10^5 Green Bottles

So that is 100,000 green bottles, and they are bottles of Vouvray sparkling, undergoing second fermentation. We have shown them before, although that was the 2009 vintage which is currently being marketed.

We have been at Chateau Gaudrelle a number of times in the past month. On one of our previous visits Charles let slip that occasionally a bottle undergoing second fermentation breaks, leading Susan to ask if this causes any serious problems. Charles assured us that because of the way the bottles are stacked, if one explodes the whole wall doesn't collapse, and the bottles surrounding it don't move.

On Monday evening when we were at Gaudrelle Charles noticed a damp patch on the floor of the cave, and pointed out a bottle which had broken. Just as he had said, all the other bottles around it were unharmed and unmoved, so although the 2011 vintage is one bottle short, it isn't a disaster.

Simon

Party Party Party!!!

A couple of months ago, Martine contacted Susan to say she would be in the Loire Valley with some friends and would like somehow to meet some of the people she has become friends with through writing and reading blogs.

Susan immediately volunteered to host Martine's Party, which happened yesterday.

We had an afternoon of better weather than was forecast, more food than you could jump over, and many hours of the sort of conversation you get when interesting (and interested) people from ten different countries meet in a back garden.

From left to right, we have Mats (Sweden), Simon (Anglo/Australian), Tim (England), Charles-Henry (France), Susan (Australia), Martine (Belgium), Walt (USA), Gaynor (Wales), Antoinette (Dutch American), Vera (Sweden), Ken (USA), Caroline (Belgium), Niall (Scotland), Nigel (English), Diane (English/South African), Florence and Alexander (Belgium).

If you read any of these blogs, I think you can expect to see photos of food: Chez Charnizay, Wishing I Were in France, WCS: Another American in France, Living the Life in Saint-Aignan, La Petite Presse and My Life in the Charente.

Everyone bought amazing food, interesting wine, their English language skills and cameras. As you would expect from bloggers.

Simon

Heath Fritillaries and Fragrant Orchids

Last year in early June I was able to photograph a Heath Fritillary Melitaea athalia (la Mélitée du mélampyre) butterfly sitting on a fragrant orchid.

Heath Fritillaries were one of the species having a bumper year, along with White Admirals, Black-veined Whites and Orange Tips last year. Although one of Britain's rarest butterflies (almost extinct there 40 years ago), and in strong decline in northern France, they are generally abundant in this area.

The fragrant orchid it is sitting on isn't the most common species (and none of them are particularly common). There is every chance this group are hybrids, as three species of Gymnadenia grow on the site.

A wider shot showing the patch of orchids.
You can see the butterfly on the left.

It was a cool day and the butterfly was just sitting. I suspect it was enjoying the strong and enticing scent of the orchids. Best of all, when I took clients to the site the next day, they also got good photos of the same behaviour.

Susan

Last Chance until 2117

Tomorrow (or this evening if you're in Australia/New Zealand) is your last chance to see the Transit of Venus: I can say this with authority unless you intend living another 105.5 years.

The last time Venus passed in front of the sun was on June 8th 2004. We were living in London and I used a pair of binoculars, a piece of cardboard and a camera to record the event (a guide to using this method is here).

The transit as photographed by me in 2004

In the past the transit of Venus has been used to calculate the distance of the earth from the sun, and although that distance is now known to within about 30 metres (modern technology, eh...) the transit still holds scientific interest. This year they will be measuring how much the level of light from the sun drops during the transit and use this in the search to find planets circling other suns, amongst other things. For instance, a side effect of the measurement of the 1769 Transit of Venus was Captain Cook claiming Australia for King George III.

So don't miss it - it really is the last chance to see. Just don't look at it directly or it will be the last thing you ever see.

Simon

Citron Pressé

One of the dangers of being the prettiest car in the carpark is that ocasionally you get competition. This happened last Wednesday at Chenonceau when the Bentley Drivers Club were on one of their jaunts and 18 Bentleys of varying ages were let loose on the Loire Valley.

I have to confess here that of all the cars ever built, to my eyes the British Racing Green Le Mans era Bentleys of the late 1920s and 1930s are the most desirable. You can imagine the mixed emotions then, when 2 such cars (both 1930 4.5 litre unsupercharged models) pulled up near Célestine. I am no expert on Bentleys, but I know what I like, and I liked what I saw.

I think this is a 1930 Vanden Plas le Mans tourer

No idea who the coachbuilder for this car was

Bentleys are monster sized cars -
look how they tower over CélestineThat photo was taken because it reminded me of this cartoon

Later in the day at Chaumont sur Loire
I saw this 3 .5 litre Derby era convertible

Classic car owners are friendly types, and they showed as much interest in Celestine as I did in their cars. I have to admit, though, that once they had left their cars to visit the Chateaux I quietly moved to a less challenging part of the car park.

Simon

Orchid Outing to Chaumussay

The Claise Valley taken from La Forge (between Preuilly-sur-Claise
and Chaumussay) and looking upstream (east).

L'Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine held an outing to see the orchids of the Chaumussay area on Saturday 26 May. It was while my sister and brother-in-law were here, so we all went along. We saw 20 species of orchids and 2 hybrids in the Claise Valley within a few kilometres of Chaumussay, on 6 sites. Chaumussay is the next village downstream from Preuilly. There were a number of other plants of botanical interest such as Rough Marsh Mallow Alcaea hirsuta, Carduncellus mitissimus and Field Cow Wheat Melampyrum arvense.

Looking at a Military Orchid on a roadside bank.

It was very hot, but up until recently the weather has been cool and rainy, so the orchids are generally looking more robust this year and flowering at a more normal time. At each site Marc Fleury, the outing leader and a retired botany teacher, gave a mini lecture about each species as we came upon them.

A very rare hyperchromatic hybrid of Man
and Monkey Orchid.

The roots which give the Birds Nest Orchid its name.

My brother-in-law John was shocked by how much people handled the orchids on the outing. This is a complete no-no in Australia since it has been discovered that this leads to the plant being more attractive to herbivores. Likewise, uprooting a plant specimen, even on a serious botanical outing like this no longer considered best practice, but several of the botanists in the local club are elderly and distinctly old school. It is not illegal if the species does not have protected status, but the younger botanists in the group would not consider it appropriate to dig up plants unless they were being taken back to the lab for some officially sanctioned research purpose that would ultimately be published. Nevertheless, there is an expectation in France that even small clubs like ours take their pedagogical responsibilities seriously, and the octagenarians in the group feel it is important that we learn as much as possible about the species in the field and first hand. In fact the specimen above was destined for the club's annual display at the Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine cheese festival.

Violet Limodore flower.

Both the Birds Nest and the Violet Limodore are parasitic, using fungal mycorrhiza to tap into the roots of nearby plants. The Violet Limodores are always found in the company of oaks, and don't open their flowers unless it is hot.

Susan

Orchids we saw in flower:

Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis*
White Helleborine Cephalanthera damasonium*
Narrow Leaved Helleborine C. longifolia*
Red Helleborine C. rubra*
Small Leaved Helleborine Epipactis microphylla*
Short Spurred Fragrant Orchid Gymnadenia odoratissima*
Violet Limodore Limodorum abortivum*
Common Twayblade Listera ovata
Burnt Orchid Neotinea usulata*
Birds Nest Orchid Neottia nidus-avis
Early Spider Orchid Ophrys aranifera
Fly Orchid O. insectifera
Man Orchid Orchis anthropophora*
Early Purple Orchid O. mascula
Military Orchid O. militaris*
Lady Orchid O. purpurea
Monkey Orchid O. simia
Greater Butterfly Orchid Platanthera chlorantha

Monkey x Lady hybrid
Monkey x Man hybrid

* indicates the species is protected, meaning it is illegal to disturb the plant by picking the flowers, digging it up or otherwise damaging or destroying it. This includes landowners and people with permission from the landowner (the only exception is farmers going about their normal farming activities). Protected plants can not be harvested commercially or offered for sale.

Not the same thing at all....

One is a faint memory from the 1960's, whilst the other is meant to clean drains in France. I suspect that both would do drains in the fullness of time.

When we first arrived in Sydney there were billboards for Tarax Lemonade everywhere, but compared to the local product (Tarax were from Melbourne) it was expensive. If we ever had fizzy drinks it was usually from the local manufacturer Cottee's, and the big nationwide manufacturers were "Leed" (who I am amazed to discover was just a trademark of the Coca Cola company). I remember all of these "lemonades" were the same: clear liquids that were mainly sugar, fizzy and not at all lemony. Later in their history Tarax introduced an even more expensive line of lemonade - Solo ("a man's drink") - which was yellowish and had a slight hint of lemon about it.

When the Tarax company of Melbourne was sold to Schweppes in 1972, Solo was the only Tarax drink that Schweppes continued making. A year later Schweppes also bought Cottee's, and all these companies are now owned by Asahi Breweries.

Simon

Wildlife Watching in the Claise Valley in June

If you want a botanical challenge, June is the month you can start collecting Sedge seeds and identifying them using a good field guide, such as Colour Identification Guide to the Grasses, Sedges, Rushes and Ferns of the British Isles and north-western Europe by Francis Rose. Many sedges are wetland species or plants of waterlogged places, and June is a good month to visit the étangs in the Foret de Preuilly to see many other plants at their best and in flower.

Large Skipper butterfly on Field Scabious.

On the orchid front, the Fragrant Orchids and the Lesser Butterfly Orchids will be flowering. On the sites where they occur they can be seen in great numbers, but both species are quite localised.

The very gregarious Marbled White butterfly will be flying on sunny calcareous grasslands, taking advantage of all the flowers and the warm conditions. Where you see one, you will see several. The caterpillars feed on several species of grass and this is one of the most common butterflies in France.

Heath Fritillary butterfly on Fragrant Orchid.

Also worth keeping an eye out for on the calcareous sites, especially if there is Wild Oregano invading rank grass, is a much rarer butterfly, the Large Blue. Although it is holding its own here, it is closely monitored because its very particular and extraordinary lifestyle makes it vulnerable to environmental changes. Here in Preuilly, for instance, a breeding site has recently been ploughed up and destroyed.

June is the month you can see the Hairstreak butterflies that are associated with oak. They have a very brief flight period, and spend a lot of time high up in the oak trees. However if you are in the right place at the right time they can be seen nectaring at bramble flowers on the forest fringe or drinking from a puddle near a large Holm Oak in the grounds of the Chateau of Chenonceau.

It's not just butterflies that will catch your attention in June either. Some of the day flying moths, such as the Burnets, are gorgeous. Once again, mostly to be seen on the calcareous grasslands. They are particularly attracted to flowers like brambles and scabious.

Blue Featherleg damselflies.

Look out for big flies such as the predatory Robberflies, and flower loving Hoverflies. They are fun to watch and big enough to make good photographic subjects.

Everywhere you look in June there will be something of interest in the forests and prairies.

Gnomes Rise Up

It didn't come as any surprise that Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, one of the gardens at the Chaumont International Garden Festival, was designed by a pair of Englishmen. The joke translates well into French though, and I could hear that the French family near us were amused. Read the designers' blurb if you want to know the full details of the gnomes' manifesto.

Susan

Into the Long Grass

We visited Chenonceau with some clients the day after Ascension Day, which this year fell on the 17th of May. Ascension Day is on the Thursday 40 days after easter Sunday, and people "faire le pont" - that is "make the bridge" and take an extra long long-weekend by adding the Friday. The weather was perfect: not a cloud in the sky, and we had partaken of a particularly good lunch.

Our previous visit to Chenonceau had been two days earlier - the day before Ascension - and they were mowing the horse paddock next to the car park. This wasn't surprising, as the horses were struggling to keep the grass under control. What I hadn't realised is that they were mowing the paddock so that they could turn it into an overflow carpark, which is where we ended up.

The gate at Chenonceau in August last year

When we were at Chenonceau in August last year we agreed it was a bunfight, and you would REALLY have to want to see Chenonceau to brave the crowds, but Friday the 18th May was even more seriously crowded.

Célestine in the long grass on Ascension Day

I would never say to people "don't go to Chenonceau" - it's an icon, and a deserving one at that. I would, however, say "avoid Chenonceau on a public holiday if you can".

Simon

Steve Struts His Stuff

Detail of the back garden.

Long term readers will remember the heart rending tale of Steve the Siberian Iris. He and Son of Steve were separated in the great move to France, with Son of Steve coming to Preuilly in the first round. Steve got to languish back in London until Simon could return with a van to pick up the rest of the plants. Sadly, Son of Steve failed to thrive in France and died quite soon after our arrival. Steve, on the other hand, has reliably delivered several deep purple blue flowers each year at this time.

This is pseudo-Steve. I never got round to taking
a photo of Steve and now he has finished.

Steve is now joined by some pale lavender tall bearded iris and some slightly different Siberians . The bearded rhizomes were given to me when we built our back garden terrace and I planted them along the bottom to disguise the concrete blocks. I was warned they would be bog standard, but I didn't mind what they turned out to be, because I have never met an iris I didn't like. They have flowered for the first time this year and are putting on a lovely show for beginners.

Bearded iris (rescued from a garden renovation).

Susan

A Visit from my Sister and Brother-in-law

We've spent last week with visitors. My sister Kathy and brother-in-law John made a very welcome stop on their European holiday. They've visited before, when the house was still like camping, and got to sleep on an airbed in the pantry. Nowadays we can proudly offer them a comfortable bedroom with adjoining shower room.

Naturally it was a full programme of nature and cultural heritage. They had a hire car so on days when I needed to catch up on admin or gardening, they went off to visit chateaux. But we also had several days out looking at wildlife in general. They are keen birdwatchers, but I am only a casual birder, so the birdwatching was a bit disappointing because I didn't know all the good spots and can't identify LBJs in the tops of trees by their song. Botanically there was lots to see and the butterflies and dragonflies were quite good. Kathy was using a new iPhone app for European butterflies which she found very helpful and generally easy to use.

Kathy at the small étang behind the
Maison du Parc in the Brenne.

On Monday we began by going to the supermarket - a top destination for any tourist in a foreign country in my opinion. John is coeliac so menu planning for the week needed a bit of thought. (You can read his post about travelling in France here). SuperU is not very good for gluten free products, but I made some bread for him using one of Andrew Whitley's recipes from Bread Matters. I like experimenting with different flours, and gluten free ingredients such as chestnut and buckwheat flours are easily available in French supermarkets, so I had these on hand already.

Kathy walking along the road near a
bank of Carthusian Pinks.

Tuesday I had clients for an orchid walk, kindly referred to me by Sue of La Confiance gites. They were happy to have K&J tag along, and as a bonus I took everyone to a roadside site which is a mass of Carthusian Pinks at the moment, along with quite a few other plants of interest.

John and Kathy birdwatching in the Brenne.

Wednesday was full on nature and we went to the Brenne. This area is one of the most important wetlands in France and becoming increasing popular with birdwatchers in particular. Preuilly is only just outside the Brenne, so it was an easy outing for us. At the Maison du Parc there was a Black-crowned Night Heron on the pond, Orioles in the trees and good views of Nightingales singing. Moving on to the Etang de la Mer Rouge, just round the corner from the visitor centre, we had the best of both worlds, with the lake on one side and oak woodland on the other. After backtracking for a nice lunch in the café we spent the afternoon concentrating on orchids - first at Rosnay common, and then at the Etang Vieux near Saulnay.

Kathy wading through the swamp at the Etang Vieux.

On Thursday we went up to Montrichard for lunch with Ken and Walt and Leon and Sue at La Villa (Ken wrote about it here). On the way we stopped off at Montpoupon and after a thoroughly convivial lunch we headed for Chenonceau and later Chateau Gaudrelle. Chenonceau was remarkably crowd free, especially compared to the week before, which was a public holiday, when it was packed to overflowing. At Chateau Gaudrelle John was able to talk technical with the winemakers, so even though he is a non-wine drinker he enjoyed the visit too. Kathy tried a range of wine and opted to buy a couple of bottles of the Réserve Personnelle, a very well balanced sweet white wine. This time she will be sure to put it in her hold luggage, after having the bottle of sherry she bought us in Spain confiscated at the airport!

Lunch in Montrichard.

Friday I had various domestic tasks to get done so they went off to visit Fontevraud, Villandry and La Chatonniere on their own. They came back very impressed by Fontevraud and by the Orangerie there, who had gluten free bread and made John a very nice sandwich. They admired Villandry, but were disappointed by La Chatonniere, which they said was looking rather unkempt. In the evening they took us to Jacky Dallais' La Promenade Michelin starred restaurant in nearby Le Petit-Pressigny. The staff there were reassuringly professional about John's dietary requirements and we had a jolly good time. Xavier, the sommelier, was chatty and the food was beautifully presented and very tasty. It is also incredibly good value and not in the least intimidating. If you want to try a truly 'fine dining' experience, this is definitely the place to go around here.

On Saturday, after spending the morning in the Foret de Preuilly, we joined my local botany club for an outing to look at the orchids around Chaumussay (last year's outing report here). It was extremely hot, and many of our local orchids like open roadsides or limestone ridges, so we wore hats, sunscreen, sunglasses and stood around in the limited shade as much as possible. I tried to translate Marc Fleury's little lecture on each of the 18 species of orchids we saw and the day ended with several mugs of his home made cider. Since cider is John's drink of choice, this went down very well and they were impressed with how good it was.

On Sunday we waved them off on their way to Lyon for a few days, then they fly home back to the Canberra ratrace.

Susan

Pruned

We have seen some pretty savagely pruned lime (linden) trees in the past (and Susan has written about it), but these trees in Montrésor really do take the cake.

I looked to see if we have any photos of these trees pre-pruning, but we only have bits of them - they did tend to get into every photo taken, but not in their entirety.

Simon

Manna Rising From the River

A miraculous biblical miracle, manna is the name given to a natural phenomenon in France involving some species of mayfly. Mostly known as a source of bait for fishing, mayflies emerge in great numbers and in some areas are harvested by local residents. Before the species involved (mainly the small white Ephoron virgo) became rare, manne blanche was the bodies of mayflies full of eggs, highly nutritious and a real delicacy for domestic fowl. It became the hub of a cottage industry harvesting the mayflies for raising poultry and game birds.

The emergence of the manne is spectacular. Principally associated with the big lowland rivers, the mayflies synchronise their emergences, so that massive numbers appear over a very short period, generally in the evening for a few days in the summer. Their aim is to mate and lay eggs, after which they quickly die, forming a filmy carpet of floating insects, sometimes several centimetres thick drifting down the river.

Other, bigger, species are also known as manne and are popular with fisherman. These are primarily the big Ephemera spp, the most common of which is E. danica. The Ephemera spp emerge from May to September, peaking in late May, early June. Some years there are short spectacular episodes where there are massive numbers of adults on the rivers. Every year, just in case, a sign is posted on the bridge across the Vienne at Bonneuil Matours warning that the road might be slippery due to a mass of fat dead mayflies.

During their metamorphosis into adults they are very vulnerable to predators. Fish pursue the larvae as they mount towards the surface to transform and snap up the adults just before they make their first flight. In French the fish are engaged in gobage, a word that means crudely slurping sucking swallowing - in other words, gobbling. There is a school dining hall game here known as gobage de flamby which involves sucking out and swallowing whole the contents of a popular caramel flavoured dairy based dessert that comes in little individual pots. I think the mayfly emergence is the fishy equivalent! It's not just the fish enjoying the feast either - bats, dragonflies, martins, swifts and swallows, wagtails and spiders all benefit from gorging on this high calorie diet.

The big Ephemera spp are relatively tolerant of organic pollutants and herbicides in the water and so most continue to thrive in rural areas. It's a different story for the smaller species, which have been badly affected in addition by high concentrations of heavy metals in the water, canalisation and controls like weirs on watercourses, and light pollution. This last can disturb females, attracting them away from the river and preventing them from laying.

Susan

A Doggy Jigsaw

We happened to be at Cheverny last week, and the hounds were in a different enclosure, enjoying the sun.

I would hate to have to untangle this mob...


Simon

Loulou de la Falaise

Last year, for the 2011 International Garden Festival at Chaumont, the designer Loulou de la Falaise created the Jewel Garden. Very sadly, she died in November of that year, and as a tribute to her 'charm, elegance and unbounded imagination' the festival has decided to make her garden permanent.

She was one of those wonderful people who, despite a thoroughly rackety upbringing, turn out to be free and generous of spirit, hard working, endlessly creative and completely inspirational. Personally, I am very sorry never to have met her (she was briefly married to a friend of a friend, so it is not unthinkable that I might have run into her at a party in London).

Le jardin bijou.

For most of her working life she designed jewellery and accessories for her great friend Yves Saint-Laurent. She was enormously influential in creating the look of the 1970s, with her flair for combining old and new, haute couture with opshop* chic and always in bright cheerful colours (black was only for when you were miserable) combined with chunky clanking jewellery.

The garden at Chaumont is a nice memorial to someone who was a 'compulsive' gardener.

Susan

* an opshop (opportunity shop) is what Australians call a charity shop.

The Old Block

Many of the houses in French country villages have the remnants of lifting gear at the dormer window into their attic. Mostly this is just a beam sticking out above the window, sometimes with the hook for the block (pulley) in place. It is rare to see the actual pulley, so when I saw this one is Angles sur l'Anglin last Sunday I needed to photograph it.

The block is above the dormer of
the house in the foreground

The hooks were usually used for lifting sacks of grain into the attic: attics are a good place for grain as they are usually (assuming the roof is watertight) dry places. I am sure, though, that more adventurous types have lifted furniture to the upper story and in through a window using the hooks, rather than negotiating narrow staircases.

Simon

More Bollée

It was only 3 weeks ago we encountered our fifth Éolienne Bollée, and now we have 6.

We have been really busy the past week, working for 6 days and covering over 1200km (about 700 miles) in Célestine. This has been good because it has taken us back to places we haven't been for a while, and to one or two places we haven't been to at all. When we posted our last Éolienne Bollée I noticed that one of the hotels some of our clients use has a Bollée of its own. Last week we were back there so we asked at reception about the windmill, and were pointed towards a clump of trees.

This is the first éolienne we have encountered where there was nothing to stop one climbing the stairs, so being a man of action I made a bold attempt to climb to the top. This was defeated by 51 1/2 years of common sense overcoming the urge to be a hero: the stays holding the ensemble upright weren't tight, and the swaying was becoming somewhat alarming.

The pump house from the steps to
the top of the bollée

A Duke of York moment - I was only

half way up before I marched down again.

The pump house - you can see the
driveshaft entering on the left hand side.
The makers plate

If you're ever in the Loire Valley and staying at Domaine des Hauts de Loire you're extremely lucky - It looks a lovely place. But do ask to see the éolienne.

Simon

I have updated the éolienne map to reflect this new find.

La Fête des Plantes

The back of the chateau.

Last weekend we went to support our local disadvantaged yoof charity. They (that is the Foundation d'Auteuil) run a horticultural college in the nearby chateau of Verneuil-sur-Indre. We arrived a few minutes after they opened and by the time we got up to the greenhouse where all the bedding and vegetable seedlings were, it was packed to the gunwales.

Floristry students.

We struggled our way around, choosing little plants and putting them in our box (we brought our own boxes, as we knew they run out very quickly). On our first round we concentrated on the important stuff - vegetables - so it was zucchini, melon, tomatoes, more tomatoes, a few more tomatoes and oh, do you think that will be enough, some more tomatoes, aubergines, basil, celery, rainbow chard, but no peppers or chillies. There just weren't any to be had - we assume it has been too cold and they haven't germinated or thrived, or got knocked by the frost in March.

Bridge over a stream at the back of the chateau.

As ever there were many anglos at the plant fair and I got chatting to the woman behind me in the queue to pay. To my considerable surprise her French companion looked at me and said she knew me! I was the Australian woman, wasn't I, and she had run into me in the bakers at St Hippolyte!! Amongst the crowd we encountered fellow bloggers and friends Tim and Pauline and Niall and Antoinette. We had arranged to meet Annie and Chris, and they had brought their friends Howard and Elizabeth. It was all very jolly. Oh and our neighbour Pierre-Yves was there and it felt like we were stopping to chat every few metres.

Students operating the sound system.

Once you've chosen your plants you approach one of the students on duty, who makes a list of what you've picked up so you can take it through to a cashier. 'Our' student turned out to be almost illiterate and really struggled with finding the names of the plants and writing them down. I helped by pointing at them on his master list and he got there in the end. I thought he coped really well under pressure. It must have been very challenging to have to do something like that in public. I hope he felt proud at the end of the day of how he had acquitted himself and I hope his profs noticed he had done well.

Choosing perennials.

After lunch in the dining hall and collecting some seedlings that Annie had potted up for me, we came home and I got planting vegetables while Simon did window boxes.

Susan