Coconut Ice Time

It's that time of year where the grounds of the hotel "la Tortiniere" are full of cyclamen.

If you don't understand the title of this post, this may help.

The Families of Anzeling

One day in May our walking club began their walk in Buxeuil and parked at the bakery there. On the wall of the building next to the bakery is a plaque which says 'The families from Anzeling were welcomed here on 7 September 1939'.

Anzeling is a town in Moselle and was right on the Maginot Line at the beginning of the Second World War. At the outbreak of war the inhabitants, fewer than 400 people, were evactuated to Buxeuil. One of the families seems to have been housed in one of the outbuildings of the Chateau de la Roche Amenon, 8km west of Buxeuil on the Creuse River. It is not clear if some of them stayed in the building in Buxeuil with the plaque, or whether they were simply welcomed to town here in the square.

Apart from that, there does not appear to be any further information online about what happened to these families. No doubt if I knew the right local person to ask the story is still known by a few, but with our existing resources we failed to discover whether these people ever went back to Anzeling after the war, what they did while they were in Buxeuil and where else besides the chateau they might have been housed. (Update: I asked the baker next door to the plaque and he says the families all went back to Anzeling after the war, but he doesn't know where exactly they were housed when they came to Buxeuil.)

A Thing We Didn't Say

Last month the Comice was in Preuilly, and the town was decorated for all the visitors, and especially for the Grand Parade.

One thing we neglected to mention was the thousands of flowers, hand made by members of the Comite des Fetes, dozens of volunteers and I believe a smattering of retirement home residents and some students from the college. Here are some of them, adorning the hedge near the arboretum. The rest were woven into fences, bushed and lamposts all around town.

Congratulations to all involved - it looked like a massive undertaking. and really brightened the place up.

Another Sign Summer is Ending

Young House Martins Delichon urbica (Fr. Hirondelle de fenêtre) begin to gather into flocks after they have fledged. They are bonding in preparation for flying off to Africa for the winter. Dozens of them will perch on the electricity wires in our street at this time of year, and for a few days they took to perching on the string course just under the eaves of the house across the road. I wonder how many of them will make it back in the spring?

Villeloin-Coulangé

Looking for stuff on the internet over the years I had seen the 19th century photos showing a magnificent gatehouse for the Abby of Villeloin-Coulangé, but although we have driven through the village a number of times I had never actually seen the gatehouse. I just assumed it had fallen down in the meantime. Which was a pity.

But no - it still exists, and on Saturday we took clients to see it. We have decided that it's a perfect photo opportunity, because even if you park in the middle of the road for 15 minutes no-one much will be inconvenienced.

So now when we travel from Loches to Montresor we have another little surprise. Or maybe not so little!

Sydney Silhouettes

This is the view you get from the Manly Ferry when you're heading back from the beach on a summer's evening. These days the ferry has free wifi, so I wonder how many people notice.

Scaffolding Goes Up

I ran into my friend Christine at the market on morning Thursday and she alerted me to the fact that Bernard was down at the chapel supervising the erection of the scaffolding. Yes, restoration work on the Chapelle de Tous les Saints has started! We've raised the money! 

When I got down there in the afternoon the masons were just packing up for the day, one level of scaffolding was up, the site taped off and the side road blocked. The masons, Jaillais, are a firm from Chinon. The young man I spoke to said he was a tailleur de pierre (stone cutter). I'm not quite sure what the difference between a maçon and a tailleur de pierre is, but I assume it's experience or qualifications.

For the back story to this restoration see our previous blog posts about the chapel.

At the Employment Office

On Tuesday I spent the afternoon at a session for people who are job seeking. The Maison d'Emploi in Beaulieu lès Loches where the workshop was held was still showing the scars of a drunken rampage that occured in mid-July. A young man had used an outdoor ashtray and a large rock to smash his way into the centre during the night and cause tens of thousands of euros of damage, breaking doors, windows, computers, photocopiers and a fridge. The event truly shocked the staff, who had never experienced anything like it. The newspaper report (with a photo of the mess) is here.

 A temporary grill and some plastic cover the broken windows at the front.

Anyway, six of us plus an employment councillor from the agency Aksis, which is contracted by Pôle Emploi in a private-public partnership, adjourned to the big meeting room with the smashed window in the middle of the building. Our councillor Peggy introduced herself (she is hearing impaired so we needed to speak directly to her, for example), then the group introduced themselves. There was a signwriter, the only man; a secretary who had left her last job due to health problems; someone who had recently retrained as a leatherworker (Fr. maroquiniste); a bookkeeper with no formal qualifications who was told in a recent interview that they were looking for someone younger; and a receptionist who had been working at a police station which had been merged with another. I was the only one there who was simply seeking to supplement my existing work. The rest were all unemployed and seeking full time work. I was also the only one who wasn't French, but despite a couple of minor language hiccoughs where I had to ask for something to be explained, I got on just as well as everyone else, contributing to the discussion and mostly keeping up.

Peggy gave us an overview of the employment scene in Indre et Loire, and it wasn't promising. The two biggest sectors are agriculture and tourism. The next biggest is pharmaceuticals, and there is quite a push by the authorities to create the 'Cosmetics Valley' along the Loire. The general opinion is that it will outstrip tourism in the not too distant future. But until it does, the bad news for my companions on the day was that 4 out of 5 jobs in the area are seasonal. Not a problem for me particularly, but a blow for those who want stable full time work. Peggy also pointed out that if you are an employer these days and recruting, you can count yourself lucky if 10% of applicants meet your criteria.

 The smashed window of the room in which we met.

She wasn't all doom and gloom though. In fact she was quite feisty and motivating (I guess that's her job, really). She encouraged us to send our CVs off speculatively and use our personal networks (often a job offer comes from someone who knows someone who knows you). Thanks to her I now know about a bunch of websites which tell me what industries are looking for workers (the Besoins de Mains d'Oeuvre report), how to tell what activities a business is engaged in by its APE code, how to find the contact details of managers (on the Observatoire de l'Economie et des Territoires de Touraine website), and how to identify key words relating to skills (using the Fiche ROME on the Informations Marché du Travail section of the Pôle Emploi website).

Most importantly of all, for me at any rate, she offered to cast a professional eye over my CV (it's not colourful enough and the nuances of my compétences need work apparently). She will also help me with writing lettres de motivation. I have access to her and the programme until 19 October, so I'd better get cracking.

Look at the Lady

Hollyhocks thrive in the Loire Valley, and often grow as pavement plants. As we walked through Parnay a client picked a flower and a bud and created a lady.

Character and Courage

 Lockers for cyclists at the artists colony, Turquant.

“In politics, one can learn some things from cycling, such as how to have character and courage. Sometimes in politics there isn’t enough of those things.”
Guy Verhofstadt

The cycling politician I've quoted above is the Belgian chief Brexit negotiator for the European Parliament. Frankly, it is him and his French counterpart for the European Commission, Michel Barnier, that we are relying on to protect us. The British government clearly doesn't give a toss about us, except where they can use us as bargaining chips to manoeuvre in terms of EU citizens living in Britain. 

My British member of parliament (a longstanding Labour member) no longer responds to my emails. In contrast, Elmar Brok, on Verhofstadt's steering committee sends personalised responses within 48 hours.

For an idea of how the British government is prepared to treat EU citizens in Britain, read this Guardian article.

Meeting Gandalf

This presumably custom bicycle belongs to Gandalf as far as I can tell. I encountered it whilst making a toilet stop at Turquant with a walking group. When we got there the men's toilet was locked. We assumed it was occupied and the men just waited a bit. The minutes went on and the door didn't open, so we assumed it was out of order and the men lined up to use the women's. Finally, to our surprise, the door of the men's toilet creaked open and this bike emerged, propelled by a rather extraordinary looking man with long white hair and beard, a slightly sheepish expression and dressed in what looked like handmedowns. We smiled and tried to look friendly, as did he, but no words were exchanged. We watched as he crossed the courtyard, parked the bike against the unmanned tourist office wall and went inside. He didn't emerge again. Our impression was that he had spent the night in the men's toilet. I would have loved to have taken his photo but felt it was a bit intrusive and didn't like to ask.

A Tale of Two Monuments

For many locals Léonard Perrault is just the name of a street in Amboise, leading down from Clos Lucé to the Porte des Lions at the Chateau Royal. But for anyone familiar with the cemetery in Amboise, they will know that there is a monument to the man right next to the Duc de Choiseul's, once Louis XV's chief minister.

The inscription on the Choiseul tomb to the Duchess.

 Although it begins 'here lies' the date has never been added at the end.

Perrault was a young man from Amboise of humble origins who rose to fame and fortune thanks to the Duke and Duchess of Choiseul. All his adult life he maintained his connection with them.

Born in 1750, his hard work on the Duc de Choiseul's chateau of Chanteloup was noticed. To encourage and reward him he was given a donkey and a cart. This was the beginning of his rise, enabling him to succeed in his trade as a mason. Ultimately he became an entrepreneur working for the King, responsible for building the levee banks along the Loire at Amboise. He spent ten years constructing the bridge over the Loire at Amboise but also operated a ferry to enable crossing in the meantime. Having a good head for business, he made a fortune. 

The Duc de Choiseul's tomb (centre), Léonard Perrault's tomb (left and slightly behind).

The histories of Perrault's and Choiseul's adjacent tombs are intimately linked. The Duke died in 1785. He had already bought some land for his last resting place in Amboise. He offered the site to the town and it is now the town cemetery. A mound and then a mausoleum was raised on his grave. During the Revolution his tomb was demolished to recover the lead.

The Duc de Choiseul's eulogy on his tomb.

In 1802 Léonard Perrault, who had saved some pieces of the tomb, sought the right to reconstruct it. He financed the rebuilding on condition that he could be buried next to the Duke. At the time, the Duchess, ruined by the debts her husband had left, lived in a small apartment in Paris. Perrault, who by this time was wealthy, did not forget her and supported her financially.

Léonard Perrault's tomb.

He died in 1815, leaving 18 children, who erected his tomb next to the man who had given him a leg up all those years ago. His tomb was listed as a historic monument in 1962, a few days before Choiseul's was also listed. The Choiseul monument has been restored several times, unlike Perrault's, which is now in a rather shabby state.

Many thanks to Pamela Shields for alerting me to this story and showing me the monuments.

Ferns in the Rainforest

A selection of native Australian ferns growing wild in the rainforest at Ravensbourne National Park on the Great Dividing Range in south-east Queensland.

Cyanobacteria in the Western Loire

After a number of dogs of died due to poisoning with cyanobacteria in the past couple of weeks it is not safe to go swimming or engage in aquatic activities west of Chinon, in either the Loire or the Vienne.

A branch of the Loire near Souzay Champigny. Presumably livestock and wildlife are equally at risk. 

A family from Chinon were swimming in the Vienne near Beaumont en Véron, downstream from the bridge by the fire station. They think their dog must have lapped up some water with the dangerous algae as it was later vomiting then convulsing. The dog, a seven year old German Shepherd, was quickly taken to the vet, but was dead by evening. Another dog was treated for convulsions the same evening, after swimming in the same area. Happily the vet managed to save this second animal. 

A branch of the Loire at Souzay Champigny. Definitely take care here.

A representative of the Chinon sub-prefecture has said that even if the cause of death has not been established, the event is similar enough to other dogs in neighbouring départements, which were caused by cyanobacteria that had developed thanks to sun and light in certain slow moving or stagnant waters. The Laboratoire de Touraine will perform an autopsy on the dog and confirm or otherwise that cyanobacteria was responsible.

The Vienne at Rivière. I'd be keeping my dog on a lead here, even though it's east of Chinon.

There has been a third episode which may also have involved cyanobacteria, at Candes Saint Martin. As a local resident commented, 'on the beach at Candes you can see lot of rotting algae which forms a sort of mud on the stagnant parts making it difficult to breath.'

The beach on the Vienne at Chinon. Safe to swim if monitored.

At the moment, the authorities are asking that people keep dogs on leads as a precaution and that people don't swim in shallow or stagnant water which has a significant algal load. You are advised to swim only in the regulated zones. Don't let your animals drink from the river or swim, don't eat river fish and don't pick things up out of the river.

Aquatic sports are not forbidden but you need to be careful. Don't swim where it looks dodgy and wash yourself and your equipment thorough after any contact with the river.

Low Rainfall in the First Half of 2017

According to the local newspaper there was 7mm of rainfall last Tuesday in the Touraine du Sud. It was enough to stop the pasture from curling up and dying, but that's about all. This area is particularly diversified in terms of its agricultural activities, so it provides a good overview for the local agricultural development officer.

Lupins, a crop that likes sandy soil, in the Vienne valley.

He says that the lack of rain would not have had such a negative impact if the département wasn't already in a state of water deficit. There was drought in 2015, then despite the floods in June 2016, the water levels since July 2016 have been low. We did have significant rain in November last year, but not enough to bring the water levels up to normal. He added that whilst we haven't technically had a heatwave in the last couple of months, crops have been subjected to considerable heat stress.  The high heat of the end of June and the first couple of weeks of July could not have come at a worse time for the summer crops, falling as they did just before the first maize silage should have been cut. 

Flax, a crop that doesn't like hot dry conditions, in the Claise valley.

Obviously, whether a crop is irrigated or not makes a big difference. But contrary to popular belief, not all farmers irrigate. Irrigation is expensive. The farmer has to pay for the water, the electricity and expensive equipment. In irrigated fields the impact of this year's weather is minimal, but in dryland areas, there has been a 10 - 20% loss of productivity. The ag officer says it's difficult to be categorical though. It all depends on the soils, which vary considerably around here. You can find everything from dry sand along the Creuse to loam on the Saint Flovier plateau.

Maize on sandy Creuse valley soil, with irrigation equipment in place.

The same thing applies to pasture and oilseeds. Thanks to recent light rain they aren't totally crispy fried, but canola and sunflowers will be about 10 - 15% down. Soils are like us -- they sweat in summer, and at the moment, there is too much evaporation. Also, a surplus of water in autumn is as bad as a lack in summer. With climate change this situation will tend to become the norm. Another thing that farmers must bear in mind.

Wheat being irrigated on sandy Creuse valley soil.

Farming experts here don't think there is a single miracle answer. In fact, whilst experimental work being done on new varieties of crops is useful, each farm will have to develop their own solutions, on a case by case basis.

Farmers Worried About Reform

The local newspaper had an article yesterday about farmers' concerns regarding recent national budget cuts to grants made through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP, or PAC if you are French). France has the most land under agriculture of any of the EU countries, so the CAP is particularly important here. Local farmers union members called an on-farm meeting with our local representatives in the National Assembly to get their point across.

The 'disadvantaged' southern Touraine countryside.

The farm near Sepmes that they meet on runs dairy cattle and grows grain which is used to feed the stock on farm. The farmer is a young woman of 30 who is in the process of buying the business from her former boss, an older farmer who is retiring. The hand over period is three years. The farm is 60 ha with 70 dairy cows and maize cultivation, partly irrigated. Under new rules just announced the new owner will not receive €6500 that she had hitherto been expecting as a grant to aid the transition. In addition, there has been a major redefining of agricultural areas considered to be 'disadvantaged' and she will lose nearly as much because of being recategorised.

 A local dairy farm (photo courtesy of my father).

The reason for the budget cuts at a national level are because of an EU decision to shift 4.2% of the CAP budget from direct farm payments to the more general aim of 'rural development'. These two types of payment are known as the 'twin pillars' of the CAP. In the past the direct farm payments have been aimed particularly at supporting the markets and protecting the incomes of farmers. The new focus is looking more towards the environment and farmers are having a hard time swallowing it. The farmers union is at pains to point out that it is not just graziers who will lose out, but, for example, a cereal farmer with 150 ha will lose €1300 a year under the reforms. The farmers are also not happy about the new boundaries outlining the disadvantaged areas. The Touraine du Sud (that's us and the area around Loches) is 'disadvantaged' but the Sainte Maure plateau (where Sepmes is) is not.

Typical local cereal farms. 

The reforms have been pushed back a year and the farmers are determined to make the most of the repreve. But the clock is ticking. One dairy farmer pointed out that when he started out there were ten dairy farmers in the immediate area. Five of them remain today and there will be no more than three in six months time.

 Barley is widely grown.

On one level I sympathise deeply with these farmers. I know they have long term plans that have been scuppered by this change in government policy and they are struggling to see a way forward. But the truth is the CAP direct farm payments are a really blunt instrument. Essentially farmers are paid for just owning the land, and the more they have the bigger the grant they receive. My local organic market gardeners and orchardists have very little land, and receive very little in the way of EU grants. On the other hand, the big cereal farmers are getting tens of thousands every year, and choosing to ignore the environmental damage they are causing.

 Beautiful barley.

Modern agricultural practice is having a huge impact on our environment. It ruins soil quality (by heavy machinery and deep tillage), water quality (by runoff of pesticides and excess nutrients) and air quality (by creating a toxic mix of ammonia from manure and diesel fumes). The CAP is currently not set up to adequately deal with these issues. Something must change, and farmers must be incentivised to change how they do things.

Former Occupants

One of the things that struck me about the Grand Défilé (Grand Parade) of the recent Comice Agricole (Agricultural Show) was how many people got smartly dressed to attend. They were also nostalgic, happily reliving a social occasion they remembered fondly from their childhood. Lots of people my age and older reminisced about Comices in the past.

Mid-afternoon of the great day we got a knock at the door. It was Gérard, who grew up in our house, and his wife Marie-France. They were in town because they wanted to catch the Grand Défilé, and they had brought Gérard's sisters to meet us and see what we've done to the old place. It was fascinating hearing the three of them discussing what they remembered and how the rooms were laid out.

Gérard, Claudette and Sylvie.

There was a minor argument about where the kitchen stove was, but it was eventually established that Gérard and Claudette were talking about two different stoves. He is older than the girls and remembers more. He remembers for example, when our laundry had an external door. It was wrought iron and always locked. He can't ever remember it being used. Claudette could remember the big table that sat in the middle of the kitchen. Their grandparents employed a number of men and in those days everyone ate lunch together around the big kitchen table. Claudette reckons it was about eight people every day for lunch, which I assume her grandmother produced.

Their family also owned our neighbour's place and they can remember the linden tree in their back yard being planted, so it's about 50 years old. Apparently it used to have a companion.

After the visit Claudette emailed me a copy of the deed when their grandparents purchased the property. It dates from 1900, and we will have to pour over it to extract all the interesting little tidbits of information it doubtless contains. Gérard is vastly amused that one of our Tractions is called Claudette. She was named before we even knew of his sister Claudette's existence, but she is chuffed to bits to have a namesake in the garage.

Les Greniers de Cesar

Recently we had the opportunity to visit the Greniers de César (Caesar's Granaries) in Amboise. They are privately owned, by the Hotel Le Choiseul, and access is by guided visit or permission of the hotel only. 

Once the Duc de Choiseul's townhouse, now a luxury hotel.

They are well worth going to see if you get the chance. Consisting of several large tunnels gouged out of the limestone spur that Amboise is built on, they don't sound very exciting, but believe me, they are stonking!

The site was originally occupied by an Italian hermit called Francis de Paule, who came at the request of Louis XI in the middle of the 15th century. The Duc de Choiseul, former Prime Minister to Louis XV, took over the site about 1770, when he was sent into exile by the King.

Looking up at the tunnel entrances.

The 'Granaries' are a series of vaulted tunnels excavated from the limestone. Their length varies from 40 to 90 metres and they are 12 metres high. The lower tunnel was dug independently of the others, the upper ones are divided into three by wooden floors.

19th century historians believed that the site was Roman in origin, and they've been known as the 'Greniers de César' since at least the 18th century. We know that the Romans chased the Turonien Celts off the plateau in the first century BC. The Turoniens had lived there for centuries, but there is no evidence that Julius Caesar was ever in Amboise.  

The eastern tunnel, level two.

A municipal archive document from 1548 mentions the digging of tunnels for Sir Jehan Gastignon, herbalist-apothecary royal. So the tunnels would have been simple quarries, and the stone used to construct a quay on the Loire. 

On the death of Gastignon the 'Granaries' were sold to the monks of Les Minimes, the convent next door. They modified the tunnels and added the wooden floors to use the complex to store tithes of cereals. They also dug four silos to dry their grain. The silos are brick bottle shaped constructions with a void between the bricks and the rock. Originally the gap between the inner and outer skins of the silos was filled with sand dredged from the river, to control the humidity and keep the grain dry. A staircase links the river to the plateau and comes out in a private garden just beyond the Chateau Royal grounds. Trapdoors allowed the grain to be dropped in from the chateau level, stored in the central brick bottle shaped silos and dropped through to the ground level when the time came to take the grain away for use. Nowadays the silos are also enfilade, with doorways leading from one to the other. These were added sometime before 1830.

The underside of one of the wooden floors dividing the main tunnel.

At the Revolution the religious community was evicted from les Minimes and the granaries abandoned. In the 19th century they became the property of the chemist Chaptal, who bought the Choiseul estate. The cone shaped objects you can see on the cornices in some of the photos are sugar moulds from Chaptal's factory. No one knows why they are now in the tunnels. Later the tunnels became wine cellars, and are now owned by the Hotel Choiseul.

The staircase from looking from level two up to the plateau.

For more information (in French) with diagrams, check out Touraine Insolite.

The inside of one of the silos.

Many thanks to Grégory Millet, our guide at the Greniers de César, who took the time to email me his notes after our visit. Grégory is a professional guide working for the Tourist Office in Amboise and can be contacted there for any information about the area.

Gonzague is Gone

Tourangeau writers as portrayed on the chalet at Chanceaux près Loches.

Photo courtesy of my father.

On 8 August 2017 local celebrity Gonzague Saint Bris was killed in a car accident in Calvados. The newspapers were full of it and the Touraine in shock, not least because it happened just before his long running annual book festival at Chanceaux près Loches is due to take place. Referred to by all the locals by his first name, the funeral service at Saint Denis in Amboise was packed and overflowing according to friends of ours who live close by. By contrast, the interment was private and family only. When we visited the family grave there were wreaths from the great and the good in abundance (Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is one I recall, but there were many more).

 The Saint Bris family grave in Amboise cemetery.

Born in 1948 in Loches, the son of a diplomat, he became a writer, publishing novels, histories and many biographies. His family had made their fortune as foundry owners in the 19th century and in 1855 they bought Clos Lucé, which is where he grew up. Self-taught, he became a journalist and radio presenter, then director of strategy and development at the famous French publishing house Hachette and head of the Ministry of culture and communication. He became a women's magazine proprietor and the royal correspondent for Paris Match. In 2014 he recreated the journey across the Alps made by Leonardo da Vinci on the back of a mule in 1516, after he was invited to come to France by François I.

 The chalet at Chanceaux près Loches.

At the time of his death he was best known locally for the literary festival known as La Forêt de Livres, held annually in the tiny hamlet of Chanceaux près Loches for more than 20 years. The festival is free to all, hosting 150 authors who are there to promote their latest books.

 Detail of the facade of Clos Lucé.

He died in a car accident near Pont L'Eveque earlier this month. The car was driven by his companion Alice Bertheaume, late at night as they returned from a party. She swerved to avoid a wild boar and hit a tree. Both of them were thrown from the car. He was killed instantly, she is still in hospital, in a critical condition.

 Leonardo da Vinci as depicted on the chalet.

La Forêt de Livres will be going ahead, and his brother continues the family occupancy and presentation of Clos Lucé to the public. Gonzague never managed to get elected to the Académie Française, but I suspect he was that rather undervalued creature, an enabler. Locally he seems to have been widely liked and appreciated for his loyalty to the area, and he brought a great many people together to enjoy the literary arts. I never met Gonzague, nor went to the Forêt de Livres, but I have been struck by how people have responded to his death -- perhaps rather sentimentally parochial, but genuinely mourning the fact that he is gone from their lives.