Visiting Célestine

We went to see Célestine yesterday - Jean-Louis said that while he had the engine out it would be a good opportunity to clean. We assumed he meant clean the engine, but what he was getting at was that the engine bay itself was greasy and could do with a going over. Part of the problem was that I had overfilled the bidon I put in the oil can clip, so that a small amount of oil spilled every time I used the brakes.

This is the sight that greeted us
at Jean-Louis' garage when we arrived.

Simon cleaning her engine bay.
Luckily it was a nice sunny day.

While we cleaned the oil off using a little white spirit and a compressed air blower, Jean-Louis was working on the gears, dismantling and checking every piece. A number of cogs were missing teeth, and it was this that caused the gearbox to split: a loose tooth getting jammed between two rotating cogs and "clac!". (Clac! is a word always accompanied by actions: make fists of both hands and hold them together in front of your chest, then jerk them apart and say clac!. It will make you look more French.)

Jean-Louis doing something fastidieux
with the gearbox innards.

Fastidieux is a false friend. It does not mean fastidious, although in this case the English sense also applies. He was putting half a dozen pieces together, testing them, taking them apart, adjusting and repeating as necessary until perfect. He described it as fastidieux, meaning it was tiresome or tedious.

He is going to start putting Célestine back together on Tuesday and she should be ready by the end of the week. It amazes us : not only is the engine and gearbox out (and the gearbox in a billion pieces), most of the electrics are disconnected and body panels have been removed. And yet all this will all come together in the next 7 days . Incroyable!

Susan & Simon

Where are we At?

It's been a while since we updated stuff, so here goes:

Célestine is still at the Doctor's, but we are confident she will be home the middle of next week - or not long after. Today we are going to visit her, but taking paintbrushes and white spirit rather than grapes. It's time her engine bay had its spring clean (I know, at least 2 weeks early) and it will be easier to do while the gearbox is out - there will be all those extra nooks and crannies we can get into.

The computer is still not well, but that is mainly due to me not getting up enough steam to follow the latest batch of instructions. I am confident I will get it working without having to load a new operating system, it's just a matter of time.

We have done no painting recently, although we have plenty left to do. It just hasn't been quite warm enough (or is that just an excuse?) to have the doors open to let the fumes vent and the paint dry in good time.

The Hyacinths had their first flowers 5 weeks ago,
before the snow. They are having a second go at it now.

Spring is just around the corner, and the garden plants that were flowering before the snow arrived have just started to recover their vitality. The Hyacinths have new blooms, and the daffs are that close. We also have many tulips sprouting, and Susan has just done our first lettuces of the year. Weather wise it has been typical late March really : a bit sunny, a bit windy, some rain, a little mist, and one or two frosts. Temperatures have been around the 0°C mark overnight, and between 10° and 16° during the day.

At the moment then we are just girding our loins ahead of getting started for the year. We're hoping to be busy, and already there are indications that this will be the case. As well as work we already have various family and friends lining up to visit during summer. Hopefully that means plenty of exploring and lots of new places to blog about.

Simon

You Have Got to be Joking

This jester adorns a Renaissance window high up on the citadel walls in Loches. You can only see it from the street below. It would be interesting to know why the window is topped by a jester, as opposed to another character or motif.

No doubt it is part of the extensive remodelling done on the Logis Royal by Charles VIII in the late 15th century, so not a window from which la dame de beauté might have gazed out.

Susan

Infected.

At about 10.00pm on Friday evening our main computer caught a virus. Or to be more precise, some malware, which hijacks your screen and tries to extort money from you to get it back.

The virus we have isn't a new one: it's been knocking around in some form or another for a couple of years. Every now and then it causes a fresh bout of infections, usually caught from perfectly legitimate and innocent sites. Usually those businesses sort themselves out quickly (as did the site I caught it from), so no names, no packdrill. It's is known under many names, most of which include the word "ukash" - the system by which you pay to supposedly sort out the problem.

The first thing you see when the virus hits is a variation of the following screen - there are French, Italian, German, Spanish, and a couple of UK ones (at least).

What we had on our monitor.

One of the UK variants

Once the virus is there, it is very difficult to do anything at all with the computer - the screen image continually reappears, and it corrupts your explorer file (the one you use for navigating windows) so that "ctrl-alt-del" doesn't work either.

I restarted the computer in safe mode, which at least gave me access to some of the computer's functions - I ran a couple of antivirus programs, including Malawarebytes, SUPERantiSpyware and AVG, all of which found infections, but didn't manage to sort it out. I also followed some of the manual removal advice found on various pages to no avail.

In the end I have posted to a really good forum - bleepingcomputer.com, and last evening received advice which I will start following some time today when I feel stronger. The great thing about the forum is that one tested expert gives you advice on your problem rather than getting a dozen different opinions, and the process is followed up with repeated tests of your system until all problems are definitely sorted. This may be a long and precise process which requires plenty of patience and brainpower, so starting it at night may not be the cleverest.

In the meantime, we are using our netbook (as mentioned here), but connected to the main monitor (I deliberately bought a netbook with an external monitor connection) and an Apple USB keyboard and mouse. I am also running it on LAN (wired) networking, which is so much faster than the wi-fi. So far this setup has been so good that when we have to replace our computers I am tempted to buy another netbook and run it like this as our main machine. It is certainly no slower than the Dell I am usually using, and having no fan it is amazingly silent. As I am fairly good about backing our information up, everything we need to continue operations we can continue doing: we have up to 5 copies on data on different hard drives, depending on how important it is.

So - plenty of coffee and a steady hand, I'm going in. Wish me luck...

Simon

Edit - 1st step of the devirusing proceedure done, so far so good,. Judging by how long this one seems to take to conquer, it could yet be some time!

Sooty Coppers - a photo essay

Click on the photos to enlarge in a new window. If you want further information about this butterfly please go to the species page on Loire Valley Nature.

Susan

A Lunchtime Feast

Yesterday was the annual automobile bourse at Noyers-sur-Cher, the town across the river from St-Aignan. We went last year and were sort of ambushed: we thought it was just a car bits sale, but in fact the Centre chapter of the Traction Universelle club have lunch together with food they have brought for the occasion. Realising this too late, we added roast chicken and chips (frites), which was slightly embarassing as we had to buy them from a stall.

This year we went prepared, with two bottles of wine, some carrot and beetroot rapée, and oven dried tomatoes, both of which Susan had made. We also took some shop bought paté de tete and half a home made cake.

This made joining in a lot more comfortable, but we were still outshone. Not only were there two varieties of home made boudin noir, rilletes and terrine, but Fabien had also brought some of his home made wine - a 2009 still aunis rose and a 2010 méthode traditionelle sparkling from the same grape variety.

A table laden with meat and wine.

I don't think I have ever had such a meat laden meal in my life - the only vegetables available being what we took, and a jar of cornichons. It was all incredibly tasty, and a bit unexpected: it appears that if you drive a classic Citroen you also need to be able to make smallgoods from wild boar that a friend has shot. Or at least méthode champenoise wine.

Boudin Noir and Rillons

Simon

Occupe-toi de tes oignons !

Literally, 'busy yourself with your onions' ie 'mind your own business'.

I find myself minding my French onions (in both senses probably) most days. Proper French yellow Mulhouse type onions are my favourites for cooking. They are often a flattened sphere rather than bauble shaped and are usually a bit more expensive than other types. I don't know what exact variety they are as a general rule in the shops, but we grow one called Stuttgarter Reisen which seems to be what is commonly available in the garden sections of the local bricos. They look exactly like these ones that I bought at the market, and perform very well if we get some rain (as opposed to none at all in their growing period last year).

These onions are very much sweeter than their round rivals and make by far the best onion gravies, tarts and marmalades. They are a bit softer at the stem end, so don't have quite as good a storage life as hard round onions and for that reason are not generally exported. If you want real French onions outside of France you will probably have to grow your own.

They are called Mulhouse onions after the town in Alsace where they were developed. Mulhouse (pronounced 'moolooz') has an annual onion festival in September at which you can eat your fill of onion soup and onion tart. The town's other claim to fame is the remarkable Automobile Museum.

Susan

Let Battle Commence!

As regular readers will know I resolved to buy a grelinette (broad fork) for working in the vegetable garden this year. Simon was very dubious that it would work and that I would like it. Mostly what he objected to was that they were expensive.

However, he was kind enough to point out to me a few weeks ago that Point Vert had them special for just under €60, albeit called bio fourche-aérateurs. This was such a good price I was extremely skeptical about the quality and the picture in the catalogue did nothing to reassure me. Since I went past them on the way home from the supermarket though, I called in to look. I was amazed to find a robust garden weapon, exactly what I had been looking for!

Grelinette, with the serfouette on the bench.
In the middle distance is our completely cold frizzled
strawberry patch - they look dead, but I expect they will recover.

After coming home to tell Simon I felt it was worth buying I went back there the next day and purchased it and a serfouette for €16. I don't know for sure what you call this smaller tool in English (according to Reverso it's a weeding hoe). It is a sort of cross between a hatchet and an ice pick. I bought it because the man we bought the orchard from had one that he used to plant the half dozen tomatoes he gave us when we exchanged.

Yesterday being extremely mild and dry in the afternoon I decided the time was ripe to go down to the veggie garden and do some digging. I need to get the rest of our onions and garlic in (some were planted back in November and have come through the cold with no particular issues, and a third batch have now been in the ground for 12 months, having done nothing during the drought).

About an hour's worth of digging.

I am very pleased to report that the grelinette is just as I had hoped. Two of its tines are shorter than the other three and offset, which I think allows it to slide easily into our quite stony soil. I like the fact that I can properly stand on it if necessary to get it all the way in (I've never mastered the art of doing this with an ordinary fork). The main advantage is that to dig you do not need to bend, lift and twist all at the same time. For people like me, who aren't particularly strong or athletic, it is so much less exhausting to use the broad fork with its step back, press down action. The hardest work is shaking it from side to side, which you need to do if your soil is clumpy like ours. I'd like to be able to leave it down at the orchard too, as it is heavy to carry, but even in Preuilly I think I would risk getting it stolen.

All in all I am very happy with my purchase (and the serfouette made short work of some wild parsnip roots). I am very grateful to Simon's parents, as the grelinette was bought with money they gave me for my birthday.

Susan

Puzzled

There is a word that puzzles me.

Truth be told, there are many words that puzzle me - mainly French ones - but this is an "English" word that seems to have entered common usage quite recently.

Foodie.

People are claiming to be "foodies", and I am not sure what they mean. Strictly speaking, I would have thought we are all foodies - try being a non-foodie for more than a week and you will see the benefits of eating. Judging by the places that self proclaimed foodies recommend on travel blogs and forums I can only guess that a foodie is someone prepared to pay over the odds for a mediocre meal. Friends of ours (who will remain nameless to preserve their blushes) often comment that they occasionally have "foodie" guests who gush about a restaurant that most locals use as a place of last resort. We have eaten there, and most of the food seems to have been micro-waved.

Food. We love it.

Maybe the term foodie is like the term muso. I have never met a professional musician (or even a serious amateur) who described themselves as a muso. Other people may do so, and so may people who listen to a lot of music and occasionally dabble with an instrument, but never in a professional situation have I heard someone describe themselves as a muso. Most musicians I have met hardly ever listen to music unless they're looking for inspiration, and never have background music playing. To a musician, music is never "background", it's there to be properly listened to, even if it is clearly rubbish. Anyone who spends 18 hours a day plugged into their i-thing and calls themselves a muso is usually dismissed as a wannabe.

So - foodie. What's it all about?

Simon

(The photo is of the excellent buffet at the Hotel de la Gare in Montrichard - generous, delicious, and mostly made in-house or by local artisans.)

Wildlife Watching in March

What can you expect to see in March in the Claise Valley and the Brenne? Spring comes early to this area, so flowers will be blooming and as a consequence early emerging bees will be foraging. Look out for frogspawn on ponds and in ditches. Even a few hardy butterflies who managed to survive the big February freeze tucked away under the ivy or in your barn will flit about if the days are warm.

Female Nomada fabriciana foraging on a dandelion in our orchard last March.

Some species of solitary bees such as Mining Bees Andrena spp, Sweat Bees Halictus spp and Nomada spp will be out. Several of the early emerging species of Andrena depend greatly on the Sallow catkins that appear in March, and the Nomadas will be out because they parasitise the Andrena. Several Andrena spp are also important early pollinators of fruit trees (they look like small Honeybees). Honeybees Apis mellifera themselves will become active at this time too, visiting what ever they can - fruit tree blossom, daisies in the lawn and the shiny yellow flowers of Lesser Celandine Ranunculus ficaria. The odd bumblebee queen will cruise about looking for suitable nesting sites.

The most anticipated wildflower at this time must surely be the Cowslip Primula veris, and the first flowers normally open in March, on roadsides, meadows and woodland clearings. If you are in the Brenne, keep an eye out for the earliest orchid species, the Tongue Orchid Serapias lingua. Wild Pansy Viola tricolor is common on waste ground and almost always has a few flowers at this time of year. The first of the Common Dog Violets V. riviniana will be out too, in the grass under trees. I noticed the first one in our orchard at the end of February, under the sour cherries.

Pine Processionary nests.

Take care around conifers, as the notorious Pine Processionary Thaumetopoea pityocampa caterpillars will be active. They are clearly spreading and we got our first infestation ever in the single Scots Pine in our orchard over the winter. Remember that their irritant hairs float in the air and you and your pets will pick them up even if you don't touch the caterpillars. For more information about them, see my species account on Loire Valley Nature.

If you are digging in the garden you may well disturb larval or even adult ground beetles and chafers which are semi-active. The adults dig themselves into the earth and emerge on sunny days for a bit of foraging.

Male Orange Tip.

One of the cheeriest butterflies you could see this month is the Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines. The males emerge very early (late March or early April) and have to hang around for the females for a week or so . In this time they can be seen purposefully flying up and down ditches and hedges, in the hope of bumping into a female.

Expect the weather to be cool and changeable, with lots of windy rainy episodes interspersed with sun which brings out the insects.

Happy early spring wildlife watching!

Susan

The Blog Door

Just recently we came across a new art installation in Preuilly which tickled us. The Blog-porte in rue des Pavillons seems to be the work of the same artist who produced the rather splendid downpipe finials we noted earlier. I hope people do occasionally contribute to the blog door and that it doesn't just end up as a replica of the boulangerie window, covered in posters advertising local events. The notice says:

Post Freely:

The Blog-Door: It's the same principle as a blog on the internet. Simply post images, photos, text, drawings...so that everyone benefits.

Susan

Winter Laundry Solutions

The view from the office.

We've never owned a tumble dryer and one of the things we really enjoy about living in France is that for much of the year we can dry the laundry outside on a line. In London we lived in a National Trust house, so we were not allowed to hang washing outside in case the sight of our smalls flapping in the breeze caused a visitor's experience to be ruined. With no room for a dryer inside washing used to hang around for days in my sewing room. And even in France there is that period from November to March where it mostly has to dry inside, because it is either too wet (not just rain, but damp misty days) or too cold to dry outside.

At the top of the stairs.

Until recently we had one of those stupid multi tiered laundry racks, which unless you are the size of a small infant, means that you have to thread your clothes through at least one of the wire grills to hang them full length. Trying to squeeze a pair of jeans through all those wires drives me crazy. Fortunately it started to fall apart, so I felt buying a replacement was fully justified.

Kitchen cloths on the rack in the bathroom.

It proved surprisingly difficult to find a laundry rack in a different, more user friendly style. Finally we managed it, at Babou, a household goods store, in Chateauroux. We've purchased a rack that hangs off the handrail at the top of the stairs and a long rack that stands at the back of the bathroom. Hanging stuff off the staircase rack is still somewhat challenging, but at least I don't have the palaver of threading the clothes through all the wires below.

Washing hung up here at the top of the house benefits from wafts of warm air rising and it mostly dries overnight. This isn't too bad a turn around, but still much slower than the mere couple of hours it needs outdoors in the summer time.

Susan

The New Mixer

Well, the new mixer has been purchased - and it turned out to be none of the brands we had discussed. It cost €99 at an outlet store called Chronostock in Chateauroux and is an H. Koenig KM-60s. It came with beater, whisk and dough hook, 5 l bowl and bowl cover. It has a power take off for a mincer attachment (I've checked online and they cost about €35 so I guess we will get one in due course). It doesn't have a second power take off for blender / juicer but we weren't looking for that anyway. The motor is 1000W and the body plastic. The accessories are not dishwasher proof. It is made in France.

So far I've made two cakes with it, the first using the recipe for a plain cake supplied in the instruction manual and the second making some adjustments to the quantities because the first cake was too dry. The second cake also got some sultanas and chopped preserved orange peel, to see how the machine coped with lumpy bits in the mix. We have yet to use the dough hook.

The mixer rattles and whines as it mixes, but this is a common criticism of all brands. My suspicion is that plastic bodied machines rattle more than metal. The arm, or head, or whatever you call it is rather stiff to lift up and down, and this is an observation made by other reviewers too. I've found that it is getting smoother with use and practice. Importantly, it seems to mix thoroughly, picking up from the sides and bottom so no stopping to scrape down at half time is necessary. The other thing I like is that the machine is very plain - not very attractive, but no twiddly details that collect grime. The casing is smooth and uniform, so easy to quickly wipe over. I also like the reassurance of the big motor (the small motor on Kitchen Aids has me baffled as I was under the impression that bigger is better).

The first cake - cracked on the top, which is a sign of too dry a mix
- the recipe's fault, not the mixer's.

I was quite shocked at how Kitchen Aid and Kenwood have cornered the market for stand mixers. At Ad'Hauc, a specialist kitchen shop which sells top brand cookware like Staub, they only stocked Kitchen Aid mixers. The supermarket Carrefour (which is well worth checking out if you are searching for kitchen appliances) had Kenwood, its own brand and the smaller Bosch MUMs. Darty, the electrical goods chain, had Kitchen Aid, Kenwood and Proline, another budget French brand. We never saw the Robusta or Clatronic brands we were interested in. It's no wonder everyone buys Kitchen Aid or Kenwood - they are virtually the only ones you see, and certainly the only ones you can easily find reviews of. It is also clear that there is not a big market for stand mixers any more. I guess you have to be a serious cook to want to invest in one. I'm afraid we were very put off by how much of a fashion item Kitchen Aids seem to be. We seriously considered the Kenwood, but in the end the price difference (they were €299 at Darty) meant that the Koenig won as we figured the difference in build quality was not €200 worth.

Susan

Broad Bodied Chasers - a photo essay

Clicking on the image will enlarge them in a new window. If you want to know more about Broad Bodied Chasers, see my species account on Loire Valley Nature.

Susan

Preserved Orange Peel

It's always irked me that citrus peel is just chucked in the compost once the juice or flesh has been extracted, so periodically I make Roasted Lemon Zest Powder or somesuch attempt at 'nose-to-tail' cuisine. This time it's orange peel cured then preserved in a heavy syrup.

I saved the peel as we consumed the fruit for a couple of weeks. Each time we peeled an orange the peel went into an plastic box containing a mixture of equal quantities of salt and sugar. I used the chunky curing salt that is very easily available here, and cheap. You will need about 1-2 cups of each for a 2 litre icecream container. As each peel is added you stir it around to make sure everything is in contact with the curing mixture. When the box is too full to successfully stir it around anymore leave it in the fridge for a week or more (up to a month).

Orange peel in syrup, with some extra syrup on the side.

At the end of this period, pick out the peel and put it in a saucepan covered in fresh water. Bring to the boil, then drain. Repeat this 3 more times. Rinse the peel in cold water to cool it down after the final boiling and scrape off any remaining white pith. Cut the peel into strips, triangles or dice.

Make up a syrup using equal quantities of sugar and water - about 4 cups of each. Put the sugar and water in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to make the sugar dissolve. Once boiling add the peel, bring back to the boil then take off the heat and allow to cool. The peel in syrup should keep indefinitely in the fridge or cool cellar.

I am planning to use it covered in chocolate, in cakes, tagines, icecream and anything else that takes my fancy. The syrup will also get used in cakes and icecream.

Susan

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For details of our private guided tours of chateaux, wineries, markets and more please visit the Loire Valley Time Travel website. We would be delighted to design a tour for you.

The Climbing Wall

Preuilly's gymnasium was the venue for the recent Foire au Safran and while I was there I took a photo of the climbing wall installed on the end wall. There is no information I can find about how you book to use it (the official council website doesn't even mention the gymnase has a climbing wall) and since I have never been any good at hauling my own weight up sheer cliffs using only my fingertips, I can't be bothered to pop down to the mairie to find out the details. However, if you are interested, that is my advice - pop into the council offices and ask the ladies there what the deal is.

I assume the plant gets moved...

Climbing walls turn up in all sorts of unexpected places these days in France. For one that amused us, see our post on the very pleasant park at Chambray-les-Tours.

Susan

A Lucky Chance Sighting

Yesterday we went to Chateauroux for the afternoon. The route takes us through the Brenne for most of the way so the chances for lucky wildlife sightings are relatively high. I once had to stop the car in the bit that goes through the Foret de Preuilly to allow a haughty young red deer stag to stalk across the road.

At this time of year we are waiting for the migrating cranes to come over and announce in their honking voices that spring is here. The reports are just starting to come in that they are on the move through France. Every year we see them flying over in strung out Vs but we've never seen them taking a rest and feeding break on the ground - until yesterday.

As we drove past a farm between Vendoeuvres and Claise we noticed some feeding in a field. We haven't noticed any over Preuilly yet, so these were our first cranes for the year. We did a quick U-turn and drove up the farm track alongside the field. The dozen birds weren't spooked, but did slowly move away from us and were about 50 - 100 m distant. They look so craneish, doing that thing where their tail sticks out behind like a bustle, and they just slowly stride across the grass in that dignified crane way.

We only had my camera with me, but even so, we are fairly happy with the pictures. Simon decided not to take his camera with us because we were just on a shopping trip. He is kicking himself for missing an opportunity to use his much more powerful zoom. If ever he decides he can't be bothered to take his camera on an outing I am to say 'Cranes!' from now on.

Curiously, this is not the first time we have stopped at this particular farm to photograph something. Last year they were one of a number of farms in the area to grow tobacco and we photographed the crop. It was only a small field, but once again they had provided the unexpected.

Once we got to Chateauroux we called in on Jean-Louis to see if he'd made any progress with Célestine's gearbox, but as we expected, it's been too cold to work in the garage. He said he'd seen a flock of about 60 cranes, just lifting off near Déol this morning, the first of the season for him too.

Cranes are one of those birds that everyone is happy to see, all over the world and in all cultures. Non-birdwatchers and birders alike will stop to watch them. I guess it's partly because they are large and elegant both on land and in the air, and because they herald the changing seasons. The long migration of many species is widely known and considered heroic, and their balletic mating rituals draw crowds in some countries.

Susan

A View of Preuilly

This view across the valley formed by the ruisseau de miloneau was taken by standing in the driveway of the local nursing service (which goes by the not entirely reassuring name of Cactus!). I am looking across our friend Gérard's backyard, with its charming classical garden shed. I don't know if it was once a rather posh dunny or whether it is a vine hut - I should ask him I suppose. It is oddly and abruptly cut off at the back - did it once join on to something bigger behind?

Beyond that, in the middle of the picture is a huge upright old pear tree that produces quantities of sizeable fruit that are just left to drop into the ruisseau and bob downstream in the autumn. At the summit of the hill, seemingly poised on the tips of the pear tree's branches, are the ruins of the Chapelle de Saint Mélaine. Rumour has it that the owners have applied to have it reconsecrated (and here was me thinking it was their garage!).

Susan

Fat Tuesday

Or as it is known in our house - PANCAKE DAY!!

To tell the truth, most years it's known in our house as "yesterday was pancake day" because we don't really pay much attention to dates during winter, most days being "Sunday the something" for all intents and purposes.

However, as Susan bought a crêpe pan last week pancakes have being weighing heavy on my mind. We might just christen that baby today.

Simon

More Ice

After a couple days away from the subject, more ice.

In March 2010 I wrote about finding paint brushes which had been sitting in white spirit in the garage all winter, and said "It is a lesson I hope to learn though - clean up before it starts snowing!"

Like most "I will know better next time" events, the only thing that taught me was to recognise I had got it wrong again when I emptied a lump of ice out of a 10 litre bucket.

I can be happy in the knowledge that this year it was only one brush - that is two less that two years ago, a statistic not improved by being one more than last year.

I also notice that the blog post in March 2010 I referred to was posted the day that Leon and Sue visited. Time flies, eh...

Simon