Two weeks in "Summer"

It is now 12 months since we decided the old granary is the right house for us.

In that time we have paid many visits to the house, but work has been restricted by the amount of time we can spend there. The longest stays we have had in Preuilly is a week; Christmas 2006, February 2007, and May 2007. This time we went for broke - 2 weeks, half of which would be spent working on the house. We had booked Mme. Fouchécourt's house in Roux, near Boussay. My parents were with me, and Susan was going to join us for 4 days next weekend.

We arrived at about 19.30 on the Saturday evening, and immediately drove over to the house to pick up our supply of food and clothing. Amazing, although it hasn't stopped raining this year (this will become a lietmotif) the house didn't feel very damp, even though there were pools of water on the stairs. I think this is a result of the house being made of limestone. Hopefully, once the hole in the roof has been fixed the house will feel dry and warm during winter, and dry and cool in summer.

On Sunday it rained, so being tired from the drive the day before we had a quiet day, shopping and visiting some of the local villages. We visited la Roche Posay and walked along the abandoned rail line across the Creuse river. Although we didn't get wet we had some amazing views of approaching storm clouds, and by the time we got back to the car it was obvious the weather had set in. As we drove back through the village I was amazed that the end of the market square we were entering town by was in sunshine, but it was raining so hard at the other end (about 80 metres away) that we couldn't see any of the buildings there.

Approaching storm, la Roche Posay

On Monday it was raining (again) so we went to Richelieu and Fontevrauld. The weather turned out not too bad in the end, and we had a good day exploring the garden at Richelieu before moving on to show mum and dad the abbey which Susan and I had visited in November.

The rest of the fortnight was spent doing a couple of hours work a day, followed by an excursion. Dad and I made a shutter for the window of our storeroom (currently the guest bedroom) and mum chipped all the weeds out of the garden. In addition to this we stripped all the "lovely" 1980s wood panelling from the kitchen and the remainder of the wallpaper from the upstars rooms.

The back of the house showing the new shutter

We also paid a visit to the Philosophical Roofer. He had originally scheduled our roof for May, then June (It is now the middle of July and still no sign of work). The main problem has been the rain - he hasn't ever know anything like it, apparently. Certainly we can understand how continual rain affects how much work a roofer can do, and we certainly don't want our roof taken off while the "sunshine" is more than 99% liquid, but it is frustrating. I suspect it is just as frustrating for M. Galland, because he keeps on getting two Australians cluttering up his office and looking naively hopeful.

The main hole (or one of the main holes) in the roof is directly over the stairs, and it does get rather damp. Unfortunately, the staircase would appear to have breathed it's last, having given in to the stresses of being soaked every time it rains. The fact that mum happened to be standing on the stairs when gravity took it's course is not coincidental. No bones broken though! Of course, the damage means that we have to speak to a menuisier (roughly tanslates as joiner) to get the stairs either restored or replaced. This may be an advantage in a way - at least now we know how long the stairs will last..................

The kitchen in progress.

Our big excursion was Chenonceau, which Susan has already written about. We also visited Poitiers, a town we have driven to and through, but never spent time in. The churches are magnificent! I am not sure if the painting in them is original, restored or recent, but they are jewells. I never cease to be amazed by what can be found in the least likely of places.

Church interior, Poitiers

One of the advantages of having spent 2 weeks in the house is crystallizing our ideas for what we want to do with the house - and how we will progress.

Simon

A Trip to Chenonceau

Chenonceau doesn't look promising from the car park. There are a dozen coaches and it doesn't look like there are many empty parking spots - but it turns out to be one of those places that swallows the punters up with ease. A few minor bottle necks in congested doorways in the chateau itself, but otherwise the numbers of visitors is not a problem. We had a simple lunch of blue cheese on 'tricolor' ficelle with fresh apricots to follow - all from Loches market earlier in the day. We had to sit on the canal bank and fend off very bold and persistant mallards because all the picnic tables were occupied, but were quickly fortified for the stroll down the driveway to the chateau. Everyone seemed to be streaming in through the front door, so we took a left turn and started in the impressive formal garden. When the crowd had dissipated we nipped in past the faded but still beautiful carved wooden front doors and began our exploration of the chateau.

Chenonceau is presented as a house of women - Diane de Poitiers, Catherine de Medici, Louise of Lorraine, and Madame Louise Dupin who saved it during the revolution. Any men - Louis XIV, César de Vendôme are presented in light of their relationship with the women. This is a charming conceit that I am sure is an effective drawcard to romantic women everywhere. I did think it was a bit rude of the curators to hang a 19th century 'portrait' of Catherine de Medici in the 'bedroom' of her principle rival, Diane de Poitiers though (Diane was evicted by Catherine on the death of Henri II).

The house is fairly sparsely furnished for display, but there are many fine paintings, fireplaces, painted exposed ceiling joists in the best French tradition and of course, stonkingly rare and valuable tapestries (several of which are quite entertaining if you take the time to look at the detail). Many rooms have most interesting painted textile wall coverings, albeit heavily restored in places, and of course, a range of very grand beds. The visitor reception room on the ground floor once had the most beautiful floor of blue, white and yellow maiolica tiles, now with their glaze completely worn away except on the tiles closest to the walls. In every room there were also enormous flower arrangements featuring foxtail lilies, agapanthus, copper beech and ferns and the like. Frankly, many of the visitors were much more interested in these than the furnishings. I think most people vote Louise of Lorraine's black painted bedroom as the best bit, decorated with the symbols of tragic widowhood (Henry III was assassinated) at the top of the house.


The grounds are extensive and heavily wooded, with many walks criss-crossing. We were treated to a Banded Demoiselle female in perfect glittering condition indulging in a bit of seductive wing waving in the long grass by the river, and a nuthatch hopped about up and down the base of a cedar tree long enough to be photographed several times, completely unbothered by excited wildlife enthusiasts gibbering and pointing at him from a distance of about 10m. There is a delightfully perfect 'model village' and a huge potager. Simon and I were sooooo envious, and it was soooo neat and tidy, with a section for cut flowers and some friendly donkeys at the end.



Susan

Angles sur l'Anglin from across the river

Boussay

Another view of Boussay. This is what I think of as a typical French village.

It's a village because it has a church, if it didn't have a church it would be a hamlet (hameau). This I know - what I am not sure of is when a village becomes a town. Maybe two churches?

Simon

Le Grand Pressigny

Le Grand Pressigny from the chateau. I am still sometimes surprised at how much woodland there is in France.

Simon

The Roofs of Grand Pressigny

Back to a theme - M. Galland assured us last visit that the roof would be done in June. Therefore I am thinking of roofs.

Yet again.

Simon

Les Orchidées

The Claise river valley has 34 species of wild orchids, out of the possible 41 species in Indre et Loire. The whole of Centre, with area roughly twice the size of Wales, has about 60 species - compare this to about 50 species in the whole of the UK. Many European species are chalk loving. Without even trying, we saw 8 species of orchid during our week there in May. We discovered by chance that the hill behind Chaumussay is an orchid hotspot, but we only needed to step out of our own back door to discover one species.

The ridge at Chaumussay in February

The mystery 'lilies' in our garden have turned out to be Lizard Orchids Himantoglossum hircinum - I was secretly hoping they would be orchids, and I hope M Galland doesn't squash them too fatally when work on the roof starts. They were not actually quite out when we left, so I had to remove and dissect a flower from one of the spikes in order to be positive. They have an extraordinary long 'tongue' (the lizard's tail, I suppose). In French they are Orchis Bouc or Loroglosse à odeur de bouc ('bouc' is 'buck', which means that their French name translates as something like Billy Goat Orchid, so guess what they stink of?).

I bought the excellent local orchid field guide Les Orchidées du Bassin de la Claise Tourangelle by Christian Mouline, and discovered that the Lizard Orchid is one species that has a high concentration in Preuilly - they clearly happily self-seed in peoples' lawns. They are quite tall and robust as wild orchids go - the ones in our garden are a good 30-40cm tall, and they can grow taller.

Monkey Orchid                                                                    Lizard Orchid in December












Chaumussay is the village on the Claise just downstream from Preuilly and on the limestone ridge behind, which has a dot on the grid map in the field guide for 13 species, we saw lots of Monkey Orchids Orchis simia (Orchis singe) - these get a big dot on the map at Chaumussay, indicating they are very common, Fly Orchids Ophrys insectifera (Orchis Mouche), a Narrow-leafed Helleborine Cephalanthera longifolia (Céphalanthère à longues feuilles), and Lady Orchids Orchis purpurea (Orchis pourpre ie 'purple orchid') - another robust species.

Fly Orchid                                                                            Narrow-leafed Helleborine












The hill behind Chaumussay is crisscrossed with paths to shrines, recreating Christ's journey to Golgotha. The paths are lined with Box Buxus sempervivens. Martine from Hotel l'Image had told us on our previous visit that Box is associated with remembering the dead, but I have not found out anything more about the connection.

In the other direction, upstream from Preuilly, we saw a slightly different group of species, on the mown road verge just outside of Bossay-sur-Claise, again on a wooded ridge. Here there were Common Twayblade Listera ovata (Listère à feuilles ovales - 'oval leaved orchid' - the English name is old English for 'two leaved'), Greater Butterfly Orchid Platanthera chlorantha (Platanthère verdatre or Orchis verdatre ie 'greenish orchid'), Monkey Orchids (which are just about ubiquitous - by far the most common species and to be seen wherever you go) and Man Orchid Aceras anthropophorum (Aceras homme pendu ie 'hanged man orchid' - more apt I think). The dots on the map indicate that there are 9 possible species on this site - but of course not everything flowers simultaneously, so we must visit regularly.

Common Twayblade                                                                Greater Butterfly Orchid

Having studied the field guide, it seems we have no orchids on the nationally protected list in the Claise Valley, but we have seen 2 of the species on the protected list for Centre (Man Orchid and Narrow-leaved Helleborine).

Lady Orchid                                                                                              Man Orchid












Military Orchids and Monkey Orchids are very closely related and can sometimes be very difficult to distinguish according to the books. Apparently the diagnostic for deciding which species you have is that the monkeys have longer willies than the soldiers.

Lady Orchid                                                                                        Monkey Orchid













The protection legislation states: 'In order to prevent the disappearance of threatened plant species and to enable the conservation of their associated habitats, it is forbidden, at all times, in Centre, to destroy, cut, mutilate, pull up, pick or pluck, hawk or peddle, use, put up for sale, sell or purchase wild plants or parts of plants of the species listed hereafter [and there follows a list of about 25 species of orchid]. The prohibitions against destruction, cutting, mutilation and pulling up are not applicable in the execution of current farming practices or exploitation of rural resources on land habitually cultivated.' (This is my own translation of the legislation and therefore cannot be considered definitive.)

Susan

[Note: this post has been edited to correct my original misidentification of some of the Lady Orchids as Military Orchids]

For more on orchids, please click here

The Church at Chaumussay

Election Results

For some reason this tickled my funny bone. This is the official notification of the winner of the French presidential election as given in Angles sur l'Anglin.

Simon

la Vie Prulliacien

We have just returned from a week in Preuilly. Once again we drove, and once again the car absorbed an awful lot of gear, including a 2 metre extending ladder.

We got to the house by 5.30pm, almost 11 hours after leaving home. Everything was in remarkably good shape, and the house didn't even seem to have become noticibly dirtier than when we left last time. Quite a feat, considering how large the hole in the roof has become. First stop was Intermarche (the supermarket) followed by Bricomarche (the hardware store). The weather was so pleasant (about 22c) that we had our dinner (a nice, fresh, meat and cheese laden salad, followed by strawberries) out in the garden.

One of the local lizards which join us for meals in the garden.

Sunday was spent cleaning, and tidying (as was the rest of the week, really) as until the roof is finished we can't really start on re-wiring or decorating. We did visit M.Galland to find out when we can expect the roof works to start, and he now says June. This means the roof will be off when my parents are in Preuilly. Hopefully. Or maybe even later, which I really do hope won't be the case.

As this was Susan's main holiday day of the year we didn't want it to be all work and no play, so we scheduled a half of each day for work and the rest being tourists. We had arranged with Liselle, a friend of mine from my days in Canberra (that's the capital of Australia, trivia fans) to visit for a couple of days. She arrived on Wednesday and threw herself into working on the house. While we worked upstairs stripping wallpaper, sweeping floors and making general improvements to the way the rooms feel, Susan was in the garden, using our new pick to fully uncover the cobbled area we found in the garden in February.

Of course, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so we did some little trips around the area, visiting la Grande Pressigny, la Guerche, Chaumussay and Rouvray, taking time to look for orchids, for which the area is well known (more from Susan about this later). On Friday we went to Angles sur l'Anglin and the winery at Bossay. We also visited Loches for the Saturday marché, going on to picnic with our discoveries at Montrésor.

The Claise at Chaumussay

Liselle stayed at L'Image, which led to some interesting political discussions with Christophe (and because she speaks French , Jean-Michel as well). This was the week that Sarkozy was elected president, and the owners of L'Image hope this means that France will be made to work. Time will tell on that one - there is a lot of inertia to overcome. We are hoping it doesn't change France too much - but maybe at the moment that is just selfish.

Montrésor

We managed to eat at 3 restaurants this week; La Claise where we had pizza, L'Image where we tried to have a light dinner, but ended up eating far too much desert, and La Promenade, where we had the 18€ menu. While at La Promenade Liselle had some problem with the Visa card reader, later finding out (at L'Image, after they phoned their bank) that a lot of French businesses have been given new card readers, but few instructions in how to use them. There is an almost hidden slot at the side for cards which arent chip and pin. Once this is found, the card worked. I think this pleased her..............

On the way home Susan and I made a diversion via the aqueduct at Luynes.Next visit I will be travelling with my parents. I hope they love the area as much as Liselle did.

Simon

Yet more Roofs

It isn't a fixation, but when I was looking through photos I have taken in the 12 months since I first visited the Sud-Touraine theses roofs grabbed my attention. This was taken in June 2006 from our hotel window in Preuilly.

Jean Dufy

Place de l'Abbaye, Preuilly sur Claise (1940)

Preuilly sur Claise has it's own artist! Or at least it did for a while.

Jean Dufy was born in Le Havre in 1888, and in 1922 married Ismerie Coutut, who was born in Preuilly. The moved to Preuilly in 1939 and appear to have stayed there until 1948, when they bought a house in La Boissiere, a hamlet of Boussay. He lived there until his death in 1964. Both Jean Dufy and his wife are buried in Boussay.

Although I am not a huge fan of this style of painting, it would be nice to have a good print of one of his Preuilly sur Claise paintings in the house. So far the only print I can find is a painting of a vase of flowers.

Here is a catalogue of his works

Typically French

You still see adverts painted onto walls in France. It is one of those things that make it France, in my mind at least. I don't think there are any new ones, but plenty remain visible.

This one is on a wall in Loches.

Simon

Preuilly-sur-Claise; a mashup

Google Maps is getting to be real fun - and easily usable. I have created a mashup which shows some of the notable buildings and a couple of the views in Preuilly.

Just click on this link and it will open Google Maps in a new window, complete with clickable place markers.

Have fun!

Simon

Roofs

As we await the arrival of M.Galland I am becoming fixated with roofs. There are some beautiful roofs in France. This one is in La Guerche.

the Lavoir, Etableau

Many villages (and a lot of towns as well) still keep their lavoirs - the communal wash-house (laundry). This one in Etableau is on the smallest stream we have so far seen used for this purpose.


Simon

Our roof

M.Galland says he will be starting on the roof in May. As it is almost May now, I though I would post a photo of the roof from the inside. As you can see, it is all big beams pegged (rather than nailed) together

Moulin de Chanvre

A Mill typical of the kind we have around Preuilly. This one is on the road between Preuilly and Chaumussay.

In which we stay in the house for the first time

This was a long standing planned trip, partly in order to try put a little pressure on M.Galland (the roofer) to start soon.

We had booked on SpeedFerries, leaving on their first sailing of the new season. On the Monday before we left we received an email saying that the start of service had to be delayed, so we had to make alternate arrangements. Luckily I was able to book a ticket with Norfolk Lines, which is a longer journey (2 hours to Dunkerque, which also adds the best part of an hour to the drive) so all was not lost. The amended booking meant that we had to leave home at 3.30am in order to make our 6.00am sailing from Dover, which meant that by the time we arrived in Preuilly we had been on the road for 13 hours including a diversion through Rouen, a town which appears to have me totally jinxed.

Our first port of call was M. Bertucelli to check on the plumbing works, which we were assured were complete. This caused us to rush to the house, as the thought of having our own toilet was very exciting.

Arriving at the house, first port of call was to wonder at the new technology - a flushing WC. We flushed, and the cistern didn't fill up. I turned on the stopcock inside the house (which made no difference) so we moved outside to the external stopcock. This is a metre under a metal plate in the middle of our neighbour's driveway. I leaned into the hole to turn the water on......... and my mobile phone and hankie dropped out of my pocket into 6 inches of muddy water. I don't know if it was the sacrifice of my phone that caused the water to flow (could have been turning the tap on) but we now have tapwater and a flushing WC. Excellent!!

The next move was to set up our kerosene heater (donated to us from the junk left by previous tenants of our house in London). This meant a trip to Yzeures to buy fuel and various foodstuffs. It's always a pleasure to wander around a hardware store after driving for 13 hours...........

We had our first dinner together in the house, Vegetable soup, followed by bacon and beans and pastries for dessert. We weren't exactly warm, but the heater took the edge of what was to be a cold night.

It rained during the night, which meant our slumbers were accompanied by the sound of dripping water, but at least none of it entered the room we were sleeping in. We did decided, however, that we would erect our picnic tent/gazebo thing in the front room, and put the bed in there. This would provide us with a waterproof roof, and a lot more room so we could set up washing facilities. It also means that we can have our clothing in the same room we sleep in, making inter-room dashes in the cold unnecessary.

Friday was occupied with cleaning the front room, setting up the tent, moving the bed, putting a curtain over the space a door would normally occupy (and will, one day, occupy again). We also found time to visit M.Galland, the bank and the supermarket (and the hardware store). This set the pattern for the weekend - cleaning, visiting hardware stores, and plotting how we will proceed with the work.


The only real diversion came on Saturday, when we met the man from the dechetterie (the local dump, although it's more of a transfer station) whom our neighbours had organised to remove the piles of cuttings from our garden. He took a trailer of clippings to the tip, and we followed. He explained the system to us, and we trotted off to collect our own carload of stuff to junk. Most of it was "mixte", but we did have some glass, wood and cardboard which went in their respective skips, as did the old paintbrush cleaning mixture. As they say in the area; "Au pays de Descartes, je pense, donc je trie" (In the land of Descartes, I think, therefore I sort).

cowslips

We were amazed by how cold it was, considering how advanced spring seems to be. All the roadsides were covered in cowslips (coucou in French, the first of the wild primroses to appear) and the cherries and plums were blooming, as were the magnolias. Until recently, cowslips were big news in England, as modern farming techniques had destroyed much of their habitat. Thankfully they are on the way back in the UK, but we have never seen them in these numbers

On Sunday afternoon we rewarded ourselves with a drive in the country. as we drove on the road towards le Grande Pressigny (a trip we have done many times) I noticed, for the first time, the chateau at Etableau, a hamlet about 1.5Km from Pressigny. Why we have never noticed this before I can't say. It isn't as if it is small or anything..........

Etableau

We also saw a different view of the chateau at le Grande Pressigny, which makes it look like a cutaway from a Richard Scarry book.

Although it sometimes feels like we aren't progressing with the house, it is coming on peu en peu and we are getting a lot better idea of what it is we want to do with it, which is a lot better than acting before you've decided!!

Simon

Another French Classic

'nuff said!