Adjust the seasoning to taste by adding salt and pepper.
10. Serve the civet with mixed root vegetable mash (celeriac and swede is particularly good).

Bon appetit!

PS. This recipe will work with venison (biche or chevreuil in French) and I reckon you could do roo meat like this and it would be very good indeed.

Yum

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A la cuisine hier: Baked beans, fried eggs, bacon and buttered fresh bread. One of Simon's favourite meals.

Pork fillet in mustard cream sauce, mixed root veggie mash, peas.

Bread and butter pudding, made as a sort of synthesis of this recipe and Gaynor's. Simon didn't really like it. Too messed about with for him I think. I thought it was extremely good.

Things We Never Said Part II

Another event of 2014 was our first ever visit to the chateau of Amboise. This falls into the category of an event because it is something we had never quite managed to do even though we have been visiting Amboise and living in the general area since 2006. Considering that Amboise is the first place that many tourists ask about, that is no mean feat.

The Loire from the chateau of Amboise.

We have always avoided Amboise because we knew it couldn't live up to the hype. For some reason Rick Steves has decided it is the small town, chateau and tourist centre that sets the benchmark for all others. As our experience of Amboise is of an average sort of town except for being overfull of tourists, devoid of restaurants and more than just a wee bit overpriced, we approach all of his pronouncements with some scepticism.

Glass and stone in the chapel in which Leonardo's body might have been reburied.

However, the chateau of Amboise is worth a visit if you're in the area. The views are good, and the chateau itself is an interesting mish-mash of styles and eras. I am not sure I would travel much further than an hour to visit it (and we did think the entry charge was almost as steep as the entry path) but as an afternoon's distraction outside of the main tourist season it did quite nicely.

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A la cuisine hier: I needed something quick and easy so I flung together some frozen seafood mix, frozen spinach, garlic flakes, chopped onion, a pinch of chilli, salt and a dash of white wine. I boiled it to thaw the seafood and spinach and drive off some of the liquid then mixed in a good dollop of cream cheese to make a sauce for tagliatelle. I thought it was rather good but Simon thought it was bland.

Weather and Wildlife 2014

January:  early -- wet, mild (no frost). Mid -- mild (no frost), some rain on most days, a lot of standing water in the fields, large numbers of Roe Deer visible during the day on young wheat crops (a herd of 20 or so, late morning, near Saint Branch). In the top 3 warmest and wettest on record.

February: mild (no frost), wet, with totally saturated soil. A lot of honey bee activity at the end of the month, as well as large numbers of Winter Damselflies. Significant numbers of overwintering butterflies on the wing on some intermittent warm sunny days at the end of the month.

March: early -- no rain!! frosty mornings followed by clear warm sunny days, with temperatures reaching the low 20s (at least 5 degrees above average). Contrast this with 2013, when temperatures at this time were at least 5 degrees below average. Late -- daytime temperatures got a lot cooler (in the low teens), with a lot of morning fog, but no frost overnight. The weather bureau records show we had about 50% more sun and 40% less rain than average for the month.

April: early -- days beginning overcast and warming up to high teens, occasionally drizzly. Mid -- dry, sunny, some warm days, some surprisingly cool given the sunshine, due to cold winds. Late -- cool, mainly overcast, with gentle rain showers and some morning fog. Overall, temperatures and sunshine hours were average for the month here, but rainfall was significantly down (by about 40% of what we would normally expect). For France as a whole, it was the second warmest April on record.

May: early -- cool and a bit damp, with a couple of days of good rain, others with just occasional drizzle. Some afternoons warming up considerably (into the 20s often). Mid -- some warm to hot days, but lots of wind on many days, some overcast and rainy days.

June: mostly warm and sunny.

 Just to prove we had some good days in July. This was taken on what was easily the hottest day up to that point in the year, with a maximum in the low 30s, on 3 July 2014...

July: a hot beginning, with some tremendous thunderstorms. By mid-month was cool and overcast with quite a lot of rain and some storm activity. The lack of sunshine was very noticeable. Overall it was the cloudiest and wettest July on record.

 ...however, this is what the sky mostly looked like in July (taken 20 July, near Loches).

August: Cool, with maximum temperatures in the low 20s. We had a cotton blanket, a woollen blanket and a patchwork quilt on the bed, when normally one would expect to be sleeping under a sheet or at the very most a cotton blanket. The beginning of the month was wet with downpours on several days. The tomatoes got blight. The end of August is when young mammals become more obvious, being more independent. Sadly, this is evident by the increase in roadkill at this time of year -- badger, fox, marten, hedgehog, squirrel.

Camping in August 2014. 

September: First two thirds -- sunny and warm, more like summer than autumn. Several dramatic storms, two with good rain. Tours recorded 102 hours of sunshine in the first 10 days of September, 60% higher than normal, and the second highest sunshine hours for the period ever recorded. Overall in the Touraine it was one of the three sunniest Septembers in the last 30 years. It was also the warmest September since 1900, with temperatures 1.6° higher than average. Rainfall was 50% lower than average. Later in the month the temperature dropped markedly, with minimums under 10° and maximums no higher than 20°, bringing very foggy nights and mornings. Very few Clouded Yellow Colias croceus butterflies around (normally common in September) and low numbers of browns and blues. The fungi outing in the forest of Preuilly was a complete dud, with very little found as it had been too hot and dry.

October: Very variable, with everything from cool grey days and some heavy rain, to positively hot sunny days. The maximum temperatures ranged between low 30s (!) and mid-teens and the month was one of the warmest Octobers on record, with average temperatures about 2° above normal. One day of high winds, the tail end of Hurricane Gonzales. By the end of the month we were experiencing cool foggy mornings, with the fog lifting around lunchtime for a warm sunny afternoon. Once the sun has gone down the temperature drops rapidly. Mostly the weather was more like summer until late October and between 1 September and 20 October we had 320 hours of sunlight, and overall for the month of October about 10% more hours of sunlight than average. Rainfall was a little below average, at about 80% of normal for the month. Total rainfall for the year has evened out to about average overall. Very few of the late flying butterflies around, with the exception of Speckled Wood, but good numbers of dragonflies (Emperors and Hawkers, Darters, Winter Damselflies and even some Bluetails). Also good numbers of ceps in the forests.

The Forest of Preuilly in October.

November: Early - Damp foggy starts to the days, sometimes rain, sometimes a bit of sun by late afternoon. Mid - less fog, but still overcast and light rain some days, some sun in the late afternoon some days. No frost yet. Late - a bit of mist in the mornings, overcast days, a bit of rain, still no frost.

Overall it's been the second warmest autumn since 1900, with a bit more sun than usual. The temperature on average has been 2° above normal, and rain has been a bit less abundant than normal.

December: Right on cue the weather turned colder, with maximums lower than 10°, but still no frost in the early days. At the start of the month the weather was cold, overcast, with mizzling rain most of the time.The temperatures finally went below 0 and the first frost was 7 December. Between Christmas and New Year we had a wild storm in the night, with lots of wind and bit of rain. The weather overall was distinctly dreary, but Christmas Day itself had some lovely clear sunny interludes. The end of the month was a cold snap with temperatures rarely peeking above 0°C but the pay off is that bright sunshine often accompanies that sort of weather (as well as a certain amount of freezing fog). Small birds have been very active in the gardens around our house -- Long Tailed Tits, Black Redstarts and Gold Finches are especially charming and welcome. They need to keep an eye on the ever burgeoning cat population though.

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A la cuisine hier: Veggie burgers and salad.
Japanesish Noodle Stir-fry, which unfortunately I tweaked to use what we had in the fridge. Too much cabbage, too much dark soy sauce.

Here and There: Banks I

 Above, one of four banks in the small Australian town where I grew up. It's in a prime location, on the main intersection in town. 

Below, one of two banks in Preuilly, on the market place. Curiously, it rarely seems to be open and I hardly ever see anyone in there.

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A la cuisine hier: Roast beef sarnies.

Roast turkey leg with savoury bread pudding (based on Ken's description of the stuffing he made for Christmas).

Things We Never Said, Part 1

Amongst the events of 2014 that didn't get reported at the time:

We finally (after 5 1/2 years) got TV. We had bought a satellite dish, receiver and all the gubbins for English TV before we moved in 2009, and chanelled the cabling in the walls when we insulated them but never quite got around to connecting it all up. Mainly this was due to lack of confidence about using a power tool at the top of a very tall ladder in order to install the dish. We were starting to feel, however, that we should use the equipment before it became totally obsolete.

In November last year (that's 2014, remember) we called M. Pinkosz  to ask for a devis to install the dish, tune it, and make sure it all worked. As the devis was reasonable we decided the time had come. The whole process took less than an hour, and we now have 6 channels of TV to watch (and over 200 more to avoid at all cost).

We still don't have French TV. That's the next step, and will involve buying a TV arial and a long pole to mount it on as we are in a bit of a shadow here. I am not sure about the aesthetics of TV aerials/dishes, so there may be creative thinking to be done. The current dish may be painted stone coloured in spring.

Simon

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A la cuisine hier: We defrosted the chest freezer. Our entry hall isn't heated so it makes a handy place to stack the contents of the freezer for a couple of hours while the ice around the freezer sides melts in the heated kitchen.

I put up a turkey leg in brine for some future date.

Homemade Swedish meatballs, cream and red wine sauce, mashed potatoes  and spinach all from the freezer. Poached pears with chocolate cream and chopped walnuts.

I Exist! and I have the Carte Vitale to prove it

When we moved to France in 2009 we were able to do so fairly easily because we are citizens of a fellow EU country (Britain) and thus are able to live and work in any EU country automatically. One of the things we did fairly quickly on arrival in France was to register as autoentrepreneurs. This business/tax category is for small scale self employed people, who either wish to stay small scale because they are part time or because they are testing a business idea and want to stay simple tax wise and inexpensive accounting wise. The reason we chose to do this was twofold. First, we genuinely did want to set up a business. The second was because it was the single simplest thing we could do to establish our eligibility for a Carte Vitale (French state healthcare card), giving us automatic and easy access to the excellent French state health care system.

As independent professionals (professions libérales) we were automatically affiliated to the social security administrators Régime Social des Indépendents (RSI). They work closely with an insurance company Réunion des Assureurs Maladie (RAM) and to be honest, I've never worked out quite where the division of labour is. We pay our social contributions to RSI, but it is RAM who reimburse us when we have a medical expense. RSI administers eligibility for the Carte Vitale and issues it. Or something...You've also got URSSAF and CPAM, and RSI and RAM are divisions of them. Or something...

 A sample Carte Vitale, courtesy of Wikipedia and Creative Commons.

We sent off our applications and copies of our identity documents.  They gave us temporary social security numbers and promptly asked for translations of our identity documents, which they are not supposed to do if dealing with citizens of an EU country who are born in an EU country, as Simon is. We didn't know this at the time and duly got translations of everything. These were sent off and eventually -- months later -- Simon suddenly received a form asking him to supply a passport style photo so they could issue his Carte Vitale. After another wait -- RSI take a remarkably long time to process documents always (think months...) -- his card arrived in the post. This meant that for visits to the doctor or dentist his card was put in the reader and our reimbursement of the fee turned up automatically in our bank account a few days later. The percentage of the point of use fee that is reimbursed varies depending on what the doctor charges and what the standard fee is. For an ordinary GP visit we pay the doctor €23 and are reimbursed €14 for example. For Simon's recent dental crown we were charged €280 for the final fitting of the crown and reimbursed €73.

Simon was clearly sorted, but there was no sign of a card for me. I emailed RSI. They said it was something RAM had to deal with. I emailed RAM. They said it was something RSI had to deal with, but not to worry -- in the meantime I could still claim my reimbursements by posting them a feuille de soin (care form) each time I paid a health care bill. Fine. That worked perfectly well and so I didn't pursue the matter.

Then I discovered, quite by accident, that anyone born outside the EU must have their birth certificate translated and apostilled (whatever that was...) I waited with interest to see how long it would take for RSI or RAM or whoever to inform me officially that I needed to do this. There was no incentive for me to take action because a) I was being reimbursed, and b) obtaining a birth certificate with apostille and official translation would be expensive.

Finally, in February 2014, a letter arrived telling me that INSEE (the national office for statistics) required that I do the apostille thing. Frustratingly I was in Australia at the time and the letter sat in France unopened until I got back. That meant I had to arrange the documents from afar. After getting in touch with RSI and the Australian Consulate to try to find out exactly what was required and how I went about aquiring it I went through the same process with the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages in the Australian State of Victoria and the Passport Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Melbourne, the capital of that State. RSI told me I had to get in touch with my embassy. The Consulate told me I needed to get in touch with Foreign Affairs. After a couple of email exchanges, each time getting a little more information but never enough for me to be absolutely clear about what I had to do or what the process was I emailed the last person who had emailed me from Foreign Affairs and expressed my frustration about how nobody seemed to know what the procedure was and that I wasn't willing to wing it because every step of the way costs money. That at last got me a sensible and helpful email from someone who did know what the procedure was.

I ordered my birth certificate online from the Registry Office of Victoria and paid the fee with my bank card. Victoria is the state I was born in and birth records are administered by the States in Australia. I already had a copy of my birth certificate, but that wouldn't do for INSEE/RSI as it was issued in 1988. They wanted one that was less than 3 months old. Then I downloaded a form requesting that my birth certificate be apostilled by the Passport Office in the same state, again paying the fee with my bank card. An apostille, I had discovered by now, is a sort of belts and braces stamp of authentication for documents of identity. You can't trust those foreign Johnnies, you know.

In order for the Registry Office to actually issue my birth certificate I had to prove my identity and send them copies (not originals) of 3 documents which showed my name, current address and date of birth, in English (or with translations if in French). The one to show current address was a bank statement from my UK bank. I had to request it specially, as the bank normally issues electronic statements, but it did save me the time and cost of a translation of, for example, a French bank statement. These documents had to be certified as true copies by either a public notary or a policeman, who had to stamp the copies with their official stamp and sign them. I made an appointment with the local notaire who happily made copies and stamped them. To my dismay, her offical stamp just says 'notaire', not 'notaire public'. My instructions stated that the stamp had to say 'notary public'. What to do!? In the end she laboriously hand wrote a long phrase on each copy stating that she was the state appointed notary and noted the relevant law reference. Fortunately the Registry Office were happy with that. To her credit she didn't charge me for her services (and was the only one in the whole process who didn't charge a fee).

I posted the documents off to the Registry Office with a covering letter asking them to forward the birth certificate to the Passport Office for the apostille. It took them about a month to issue the birth certificate and when they did I got an email from them asking where the form requesting the apostille was. I replied that I had sent it directly to the Passport Office. No one had told me that normally people send the apostille request form to the Registry Office along with the other documents and they then forward the whole lot to the Passport Office. Government departments that talk to one another -- wow! It had never occurred to me that one government agency would want to receive a form which had nothing to do with them and was to be processed by a different government agency.

After another few weeks wait the birth certificate with its big red raised apostille stamp on the back arrived in the post from the Passport Office. Now I had to get the birth certificate and apostille translated by an officially certified translator (Fr. traducteur assermenté). I basically chose one at random from the official translators website.

She turned out to be efficient and easy to deal with. I explained what I needed by email, she quoted me a price, I paid her €70 via PayPal, sent her scans of the birth certificate and she did the translation within a couple of days and sent it back to me both electronically and in the post.

Finally, I sent off the documents RSI had requested all those months ago. The pre-addressed return envelope they had helpfully provided was way too small so I used one of my own. After another month or so, my original documents came back in the post, with a chirpily worded post-it note attached saying 'Bonjour, here are your documents' and nothing more. No indication of whether they were acceptable or if I would be receiving a Carte Vitale any time soon. I waited another month. A letter arrived from RSI asking for a passport style photo and a copy of a piece of photo identification within 15 days. Wooohooo! That must mean they are going to issue a card! Interestingly, this was the only letter I received from them that was dated or included any sort of deadline. Form letters from French government agencies are often not dated.

Off I went to the photo booth at the supermarket and got the necessary photo then posted it and the requested identification to RSI (to a different address to where I had posted the birth certificate, by the way). At last, on the Monday after Christmas 2014, an envelope arrived from RSI and I could feel it had the coveted card in it!!

I've been paying my social contributions and taxes for nearly 5 years and it has taken all that time to get a Carte Vitale. I don't think it's a record though. A French friend who came back to France after living in Canada for a while, said it took her just as long to winkle a card out of the authorities. The Carte Vitale was introduced while she was in Canada, so although a French citizen she had never had a Carte Vitale when she arrived back. She said it was as though the authorities had never heard of such a thing, just didn't believe her and had no idea how to deal with her situation.

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Au jardin hier: More cherry sucker grubbing. It was a beautiful day yesterday -- heavy frost but brilliant sunshine. The sun had some warmth too -- I had to take my coat off after about half an hour of work in the garden.

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A la cuisine hier: Spicy Lentil, Tomato and Spinach soup from the freezer.
Veggie burgers, full of good veggie gear -- carrots, oats, nuts and seeds.

Meilleurs voeux

The image above was painted by our friend Annie Paterson and is reproduced here with her kind permission. European Mistletoe is rather an apt motif for sending with New Year good wishes, as compounds in this common parasitic plant are showing promise as a medication that will offset some of the unpleasant effects of chemotherapy. One of most important of people's good wishes, and the one which is most often specifically referred to is the wish for the good health of friends and family in the New Year.

So we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers good health and much happiness in the coming year.
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A la cuisine hier: I used the last drops of my delicious homemade sour cherry liqueur yesterday in some sorbet. Sob! And roll on cherry season so I can make some more.

Fusilli pasta with a sauce made from leftover diced carrots, the last of the chorizo, frozen peas, leftover tomato sauce, garlic, the famous La Borde cream and parmesan cheese.

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French Expressions: I telephoned the radiography lab yesterday to make an appointment for my biennial mammogram. The receptionist's response to my 'je voudrais prendre rendez-vous s'il vous plait' was 'pourquoi?' Now, pourquoi is usually translated as 'why', and usually that is a perfectly reasonable translation in English. But pourquoi literally translates as 'for what', so the receptionist's response was not as odd and terse as it might appear. Not 'why on earth would you want to do that?' but 'what service do you require?'

And for your bonus piece of trivia: Anne Boleyn owned a lap dog called Pourquoy, the old French spelling of pourquoi. It was so named as it was always sticking its nose into things, incorrigibly curious.

The Last Tyre Rolls Off the Line

The production of tyres officially ceased a week before Christmas in the Michelin factory at Joué lès Tours. However, the factory is not going to close. It will retain 200 employees, but their output will be membranes, flaps and fabrics, according to the newspaper.

A page of Tourangelle industrial history has turned. More than 53 years after the first tyre was made - a radial destined for a 2CV left the workshop on 6 June 1961 - the employees of the Michelin factory have quality checked their last tyre, this time destined for a heavy earth-moving machine.

Between the two dates the site at Joué made millions of tyres and employed 4000 people at its height. Even just three years ago the factory produced 3600 tyres a day, compared to 250 in the last few weeks.

In reality this is just one stage of several in the process of transforming this factory by Michelin. In June last year the loss of 706 of the 906 jobs on site was announced, due to the relocation of the manufacture of tyres for heavy vehicles to La Roche sur Yon. The new manager, who arrived three months ago is directing some big social and industrial changes in the factory. Of those who have left, 380 simply retired. Another 162 took up jobs in other Michelin factories, so have moved away from the Touraine. The final 164 lost their jobs altogether, but 30% have since found new employment.

Very shortly there will only be two workshops on the site, manned by no more than 200 people, making flaps and membranes in one workshop, fabrics in the other. 22 million euros will be spent building a new factory, taking up 8 ha of the 32 ha site. The unwanted land will be sold.

The demolition and rebuild will run from January to October next year and the first job is to pull down all the buildings on the 24 ha which will be sold. By mid-2016 the site will be clear and the land on the market.

Ultimately Michelin is committed to creating 300 jobs on the site and another 100 or so in Indre et Loire. They will get some state assistance to do so and those who lost their jobs will also receive assistance so that the economic impact of so many job losses in a rural area will not be so great.

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Au jardin hier: I lightly sanded all the handles on my garden tools yesterday and dressed them with linseed oil. I'm not totally convinced by the use of linseed oil -- there is a lot of nonsense spouted about having to 'feed' wood -- but it is the traditional treatment to maintain wooden tool handles and Tim did a beautiful job of dressing my broad fork handles last year. Linseed oil works like face cream ie it's hygroscopic, so it attracts moisture and gives the sensation of smoothing and enriching, but isn't necessarily having any real positive effect. It's easy to slop too much of it on, in which case you could end up with every little particle of dirt and dust stuck to the oiled wood, forming an immutable 'mudpack'.

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A la cuisine hier: Pizza, from homemade dough topped with supermarket tomato sauce, sauteed mushrooms, slices of chorizo and grated cheddar cheese, served with a green salad. Gut busting. Simon didn't have dessert! Unheard of! There are leftovers for lunch today.

The Oyster's World is Changing

Like most French households, oysters form part of our holiday menu. This Christmas I picked up an order of 2 dozen #2 and they sat quite happily unopened in our cellar temperature fridge for several days in an uncovered plastic box. They cost €12 and had been harvested the day before market day. The producer comes up from the coast every Saturday and does steady business all morning.

 3 dozen #2 oysters from the supermarket, Christmas 2008.

Oysters are great from a consumer point of view -- they are sustainable, being farmed in a way that doesn't plunder other marine resources, and exceptionally, they are instrumental in restoring healthy intertidal habitats, even when the oyster species is not native (most commercial oyster production worldwide uses Pacific oysters).

Grilled oysters for breakfast, Christmas 2008.

I'm glad I'm not an oyster farmer though. At the moment there is a sort of triple (or even quadruple) whammy threatening oysters.

Unfortunately, oysters have been hit by an viral epidemic with a very high mortality rate. It's known as oyster herpes and can wipe out colonies in just a few days. The virus first appeared in France in 2008, and has reduced production here by 26%.

 Au naturel, Christmas 2010.

Most worrying of all, the virus only takes hold when water temperatures reach 16°C. With climate change causing globally warmer and warmer weather, the virus is set to become worse and worse. Sea surface temperatures are warming even faster than land temperatures too.

 Oysters at the market in Preuilly, Christmas eve 2011. 

The price has gone up 60¢ a dozen in 3 years.

The water temperature is not the only change in the sea being driven by climate change. The sea is absorbing carbon dioxide CO2, resulting in acidification. The sea isn't turning to vinegar, but its pH has gone down sufficiently for some effects on oysters to have been observed. It's a twofold problem. The first, and simplest to understand, is that more acidic seas cause shell, made from calcium carbonate, to dissolve.

The second effect is that as well as having their shells slowly dissolved, shellfish are having to work much harder to create shell in the first place. In the case of oysters, when they are new born, they sometimes cannot make shell at a rate quick enough to gain on the rate it is being dissolved. This leaves them even more vulnerable to predation than they would otherwise be.

 Farmed oyster beds on Ile de Ré, an island just off the Atlantic coast of France and a couple of hours west of us.

The way it works is this: 30% of atmospheric CO2 dissolves in the oceans, where it combines with water H2O to form carbonic acid. The H in pH is postive hydrogen ions. Acids release hydrogen ions into their surrounds and they bond with other molecules. One of the molecules they naturally bond with in the sea is carbonate CO3¯². This means the carbonate is not available to bond with calcium to form calcium carbonate, the key ingredient in oyster shells.

For the oyster farmers it's a looming disaster, and the oyster loving French consumer had better start preparing for something to be missing from the table at Christmas time. It's very frustrating when you consider oysters have so many positive benefits to the environment and nutritionally.

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Au jardin hier: Yesterday was the first really cold day this winter. According to the weather bureau our minimum was -7°C and I doubt if it went above 0° all day -- certainly the puddles in our driveway stayed frozen all day. I went down to the orchard to finish clearing up the fallen branches and to saw off the splintered breaks on the trees. Initially my fingers ached with the cold and as I struggled to warm them I nearly decided to come home. Luckily I finally managed to get my fingers functioning and I've completed the task.

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A la cuisine hier: Chickpea pancakes with salad. Spicy Red Lentil, Tomato and Spinach Soup -- homely and surprisingly satisfying.

In the Land of Descartes, We Think Therefore We Sort

According to a recent newspaper article, we in Indre et Loire are above average recyclers and rubbish sorters, and we are improving all the time. Each inhabitant currently sorts just under 60 kg of rubbish per year for recycling, and the département puts out 34.5 tonnes of rubbish for recycling in total per year. Of course, quantity of rubbish, even if recycled, isn't something one can exactly be proud of, and there isn't much focus on refusing excess packaging (except for plastic carry bags at the supermarket), but it does show that consciousness is being raised, progress is being made and attitudes changing.

Depositing empty bottles in the bottle bank.

In France 87% of households sort their rubbish to some extent (cf 95% of Australian households), but only 44% do so reliably. 7% never bother to use bottle banks. The recycling programme is overseen by Eco-emballage ('Eco-packaging'), who supervise, organise and support the recycling of waste packaging. Businesses pay a fee which finances the organisation and Eco-emballage manages the sorting and recycling. It's all closely monitored for trends and statistics, so Eco-emballage understands households' behaviour in this field. At the end of the financial period the amount Eco-emballage makes from reselling the recycled material is balanced against the contributions and the savings or profits are themselves recycled, back to the communities who fund Eco-emballage -- a reward for adopting sustainable habits which amounts to nearly €10 a head in Centre.

Our annual issue of rubbish sacks -- yellow for recycling plastic and metal, black for general rubbish.

Glass is by far the biggest component of the recycled material, but plastic and cardboard are on the increase. Metal is not being quite so successfully tackled. Eco-emballage admit that it is largely a matter of space. Households, local authorities and the recycling depots have to have the space to put collection bins for all the different materials or to sort them.

10 Facts about recycling:

• Bottles and cans do not need their labels removed or to be spotlessly clean to be recycled. They are processed at such a high temperature that any residue is burnt off. Bottles need to have their lids removed. Only wash them to prevent odours or contamination of other recycling materials in your yellow bag. Rinse them at the end of dishwashing rather than rinsing under the tap to be water wise.
• Paper needs to be dry to be recyclable.
• Aerosol cannisters and paint tins can be recycled if they are empty and dry (remove plastic caps and nozzles).
• Aluminium and steel food cans, glass bottles and jars, newspapers, cardboard, toilet paper, tissues, paper serviettes, paper bags, paper towel, copy paper, envelopes and wrapping paper all contain some recycled material and are themselves potentially endlessly recyclable.
• Recycling aluminium cans uses 95% less energy than smelting aluminium from scratch.
• Glasswool insulation is made from up to 70% recycled content. Be careful not to include toughened glass (windows, drinking glasses, cookware) in your recycling, as just 15 g per tonne can ruin a batch of recycled glass being spun for glasswool.
• Garbage trucks have internal divisions so they can collect recycling and general rubbish at the same time. Most sorting of recycling occurs at the depot, but it is important for efficiency and quality of the material that householders know what they can put in their yellow recycling bags. If in doubt, leave it out. Plastic bags, drinking glasses and plastic wrap are not recyclable. Neither is clothing suitable for putting in your yellow bag -- take it to your nearest charity bin.
• Plastics are the most problematic for the householder to sort. There are 40 different types used today. The symbol of a number in a triangle only identifies the type of plastic, not whether you can recycle it. Most facilities can handle types 1, 2, 3 and 5. Type 1 plastic is PET, used for clear soft drink bottles. Type 2 plastic is HDPE, used for plastic milk bottles, translucent or opaque. Type 3 and 5 plastics are V, PVC and PP and include plastic takeaway containers and icecream containers. Type 4 is LDPE, type 6 is PS and type 7 is all the others (including polystyrene). About 60% of plastic is recycled. Contrary to popular belief, yoghurt containers are recyclable. Frustratingly for the consumer they often don't have a number on them. The rule of thumb with plastics is if it is soft and you can squish it up into a ball it is not recyclable. If it is a rigid container you can recycle.
• Plastics are granulated and made into wood substitutes. It only takes 30% of the energy to make a plastic product out of recycled materials compared to making new plastic from fossil fuels.
• Residual photocopier toner and printer inks in cartouches sent for recycling are used as pigments for colouring recycled plastic products.

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A la cuisine hier: Pizza dough prepped and put into the cellar temperature fridge for the yeast to slowly perform its miracle on the flour so we can have pizza on Tuesday (plus some dough for the freezer).

Santa Fe Pork and Beans, a sort of cross between Boston baked beans and a curry, which we both liked a lot. I served it with leftover cheesey potatoes.

Pineapple Custard Meringue, a dessert my mother used to make from time to time. I don't use a recipe, but it is more or less like this.