The Chapel of Saint George, Rochecorbon

When my friend Suzanne was here in mid-September we took her to visit Chateau Gaudrelle. Alexandre Monmousseau, the winemaker and owner, made himself available for us and took us up to the vines to begin the visit. On the way up the hill we passed the Chapelle de Saint Georges and Simon remarked that we had never been inside. Alexandre immediately did a U-turn and popped in to Alain le Capitaine's winery, where the key for the chapel is kept. Key in hand, back we went to gain entry to the chapel.

 The bell tower, and, if you look carefully, some of the quoin stones

 on the main body of the chapel are reused Merovingian carved blocks.

The Chapel of Saint George is an 11th century building, enlarged in the 12th century by reworking the choir and adding a square pyramid topped 15 metre bell tower. The chapel is immediately adjacent to the cliff and hides an oratory cut from the rock itself, perhaps as early as the 5th century, but certainly by the 7th century. Inside there is a 12th century fresco, 13th and 14th century wall paintings and a small 13th century stained glass window.

 The troglodytic oratory.

Fresco is a technique where pigments mixed with water are painted on to fresh wet render. Tempera is a wall painting technique where the pigment is diluted with water and a binder (usually egg) and painted on a dry wall. The first technique is much more resilient than the second because the paint and the render chemically bind more effectively as they dry. The oldest painting in the chapel seems to be at least partly done in the fresco technique. The more recent paintings are the second technique. Fresco is very rare in the Touraine and it's a much more technically demanding art form.

The painting on the left (below) is the earlier 12th century work, showing Christ washing the Apostle's feet. Stylistically it is typical of its time, with muscles and folds plainly marked in ochre and a very restricted palette of colours. Below this scene you can see the remains of an angel, and above there is a frieze of fantastical animals and Greek keys, also typical of the period. This is all that is left of the original decorative scheme of the chapel.

 Fresco and tempera wall paintings side by side.

The painting on the right is the remaining half of a Last Supper. The meal has been served in the medieval fashion, where all the dishes are shared and each plate is shared by two diners. This painting dates from the early 13th century and slightly overlaps the earlier work. The palette is richer, with green and lapis lazuli blue in addition to the ochres and white. The attitudes of the subjects are more natural and realistic too. The image is tightly co-ordinated by the device of the regular arches above the Apostles and the drapery of the table cloth below them. Above the arches is a band of architectural ornamentation representing Jerusalem.

 Angels sounding their trumpets.

On the opposite (south) wall is the remains of a Last Judgement. All that can be still be seen are the angels with their trumpets and some decorative elements. This dates from the 14th century.

The entry door.

The original entry to the chapel was in the western end, but in the 18th century the construction of a house which butts up to the church destroyed the porch and the door into the chapel was moved its current position in the southern wall. Evidence of an earlier building on the site comes from carved stones from the Merovingian period (8th century) embedded in the exterior walls.

 An angel and a king from an obscure Bible story.

The stained glass window depicts the story of High Priest and King of Salem, Melchizedek, a contemporary of Abraham.

 I've no idea what this is or how old or original to the chapel it is.

For more information read our friends Niall and Antoinette's blog posts about their visit to the chapel a few years ago. They wrote about the wall paintings, the stained glass and the Merovingian carved stones.

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Learn Botany and Mycology: For readers living in the Touraine du sud who are interested in botany and/or mycology (and would like to practice their French), you could do worse than join the Association de botanique et de mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine. I've belonged for some years and it is a very friendly and welcoming club with a lot of expertise. Twenty or so outings per year are organised, usually on weekend afternoons, but sometimes whole days and sometimes mid-week. More details are available here. If you are really keen you could even do a botany MOOC and be mentored by expert members of the Association.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Lesser Horseshoe Bat Rhinolophus hipposideros, a small species that uses the many caves (abandoned underground limestone quarries) in the Touraine to hibernate.

Photos have been added to the entry on Bat Surveying in Indre et Loire. Chateau tower roofspaces and caves are great habitat for bats.

Prize Plaques

Prize plaques for Charolais cattle.

On a walk in the Claise valley between Chaumussay and Preuilly I encountered this shed at the gateway of a farm. The metal plaques are prizes won for Charolais cattle at agricultural shows at the département and inter-département level for the decade up to 2004. Yellow is a first prize, blue is a second prize and green is a third prize. Red appears to be a tied or shared prize.

The big creamy white Charolais breed is the most widely raised beef breed in France, but it is not as common as the Limousin breed in the Touraine. Curiously, although the breeds are Charolais and Limousin in English, because the word race (breed) is feminine in French, the breeds are called Charolaise and Limousine in France. Due to that gender agreement requirement in French you would say la viande charolaise (Charolais meat), but le boeuf charolais (Charolais beef).

Looking for Emu-wrens

Trying to spot an emu-wren.

This is my sister and her husband trying to spot emu-wrens in the grass. They are teensy weensy and brown, and none were seen on this occasion. Amongst birdwatchers they are notorious for being secretive and difficult to see. They are called emu-wrens because they have long fluffy tail feathers a bit like emu feathers. Emu-wrens are unique to Australia and are not related to 'true' wrens at all. They were given their scientific name Stipiturus and official description by the French physician and naturalist Réné Lesson after he visited Port Jackson on the Coquille expedition 1822-1825.

Experienced Australian naturalist Ian Fraser has just managed to photograph his first emu-wren and has posted the photo on his blog, Talking Naturally. He's also got photos of bustard footprints, for those of you who remember my post on the Champeigne Tourangelle, which talked about the conservation efforts for our local species of bustard here in France.

Our posts on Sundays have an Australian theme. If you would like to read more of them click here.

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Loire Valley Nature: A new entry has been added for Badger Meles meles. No photos of actual badgers unfortunately, but lots of digging and footprints.

A new entry has been added for Bat Surveying in Indre et Loire.

A new entry has been added for Barn Owl Tyto alba.

Spot the Differences

In the street outside his home, as painted by Lansyer.

While I was at the 19th century artist Lansyer's house museum in Loches the other day I took the opportunity to photograph two views he painted of the streets where he lived. The first shows his own house on the right, looking down the street towards the Porte Royale. The second is looking down the street at right angles, looking directly at the Porte Royale.

The scene today with Lansyer's house on the right.

Looking towards the Porte Royale from on the citadel as painted by Lansyer.

The newly restored Porte Royale as it is today.

The pre-restoration view, as seen on StreetView in April 2016. 

I can't believe we don't have our own photo of this!

Nazelles-Négron

Nazelles-Négron is a small town on the Loire directly opposite the much bigger and better known town of Amboise. There is some debate about whether the name Nazelles comes from the Latin for nave (of a chapel) or the Latin for boat. Either way, it is a charming place strung out along the river cliffs and running seamlessly into the neighbouring community of Pocé-sur-Cisse. We visited recently because we took Célestine to the specialist classic car auto-electricians there (who turned out to be nice young men who clucked over Célestine and neatly improved but haven't quite cured her problem yet - it seems to be at least partly aged cables, but her headlights are still flickering).

The bridge over the little River Cisse.

The Cisse runs parallel to the Loire, through the middle of Nazelles-Négron, and finally joins the Loire on its right (north) bank at Vouvray. When there is flooding in the area it is often the Cisse valley which is most affected. Twice in the mid-19th century the Cisse took the brunt of breaches in the Loire levee bank, being inundated with a large volume of fast flowing water. If you look on the side of the Cave des Producteurs in Vouvray you will see the flood marker for 1856 and be astonished that the water was ever that high -- neither river is visible from the Cave des Producteurs under normal circumstances.

A good looking insect hotel.

Nazelles-Négron is twinned with Vomp in Austria and the insect hotel was made by school kids from the two towns when the Austrians were on a visit. There was a nice explanation of what types of creatures could use each of the section stuck to the side of the box. For example, solitary bees (pollinators) such as orchard and mason bees like hollow stems to lay their eggs; the larvae and adults of flower bugs (predators of mites and aphids) will shelter in bits of bark and dried leaves; bumble bees (pollinators) might take up residence in the box with a 10 mm hole and a little landing platform; ground beetles (predators of slugs and wireworms) will like pieces of branches and tree stump; lacewing larvae and adults (predators of aphids and mites) will occupy the sections slot openings filled with wood shavings or pine cones; ladybird adults and larvae (predators of aphids) like the slot opening sections filled with dried leaves or pine cones; solitary wasps (predators of various larvae) like the holes drilled into wooden blocks and hollow stems; butterflies (pollinators) will use boxes filled with straw or dried grass; earwigs (predators of aphids and small caterpillars) like upturned terracotta pots stuffed with straw; hover fly larvae (predators of aphids) like hollow stems.

 Looking down the Cisse Valley.

The building in the left distance is the privately owned Chateau of Nazelles, situated in the delightfully named rue Tue-la-Soif (Kill Thirst Street). It was built in 1518 and remodelled in 1765. Along this section of the river cliffs there are half a dozen chateaux. One of them is the 18th century Chateau de Perreux, which is just a grand single pile fronting on to a vast underground gallery system according to a friend of ours who lives in Pocé (just a few doors down from Mick Jagger, as it happens).

La Champeigne Tourangelle

Situated 20 km east of Tours the Champeigne is composed of two cereal growing plateaux divided by the valley of the Indre river. Roughly speaking it is the countryside between Bléré and Loches. Frankly, it looks nothing special (although it is dotted with very pretty villages) but as Simon has already mentioned, today's landscape hides a record of an extraordinary level of prehistoric activity. In addition, it is home to some of our rarest and most vulnerable lowland plains bird species. As a result, ten years ago the Champeigne Tourangelle was designated as a special nature protection zone and integrated into the Natura 2000 network, becoming one of six such areas in Indre et Loire.

Autumn Squill Scilla autumnalis (Fr. Scille d'automne) photographed near Sublaines. A rare and protected plant of dry grasslands on alkaline soil such as you get in the Champeigne Tourangelle.

The species the zoning is designed to protect are: Little Bustard Tetrax tetrax (Fr. Outarde canepetière), Eurasian Stone-curlew Burhinus oedicnemus (Fr. Oedicnème criard), European Golden Plover Pluvialis apricaria (Fr. Pluvier doré), Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus (Fr. Busard Saint-Martin), Montagu's Harrier C. pygargus (Fr. Busard cendré), Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus (Fr. Hibou des marais), Merlin Falco columbarius (Fr. Faucon émerillon), Short-toed Snake Eagle Circaetus gallicus (Fr. Circaète Jean-le-Blanc) and Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio (Fr. Pie-grièche écorcheur). The zone stretches across seventeen local authorities: Athée-sur-Cher, Azay-sur-Indre, Bléré, Chambourg-sur-Indre, Chanceaux-près-Loches, Chédigny, Cigogné, Cormery, Courcay, Dolus-le-sec, Genillé, Le Liège, Luzillé, Reignac-sur-Indre, Saint-Quentin-sur-Indrois, Sublaines and Tauxigny.

 Autumn Squill in the grass on an uncultivated area in the Champeigne Tourangelle.

Although the designation is as a site for bird protection, it was very nearly designated as 'habitat' because of its chalk grasslands, but in the end the presence of 50% of the region's population of Little Bustard swung it for 'birds'. It was felt that protecting the bustard protected the rest of the species and their habitat. The bustards are counted annually to monitor their progress and earlier this year we saw three birdwatchers on the side of the road between Chédigny and Sublaines, just where I had seen a couple of bustards fly over a few year's earlier. They looked like professionals and I reckon they were doing the annual count.

The objective of the protection zone is to maintain, restore and develop the habitat of the open plain, corridor hedges and wooded copses in order to ensure the birds have a food supply, and mortalities and disturbances of the birds are minimised. Ninety-five percent of the land in the zone is either cultivated or fallow agricultural land. This means that the local farmers are simultaneously the greatest threat to the target species, and their greatest protectors, depending on how they choose to farm the land. Tourist and leisure activity in the zone is discouraged on the grounds that it inevitably disturbs the birds (hot air ballooning, quad bikes and tourist excursions are viewed particularly negatively in this regard). Also considered a problem are the electricity wires and the main roads and vehicular traffic traversing the zone.

 What the Champeigne Tourangelle mostly looks like 

(taken from what we think is the prehistoric trackway).

The success of the zone is seen to lie very much with the locals, and many farmers now participate in a programme to grow 'bustard pasture'. Mostly this works extremely well, with the farmers agreeing to grow lucerne which is mown for hay after the ground nesting birds have fledged their young and are more mobile.The management of the area is down to a committee of all the stakeholders and hopefully avoids issues such as inappropriate dates set for the haymaking and some means of negotiation when the season does not favour the farmer (eg if the summer is very dry and the lucerne loses nutritional value if left too long before cutting). For several years before the zone was created the local farmers and hunters rejected the project. It was only after the Communauté de Communes Loches Développement appointed a mediator that progress was made towards agreeing how the zone could be managed for the benefit of all. The objectives for the project were laid down by representatives from the Indre et Loire Chamber of Agriculture, the Hunt Federation for Indre et Loire, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) and the Society for the Study, Protection and Management of Nature in Touraine (SEPANT). The management committee is made up of a State official, a representative from each of the four organisations who created the objectives and three farmers. It is seen as essential that everyone has a voice and the power to influence the management of the Champeigne.

A typical farm, we believe medieval in origin.

Given that modern arable farming is the single most problematic threat to biodiversity in the Touraine (in my opinion at any rate) this is a really delicate balancing act. Modern agriculture does not favour arable 'weeds' or ground nesting birds. The Champeigne is a fence free mosaic of hard and soft wheat, oats, barley, canola and peas in the winter/spring and sunflowers, maize, barley, sorghum and millet in the spring/summer. This variety of crops actively contributes to maintaining the biodiversity. The Champeigne has been cultivated for so long it is part of the ecosystem now, and without it the land would completely change, taken over by invasive plants and other pest species.

A century ago the mosaic would have included pasture and domestic animals, but that disappeared as arable farming and especially cereals became more profitable and began to dominate. That is why the lucerne and the fallow land is an important part of the mix in today's management. It acts as a proxy for traditional extensively (ie the opposite of intensively) managed pasture.

 Another typical view of the Champeigne Tourangelle.

The set aside or fallow land, known as les jachères in French, was until recently obligatory France wide and farmers were compensated for leaving land uncultivated. This was to reduce overproduction of cereals and try to control the build up of nitrates in the environment. Nowadays, with a world shortage of cereals, set aside is voluntary but many farmers continue to use the technique as part of their package of land management tools. They are encouraged to do so in areas such as the Champeigne where there is a concern about maintaining the traditional elements of the countryside, and a continuing concern about agricultural runoff (including nitrates) into the fresh water network.

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Au jardin hier: The growing season for this year has come to an abrupt halt, with a frost. My row of bean plants, which I sowed very late, still had lots of beans on them, but the frost has got them. I picked two thirds of the apples and have 10 big trays and 4 small ones of six different varieties in the pantry waiting to be made into jellies, compotes, crumbles and cakes. I've picked most of the grapes too, but that's more a result of the crop being small rather than me being worried about them. I'm gathering the walnuts as they fall, but they don't look as though they will be very good quality. I'll let them dry for a while before cracking them and finding out.

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A la cuisine hier: Grilled pork chops, mashed potato, steamed carrots, creamed zucchini and a delicious spicy chutney that Simon's cousin Linda gave us, followed by a fresh pear.

My Back Pages: Simon's T-Shirt Archive (2)

I can actually remember buying this shirt - the shop is no longer there, it was a music shop in Ruthven Street, Toowoomba, that also sold t-shirts and other funky stuff. It was probably 1992 or 1993, and I bought a number of t-shirts for use on stage (the others may make a later appearance here too).

This is Marvin the Martian, a Warner Bros cartoon character who first appeared in 1948. You can see me wearing the shirt in this pic from 1994.

And here is Marvin in his first appearance.

Leopard Slugs

A couple of times on the blog I have mentioned our resident Leopard Slug Limax maximus (Fr. Limace léopard) family. Every morning there are slug trails across the floors and sometimes on the benches. At least once a week one of us will come downstairs in the morning and see a slug cruising across the kitchen. Even worse is coming down in the dark and standing on one.

I guess it's one of the hazards of living in a damp limestone house with a compost bin and desultory housekeeping.

A Leopard Slug cruising across our kitchen floor one morning.

 The tiles are 20cm square, which means this slug is about 15cm long.

Adult slugs are 10 - 20 cm long and have a very variable pattern of 'leopard spots', hence their vernacular name. They are nocturnal and apparently quite smart for slugs. Supposedly they can be taught to avoid things with aversion therapy, and their homing instinct is very strong. Simon has tried to discourage them from hiding under the dishwasher by sprinkling salt there but it's hard to tell if they've learned anything. The homing instinct probably accounts for our numbers never decreasing despite the fact they get put firmly outside once discovered. My guess is they are making their way back inside somehow.

 An adult Leopard Slug is capable of squeezing through the 2-3mm gap in our sink overflow, as I witnessed one day whilst washing up.

They are almost always found in association with human habitation, usually living in cellars or outbuildings (unlike the closely related Ash-black Slug L. cinereoniger, which is always found in woodland). They are omnivores, mainly eating dead plant material (so our compost bin is heaven as far as they are concerned). They will also eat other slugs and small growing plants, so they are kind of a mixed blessing. Apparently they live about 3 years, during which time they go from being tiny wee creatures a couple of centimetres long, to hulking great things of 15 or so centimetres.

Courbet in Loches

So far as I know the 19th century French painter Gustave Courbet (1819 - 1877) never visited Loches, but he did strongly influence Emmanuel Lansyer, whose house is by the Porte Royale on the citadel in Loches. Lansyer's house is now a museum and they currently (until 1 November) have an exhibition exploring the connections between Lansyer and Courbet, as well as providing a potted history of Courbet's life and career. 

Courbet turns out to fall into the 'charismatic but infuriating' mould of artists. He is not an artist who hitherto had made much impact on me, despite the fact that I must have seen his most confronting work (l'Origine du Monde - do not click on this link if graphic nudity offends you) and the enormous painting which made his reputation (A Burial at Ornans), both at the Orsay, and I would have seen Le Sommeil at the Petit Palais too. I don't remember any of these works (!) and had no idea he had been quite so widely influential and political.

 Etchings of some of Courbet's works.

The woman in the centre was described by critics who couldn't cope with an unidealised nude as having une croupe comme un percheron (a backside like a carthorse).

So, whilst I didn't fall in love with the man's landscapes, which were what was on show in Loches, I did appreciate learning more about him in relation to his times and mores. He is a painter who today we look at and simply don't realise how controversial and ground-breaking his realist style was from the very beginning. His insistence on painting ordinary people doing normal things was seen as shocking and tasteless. 

The egotistical Courbet was ripe for caricature.

A Burial at Ornans, for example, showed the townsfolk of his birthplace attending the funeral of his great-uncle. Like people in a respectful crowd do, they are just standing there. None of them are making histrionic gestures to demostrate the depth of their grief. So not in the 19th century fashion!  And the size of the painting, which is enormous, was seen as inappropriate when used to portray simple peasants rather than the great events of history. Courbet was completely anti history painting at a time when it was considered by the establishment to be the pinnacle of the painter's art.

 A nod to Courbet's chaotic and short-lived teaching studio.

After a career shocking the art establishment and emboldening the next generation of painters to do their own thing, poor Courbet got tangled up in the Paris Commune and ended his days in poverty in Switzerland. After the Commune was broken up Courbet was held to be responsible for the demolition of the Vendôme Column and told he had to pay to have it re-erected. He fled to Switzerland to escape bankruptcy and died just as the first payment was due.

Old and New Technology

Green Cape lighthouse complex, with modern light, old light and lighthouse keepers' cottages. I wrote about the history of the lighthouses here.

On Sundays our blog posts have an Australian theme. To read more click here.

The Footsteps of St Martin

Sublaines is an interesting village. For most people it is probably just an annoyance: somewhere with a 50km/h speed limit that slows down the trip from Bléré to Loches.

However, it  also appears to be in the middle of an amazing Bronze Age landscape. There are 16 Bronze Age (and earlier) sites within 5 km of Sublaines, including dolmen, a fort, a cave system, and a couple of tumuli. Later sites include some Merovingian grave cuts (around one of the dolmen) and some 14th century fortified farm towers.

This is probably the easiest of those sites to find, a polissoir dating back to probably 3000BC and known as the Pierre du Pas de Saint-Martin. A polissoir is a hard stone that people would rub their stone axes on to polish and sharpen them. Over the years the rocks become grooved, and later generations would treat these as a mystery.

In the 19th century the mystery was solved when it was realised the grooves and holes are actually the footsteps of Saint Martin and his mule, along with the mark of his staff. You can see one of the footsteps of the mule (it has a horseshoe in it) and the place the staff stuck in the ground (it has a stick in it). Until relatively recently it has been treated as a fertility site, with offerings being left in return for giving the supplicant a child.

The Pierre du pas de Saint-Martin is located here.

A Visit to Celebrate

In mid-September my old friend Suzanne visited the Touraine. She'd been touring England with her husband, having a great time and meeting long lost relatives. They came over to Paris for a few days, then Kenny went home to Australia. Suzanne stayed on though because she was going to be joined by her friend Karen. In between she had a few days footloose and fancy free, so she came down to Tours. We were working for part of the time she was here, but we had a day and a half together.

We visited Alexandre Monmousseau at Chateau Gaudrelle. He got a bit carried away and took us up to the vines via the Chapel of Saint George before treating us to a tasting. Then we had dinner at a bistro in the Rue Nationale.

 Suzanne and I at the entrance to Langeais chateau.

The next morning we picked Suzanne up in Claudette and headed for the Chateau of Langeais. We were using her as a trial run for including the chateau in our tours. We wanted some feedback from her about the experience and what she considered the highlights. Unfortunately it was a drizzly day, but it didn't spoil it too much.

Lunch was taken in the outwardly uninspiring looking restaurant in Lignières-en-Touraine, which we had never used before but suspected did a good workers lunch. We were proved right and they were friendly if somewhat bemused to be feeding a group of, as they thought, American tourists. 

Naturally, being in Lignières meant we took Suzanne across the road to see the painted church there. So that was two medieval painted churches in two days -- not bad going for a first visit, even here. At Saint Martin's in Lignières we were accosted by a local woman who wanted to be sure we knew what we were looking at. After being reassured that we knew the church well she toddled off.

Suzanne with Claudette, back at our garage in Tours and trying to pretend it isn't drizzling with rain.

Then we paid a brief but wet and chilly visit to the gardens at Villandry. It was here that Suzanne revealed her orders from Kenny. He had given her a copy of their local newspaper and insisted that she and I get photographed 'reading' it. We decided a rose bower at Villandry was as good a place as any, and inveigled a British tour escort who was lurking around waiting for her group to take our photo. My Dad will no doubt be amused to see me in the paper.

The weather deteriorated sufficiently that we decided to head back to the garage to put Claudette away and continue the day in our modern car. For the grand finale we visited Chenonceau so Suzanne could see the best known of the Loire Valley chateau. Then it was back to Tours, where she was staying at La Maison Jules in the centre of town. We recommended it and she loved it (and her host Alexandra).

We all had a very nice time, simultaneously catching up and seeing new things. Suzanne was very glad she had the opportunity to come down from Paris for those few days and we were very pleased to see her and talk about how life has been for both of us since we last saw one another nearly 20 years ago. Like all good Australian visitors she came bearing Arnott's Vita-Weats and Angus Park dried apricots, both products which are unobtainable in Europe. Much appreciated.

Not Much Fungi in the Forest

The first fungi foray of the year was held at the Forest of Preuilly on Sunday 2 October. Because it has been so dry there was almost no fungi around, but we all had a good time nevertheless. We had a couple of reasonable rain showers overnight in the two weeks preceding the outing, but it wasn't enough to promote any fungal action, nor was it quite long enough before the outing for the fungi to have sent out fruiting bodies.

Male Ivy Bees.

These male Ivy Bees Colletes hederae (Fr. Abeille du lierre) were frantically buzzing around the ground nesting colony on the side of a track in the forest. They are desperate for the females to emerge. As soon as they do they will be jumped on by multiple males, all determined to mate. Because they specialise in Ivy Hedera helix flowers they emerge very late in the season. They are a species that appears to be doing very well, with an expanding range, but until recently no one took much notice of them. Now there is a European project to monitor them and find out more about them.

Birch Mazegill.

This Birch Mazegill Daedaleopsis tricolor (Fr. Lenzite tricolore) was easily the most beautiful fungus we saw on the day. It is very easy to mistake for Turkeytail Trametes versicolor. I did, confidently telling the new member of our club who found it that it was T. versicolor. Oops! Paul soon put us right and pointed out the gill like folds underneath (Trametes have pores).

A view of the Forest of Preuilly.

Ash-black Slug.

You don't get a good idea of the scale in this photo, but trust me, this slug was big and impressive enough for me to go 'Wow ! Regardez-le !' The Ash-black Slug Limax cinereoniger (Fr. Grand limace) is the largest land slug in the world. It can grow to 30 cm long and lives in ancient woodland. This is a close relative of the Leopard Slugs L. maximus which are making themselves merry living in our kitchen. They are not closely related to the European Black Slug Arion ater.

Angle Shades.

This Angle Shades moth Phlogophora meticulosa (Fr. La Méticuleuse) was lurking in the moss on the forest floor. It folds its wings to do a very passable imitation of an autumn leaf. This one is very brown, which means it is aged. When they are fresh they are greenish.

Determining the specimens.

The table isn't exactly groaning with fungi (compare to this post from 2012), but check out those two enormous Beefsteak mushrooms Fistulina hepatica (Fr. Langue de boeuf) at the near end.

My Back Pages: Simon's T-Shirt Archive (1)

I own a lot of t-shirts but many of them are, these days, of sentimental value only. When we have finished(!!) the graineterie they will form part of the decor of my office, but until then they are sitting in the recently moved wardrobe.

As I was folding them I thought about why these are the t-shirts I have kept, and the stories behind them.

The first t-shirt was screen printed by a friend in Canberra, Peter "Panda" McDonald. I met Peter Panda when playing in the pit orchestra for a pantomine, but I will let him tell his own story:

I arrived in Canberra in March 1984, as a graduate recruit to the Public Service (naturally). Later that year I saw an audition ad for Aladdin at the Repertory , and thought that being in a pantomime might be fun. The phone conversation went something like this:

Me: What sort of people are you looking for ?
Rep Person: People who can do anything really
Me: Ummm, errr, I can play the Tuba
Rep Person: That could be good
Me: Oh, err, Ok I’d like to book an audition then.

So I turned up to Theatre 3 one fine Saturday morning with no idea as to what to expect, and with no idea of the reputation or standard of Rep productions. I sang a totally unprepared song, and read some lines. I was immediately considered for the non-speaking role of the Panda Bear. The stage manager, with what turned out to be remarkable foresight, suggested the Panda could play the Tuba, and so I found myself in a show. (from Rhubarb, the Canberra Rep Newsletter, June 2005)

Peter also had talents as a designer and cartoonist, and would produce short runs of t-shirts for his friends. This was one of his classics, probably dating from 1985.

The Chateau of Langeais

The chateau is full of tapestries. This one is a detail showing the creation of Eve. We assume the strategically placed plant in front of Adam is a plum tree, or maybe some sort of nut...

The combination of castle keep from the end of the 10th century and the 15th century fortress right in the village of Langeais on the Loire river makes this site one of the most interesting in the west of France.  The keep is interesting because it is the earliest Romanesque example still in a reasonable state of preservation, and the later fortress is of interest for its great architectural homogenity.

The handsome profile of young Charles VIII. 

I believe this is the original bronze and the one at Loches is a copy.

The Keep

In the form of an elongated rectangle which forms a barrier across the natural limestone ridge, its dimensions are close to those of other contemporary castles ie 16 metres by 7 metres. By contrast, the thickness of its walls, at only 1.5 metres, is less than other similar structures. Only the eastern facade, facing the current garden, and the southern facade were saved from demolition in the 19th century.

The dining room with its unusual fireplace.

The Royal Chateau of Louis XI

The first thing that strikes you about the exterior is that it is massive, powerful and very homogenous. Its good state of preservation is due to the fact of it having always been directly administered by the king, and few alterations were made.

 The drawbridge.

It is a perfect and complete example of military architecture of the 15th century. Facing the Loire it is topped by a wallwalk passing through towers.

A detail of the waxwork tableau of the marriage of Anne of Brittany and Charles VIII. 

The formidible looking female in the centre foreground is Charles' sister, Anne of France.

The Exterior

The machicolations with their trilobed decorations run for 130 metres, alternating murder holes and arrow slits at regular intervals, with plenty of blind spots for keeping watch and for shooting. The exterior mullioned windows on this outward facing facade could have been added later when the increasing use of cannon reduced this buildings effectiveness as a defensive structure. The basements are at the level of the deep dry moat, now partly filled in.

The courtly wheelers and dealers present at what amounts to the forced marriage of Anne of Brittany to Charles VIII. Another detail of the waxwork tableau on the first floor.

Access is by an interesting drawbridge designed in the 19th century. Originally there was a ramp, now there is a monumental staircase which is not at all authentic, but allows access from the street.

The remains of the 10th century castle keep, built by our old friend Fulk Nerra.

The facades of the open rear courtyard have an elongated appearance due to three external octagonal staircase towers and dormer windows in the main roofs. The decorative motifs are somewhat old fashioned for the date of the chateau but they are finely carved and include many examples of the local flora (oak, vine, ivy, holly, cabbage) below the windows.

The chateau from the rear, showing the courtyard facade.

The Interior
The quite remarkable rooms were entirely restored in the 19th century. They feature carved monumental fireplaces, glazed tile floors that reproduce the old designs, carved beams and joists, window seats and lots of colour.

A detail of some of the 19th century floor tiles, reproducing the late medieval motifs. 

We were particularly taken with the toothy dolphins.

The two big rooms retain two really beautiful fireplaces. That on the ground floor is decorated with oak leaves and three rows of tendrils. A series of machicolations and crenellations with the heads of characters appear above the cornice. This decorative scheme is extremely rare and echoes that of the exterior of the building.

This 15th century Rhenish triptych on the wall in one of the rooms of Langeais chateau shows, as far as I can work out, a bearded king seated on a throne (left), a lady or female saint reading (centre); the same king and presumably his queen dining (right).

On the first floor the great fireplace is decorated with flamboyant pointed arches and a cornice of frilly cabbages. The rafters in the attics form a perfectly preserved 15th century architectural space.

The view through one of the windows in the chateau.

Looking along the wallwalk at the front of the chateau and across the town. 

You can see the grand staircase at the entrance far below.

Window seats are installed throughout the chateau, further evidence
 that this became a luxury residence rather than a defensive building quite early in its life.

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If anyone happens to have a Dell Latitude E4300 or E4310 with a working UK keyboard but otherwise knackered, please drop us a line. (I know, but if you don't ask, you'll never find out!)/

Edit: sorry - should have said "Dell Latitude E4300 or E4310 laptop with a working UK keyboard, but otherwise...

Caption Required

I presume Simon is giving thanks for all the lovely wine that Chateau Gaudrelle make, but I'm not sure. Perhaps you can come up with a better caption for this photo.

European Labour Only

While we were shuffling furniture about the other day Simon took the opportunity to photograph the stamp on the back of one of his wardrobes. This 'European Labour Only' mark is a feature of furniture made in Australia between 1896 and 1963. It means that the piece was made in a factory which only employed Australians of white European backgrounds. 

It was a legal requirement to distinguish between furniture made by white workers and furniture made by Chinese workers, which was stamped 'Asiatic Labour Only' (or in the case where a factory employed both, or some Pacific Islanders, 'European and other labour'). The original legislation was enacted to try to combat the problem of sweated labour where Chinese workers were exploited, working long hours for little money. Their jobs were not secure and workplaces often unsafe.

It soon got twisted into outright racism though, with trade unions failing to support Chinese workers wanting reforms and improved conditions and claims that the furniture made by Chinese Australian labour was inferior. As a result the furniture industry labelling requirements were closely associated with the notorious White Australia Policy (as it is colloquially known -- officially it was the Immigration Restriction Act) of the first half of the 20th century. White trade union workers were threatened by the Chinese output as they were more productive and undercut the European Australian made furniture prices. At times there was a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment. Eventually regulation to control hours worked were introduced and the Chinese businesses lost their advantage.

Just like today though, furniture manufacturers took advantage of obscure supply chains, and the European Labour Only stamp doesn't always mean the product was manufactured from start to finish by white Australians. Even whilst being encouraged to 'buy Australian' consumers were being duped about the real origins of some products or lines. Sound familiar?... 

On Sundays our posts have an Australian theme. To read others, go to the index item Australia on the right side bar and click on it.