Une Manifestation

Fraussie Grouet remarked on her blog recently that Aussies love to shorten words. It's true. We eat brekkie in the morning, have a cup of coffee and a biscuit for mornos mid-morning and arvo tea mid-afternoon*. We wear our sunnies on bright fine days and cook on the barbie outdoors. The habit seems to be accelerating too. We've noticed that firemen have become firies in the 15 years since we left, for instance.

We Australians are not the only ones though. The French shorten many words. You often see or hear resto for restaurant, organic produce is bio(logique), eco-friendly is écolo(gique) and economical is éco(nomique).

We were walking through le Parc des Buttes Chaumont in Paris one day and could hear a commotion coming from in front of the nearby Town Hall. A group of demonstrators had gathered to protest about the lack of social housing in the area. I can't read their banner except to note that they are a collective, angry and (something) is a right. A French couple walking in the opposite direction to us also noticed the protest -- 'Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ? Oh, c'est une manif...' (What's happening? Oh, it's a demo...)

*You will also hear these short breaks referred to as smoko, although it is probably now considered quite old-fashioned.

Ice Wine Anyone?

 We've now had several frosts, with temperatures going down to -3C overnight once or twice. The grape vines in the orchard have now shed all their leaves, but there are still unpicked bunches of fruit hanging from increasingly wizened stalks.

The frost doesn't harm the fruits, in fact it may even make them sweeter. There is so much sugar already in each berry that they don't freeze and turn to mush. Here in the Loire there isn't really a tradition of making ice wine from the frosted grapes, but I can continue to enjoy my table grapes for a few more days yet. Soon the sap will recede to such an extent that the stalks will give out and the bunches will all fall to the ground, but before that happens, I'll be making an attempt to eat them myself. Anything remaining I am happy to donate to the wildlife..

Going Behind the Fox's Tail

My friend Sweetpea, who lives in Angles-sur-l'Anglin, contacted me several weeks ago to say there was a new nature reserve in Angles that she thought I would like to see, and she particularly wanted to show me the very nice information board that had gone up to tell visitors what was so special about the site.

The trail through the woods.

So one fine crisp morning a few days ago (Tuesday, in fact) I drove over to Angles and we set off on foot from Sweetpea's house. We decided to go the indirect route and meandered out of Angles along various old rights of way before swinging back through some woods and ending up at the new reserve.

Trailside sign.

The site just looks like any other smallish field of unimproved pasture at this time of year. It's been mowed for hay and is uniformly shortish green grass. The excellent info board tells you what the real story is though. This is genuine pelouse ie flower rich grassland on calcareous soil. Most importantly, this is pelouse sèche (dry, usually calcareous, grassland), with very shallow topsoil on a south facing site. Although we in the central Loire Valley take this habitat a little bit for granted, in global terms it is one of the rarest and most threatened. A number of the plants which thrive here will grow in no other habitat. This site is home to nearly 15 species of orchids and the very rare Wild Paeony. Of course, where you get a very particular plant assemblage, you also get a very specialised set of insects too.

Tar Spot Rhytisma punctatum (a fungus) on fallen Sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus leaves lining the trail.

The info board also points out that the term pelouse is used rather loosely by most people, and that what you mow in your backyard should more properly be called gazon (lawn). That's because the plant assemblage, underlying soil and aspect is usually nothing like genuine pelouse, even though they both may look like an expanse of short mown grass. The board also mentions that mowing your lawn (tonte) is different to cutting your pelouse (fauchage). In fact, it is that very regular and close mowing that turns a pelouse into a gazon. Pelouse is only mowed once a year, in the late summer or autumn.

Sweetpea and I were fascinated by this Dog Lichen Peltigera cf canina, growing on a moss covered tumbledown stone field wall opposite the nature reserve. When I first saw it I couldn't decide if it was a lichen or a fungus. Lichens are actually composite organisms, with one of the symbiotic partners often being a fungus, so my confusion is perhaps justified, as it turns out this is a lichenised fungus.  

As well as all this good natural history information, we also learnt a new word - vergogne. The board tells us that the plants are rare and threatened -- à ne pas cueillir mais à photographier sans vergogne -- 'not for picking, but photograph without qualms'.

Derrière la Queue du Renard nature reserve in late October - you might never guess what treasures it is nuturing now, to show off in spring.

The site bears the curious name of Derrière la queue du renard ('Behind the Fox's Tail'). There is a street in Angles called la queue du renard, and if you follow it from the village centre it leads you out to the Roc-aux-Sorciers museum. Follow the road beyond that and you get to the driveway of the Chateaux de Certeaux and the new nature reserve.

What people mostly come to Angles to see -- the ruined medieval castle on the falaise (cliff).

All in all an intriguing and precious site. I will be sure to be back in the spring.

Véronique Mauclerc, Baker

 I was delighted to discover several years ago that 'our' hotel in Paris is just around the corner from one of the finest boulangeries / patisseries in the city. Mostly the bakeries here are so good that one simply frequents the closest, but there are a few bakers people will make an effort to patronise from time to time, even crossing town to get to. Véronique Mauclerc's establishment in rue Crimée is one of them.

Female bakers are a little bit unusual in France, and Véronique's bakery is where it is because that is where the big brick wood fired ovens built in 1804 are. She cannot dismantle the ovens and set up shop anywhere she likes. If she wants to bake in these rather special ovens, she must make the best of her location. The area is quite residential and centred on the Parc des Buttes Chaumont so it's not like she's out in some banlieue (suburb) but it is double digits (19eme arrondissement).

You can just get a glimpse of the ovens through the open door.

The flour she uses is organic and the oven fueled by oak and ash wood. She makes a wide variety of breads and pastries. On the day we were there in September the bread selection included marjoram, fig, pepper and olives, pain de mie, brioche, fouace (made with flour, sugar, butter, eggs, walnuts, cinnamon and saffron), 100% spelt and black bread (made from rye flakes, rye sourdough and sunflower seeds) as well as the ubiquitous baguette. The bread is all sold by weight (the marjoram bread is €10.40/kg for instance).

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There is a Fungi Foray on Sunday 4 November in the Foret de Preuilly. Meet at the Etang de Ribaloche at 2.00 pm. I am planning to be there and there will be expert mycologists to identify all the mushrooms picked at the end of the afternoon. The focus will be on fungi in general, not just foraging for edible varieties. €3 per person.

The Orthodox Theology Institute

The area in which we stay in Paris is extra-ordinarily multi-cultural and we are continually finding new things of interest there. On our last visit, in September to meet up with Uncle Geoffrey and Auntie Pat, we discovered the Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge. Apparently it is the oldest Orthodox theology institute in Western Europe, and has an important library containing old Russian books as well as modern texts in a variety of languages. There is also a parish church for the Orthodox community and they train priests and theologians to Doctorate level both on campus and through a distance learning programme, as well as run courses on iconography and liturgical singing.

Fungi Foray in the Foret de Loches

This is Part II of an account of an outing to the Foret de Loches by the Association de botanique et mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine. Part I is here.

According to Jean-Pierre, we may be in for a very good fungi season. In the autumn following a hard winter or a prolonged period of dry, the mushrooms are often abundant. Since we have had both this year, perhaps we should expect to be overwhelmed by fungal fecundity!

I didn't catch what these are called, but they were so pretty I've included them.

 The final haul displayed, with the crowd of foragers contributing and admiring.

Jean Bouton talking to the group about two very poisonous species -- the Death Cap and the Panther Cap. He pointed out that you must check each and every mushroom as it comes out of your basket if you are intending to eat them. Many of the fatalities caused by the Death Cap have been because it is an unremarkable looking mushroom that gets bundled up with comestibles and accidentally eaten along with the edible ones. He also pointed out that many mushrooms accumulate substances like caesium and other hazardous materials, so even non-toxic species must be sourced from unpolluted sites.

Death Cap Amanita phalloides -- eat a single one of these and you have about 3 hours after ingestion to get medical attention before permanent liver damage or death is inevitable according to Jean. They are the most poisonous mushrooms in the forest, and doubly dangerous because the symptoms of poisoning do not manifest themselves until long after it is too late (several days sometimes). In fact, you are not recommended to even touch them in case you subsequently touch your fingers to your lips and ingest a tiny amount of the poisons (yes, they contain more than one...) nor should you carry them in the same basket as mushrooms you intend to eat. Someone asked Jean about the fact that he openly handled this specimen, but unfortunately I didn't hear his response. These mushrooms are not uncommon, and are the reason that some foragers wear latex gloves.

This is a mixture of Blushers A. rubescens and Panther Caps A. pantherina. Blushers are comestible, Panther Caps are one of the most toxic species. Can you tell the difference? I think I can, but I certainly wouldn't be putting my health or life on the line by eating any of these, just in case I was wrong. (Blushers get a pink blush on the stem and cap, especially if bruised or damaged, in case you are wondering what the difference is.) Blushers are very common, but Panther Caps are not uncommon here and they often grow in in proximity to one another.

The deadly Panther Cap.

The Masters at work -- Paul, Jean-Pierre and Jean identifying fungi at the end of an afternoon of foraging.

So all the cracks had gathered to the fray

All the Australian readers will instantly recognise this phrase, but for those of you without the benefit of having studied Australian literature at school, this is a line from the most famous poem written by the most famous Australian poet.

A typical basket of fungi collected on the day -- lots of ceps of several species and a large Clouded Funnel (where Jean-Pierre is pointing).

It's what going on my first serious mycological outing in France on Saturday reminded me of. There was a sense of uncommon skills gathered together, eager to play nature at its own game. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo of them heading out into the forest, 60-odd people with trugs, divided into 3 groups. Fortunately, Alex Wild, in an act of total coincidence, posted a photo yesterday on his blog of a recent myrmecological outing that will give you some idea.

 Jean-Pierre examines an Edible Cep Boletus edulis (Cèpe de Bordeaux in French) with a Bay Bolete B. badius (Bolet bai in French) tucked in behind waiting for his scrutiny. Both are prized edible varieties.

The outing was organised by the Association de Botanique et Mycologie de Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine, of which I am a member and regularly attend botanical outings. I'm not really a fungi person, but it's always worth going on an outing where there are experts to talk to (this applies to any topic I can think of).

Jean-Pierre talks to a little group about a Clouded Funnel Clitocybe nebularis (Clitocybe nébuleux in French). He says that technically they are edible, but they have such an after-aroma of cat's piss that you probably wouldn't want to.

Normally, our spring and summer botanical outings are around 20 people. I think everyone was quite surprised to see 60 turn up on Saturday for the champignons. The age range was from primary school to octagenarian too, which was very encouraging. Everyone took it seriously and were keen to know all about all the specimens we jointly collected. My guess is that mushroom foraging is seen as a very important part of French heritage, and its skills are valued as something that need to be passed on.

Rosy Bonnet Mycena rosea (Mycene rose in French). I gather from Jean-Pierre that this is one of the magic mushrooms. Unfortunately, as he pointed out, they also cause serious and irreversible physiological and psychological changes if consumed. They are a lovely pearl pink colour and apparently bioluminescent.

I stuck with Jean-Pierre, in the hopes of learning enough to identify a few species reliably. It was really interesting, but the weather turned much colder on Saturday, and my feet got fairly chilly. Mushroom hunting is mooching through the forest, rummaging in the leaf litter -- we got barely 20m in an hour, which gives you an idea of just how much fungi there is in this old royal hunting forest. Fortunately we were protected in the heart of the Foret de Loches from the 30 km winds with 50 km gusts from the icy north-east (that's Siberia or somewhere).

For me, this was perhaps the most interesting fungi found (by Tim). It is Green Elf Cup Chlorociboria sp. Its presence can be detected even when the fruiting bodies aren't visible, as the mycelia stain the wood they are attacking blue.

Jean-Pierre pointed out that what we think of as mushrooms or toadstools are really just the fruiting bodies. They bear the same relationship to the fungus as a whole as apples do to an apple tree.The 'mushroom tree' is its mycelia, which live in the soil in synergistic relationships with the plants around them. The plants make chlorophyll with their leaves and sunlight above ground, but below ground they absorb minerals and other nutrients courtesy of the fungal mycelia. These far-reaching fungal networks give plants acess to much greater resources and territory than would otherwise be the case.

An atypical looking Beefsteak Fistulina hepatica (Langue de boeuf in French). They are not normally lobed like this apparently.
UPDATE: Apparently it can have lobes, but doesn't normally grow upwards like this one did. See comment from RonRon below.

The mycelia attach themselves to buried wood, sometimes going very deep underground. A succession of fungi will attack fallen branches, causing them to rot and recycling their material into nutrients for the next generation of plants and fungi.  The brown rot type fungi start the process, attacking the cellulose in the wood. After they have done their job, the white rot moves in, consuming the lignum. This is the reason the forest floor is not littered with dead wood.

A small selection of what was collected and put out for discussion and identification.

(Tim and Pauline -- feel free to correct me on any of this, as you were there and heard what Jean-Pierre was saying.)

Part Two of the Fungi Foray in the Foret de Loches follows...

Cat on a Roof

Our neighbours' garage roof is not tin, nor is it especially hot, but it undeniably has a cat on it.

The cat in question is one of several that has moved in to our neighbourhood along with their owners this year, more than doubling the cat population in the houses surrounding us.

Individually, cats are charming creatures. I enjoy Pepsi's inspection tours and am entertained by Katinka's antics.

Sadly, as a species they are problematic. This is not their fault, it is our fault. We domesticated them, we've allowed their population to skyrocket to pest proportions. We have developed all sorts of sentimental attachments to them and anthropomorphised their behaviour, so that sensible methods of control are unthinkable. We don't get them neutered and we allow them to wander at will day and night. Inevitably, some of them end up feral.

Despite the fact that we don't own a cat and I am not the most diligent housekeeper, we almost never get rodents inside the house. There is probably a connection between the number of cats in our neighbourhood and the unnaturally low numbers of a highly synanthropic (a wild animal that associates with man) species such as the House Mouse. I'm not saying I want mice in the house, but I know that it is unlikely the cats are just responsible for killing mice. They are small mammal specialists, so I find dead voles, shrews, rats and dormice in the garden from time to time.

I also find lizards and snakes, which in all likelihood have been killed by cats. Wild reptiles are extinct in all European cities because of domestic cats.

Domestic cats are what conservation biologists refer to as 'subsidised exotic predators'. Their population density can reach more than 100 times that of native carnivores, and around 35% of households own a cat. There have been quite a few studies of domestic cat hunting behaviour, all of which show broadly similar results. Typically, domestic cats spend between 5 and 9 hours per day outside. About half of these cats hunt, and 70 - 90% of their target prey are small mammals. They frequent gardens and nearby land if it is relatively open (for example, pasture or the fringes of sparse woodland). Scientists monitoring hunting domestic cats observe that they hunt about 5 or 6 times more frequently than their owners estimate.They manage to capture prey on about a quarter of their attempts. Half of the prey escapes alive, so their total kill rate works out at around 13%, or about 2 kills a week. This kill rate is more than three times as high as owners estimate. Nevertheless, this is quite an inefficient kill rate, and domestic cats are only responsible for low prey numbers in quite small geographic areas. So long as the metapopulation of prey animals is healthy, and the population density of domestic cats not unusually high, they rarely threaten small mammal populations in Europe, where they have been established for centuries.

Feral cats, as Australia knows to its cost, are an entirely different matter. They are not 'subsidised' (ie not receiving supplementary feeding) and so are hunting for a living.

Some Fungi For the Weekend

Just in case you can't make it to the Fungi Foray in the Foret de Loches today, here are some I photographed earlier. These were all taken on a forest trail near Yzeures on Thursday. Note that the IDs are tentative, and I am definitely not an expert on fungi. I am only too willing to be corrected (or to have my IDs confirmed) by people who know more than me.

Parasol Mushroom Macrolepiota procera.

This species is apparently difficult to mistake for any other. Its only lookalike here is the Shaggy Parasol M. rhacodes, which has a plain stalk -- unlike this specimen which has the brown patterning on the stem typical of M. procera. Parasol Mushrooms are edible and said to be popular for their 'attractive meaty flavour'.

I have no idea what this is, but it was one of a group of half a dozen or so growing along a hedge/fence line. It was close to 25 cm tall, and the most striking species we saw on our 7 km walk.
UPDATE: Magpie Inkcap Coprinus picaeus. See Tim's comments below.

I think this is probably a Hoof Fungus Fomes fomentarius. It infects trees, in this case an oak, already weakened through other causes, and finally kills them. Its alternative name is Tinder Fungus, and from prehistoric times it has been processed to create a material used as tinder for firestarting. It can also be turned into a sort of leatherlike sheet used to make gloves, hats, breeches and other clothing. The 5000 year old corpse of Otzi the Iceman, found frozen in a glacier in 1991 on the Austrian - Italian border, was carrying some of this tinder. Hoof Fungus is not edible.

I think this elfin city is made up of Common Ink Caps Coprinopsis atramentaria. They are supposedly edible, although poisonous if consumed with alcohol. Frankly, they don't look appealing, with or without a nice glass of Saint Nicolas de Bourgeuil.

 UPDATE: Not Coprinus, but a lookalike Psathyrella sp. See Tim's comment below and the Wikipedia entry for a cautionary tale. Paul Leroy from l'Association de Botanique et de Mycologie de Sainte Maure de Touraine advises it is Psathyrella multipedata.

These, I believe, are Warted Puffballs Lycoperdon perlatum. They are edible when young and their solid white flesh has not turned to brown powder. This is a good beginner edible mushroom foragers species, as you can easily test it for comestibility -- cut it in half vertically and check for signs of discolouration after a few minutes or developing gills. If you see neither of these things you can eat it -- one of the few wild mushroom species I have been brave enough to identify and eat by myself.

Private property, private hunting, mushroom picking forbidden -- but only if you step off the public path into this person's woods.

Getting in a Twist

You would never guess just by looking at this photo that this was anything more than an unusually large scale spiral staircase. It is, of course, the famous double helix staircase at Chambord, with two separate flights of stairs that coil around one another, so that those on the stairs going up can see others coming down, but mysteriously, they never meet. Seeing the real object, or even setting foot on it and ascending, isn't much help in getting your head around how it works. You need to see a diagram or a model.

Chambord Interior

Most of the interior of Chambord is disappointingly 19th century, despite which this photo manages to convey a somewhat misleading impression of understated elegance. The reality is that nothing about Chambord is understated and very little there could be described as elegant -- the scale is too grand, too much about raw power and masculine fantasy.

Foot Fettling

This pair of horses live in the overflow carpark at the Chateau of Chenonceau. The overflow space is usually closed because the main carpark takes several hundred cars and there is no need for visitors to park way over in the horse paddock. However, when it is really busy and the chateau needs all nine hundred of its car parking spaces, the horses are corralled into a corner behind an electric fence for the day.

They are joined from time to time in the summertime by horses resting while their horse-trekking vacation riders are picnicking nearby. In early October they were visited by the farrier, who came to check and trim their feet. He was assisted by one of the Chenonceau security staff, someone I normally see scanning tickets at the entry.

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There is a Fungi Foray on Saturday 27 October in the Foret de Loches. Meet at the Pyramide des Chartreux (the interesection of the D760 and D9) at 2.30 pm. I am planning to be there and there will be expert mycologists to identify all the mushrooms picked at the end of the afternoon. The focus will be on fungi in general, not just foraging for edible varieties.

Wet and Warm

It's rained a lot this October. I don't know exactly how much we've had, but talking to friends and neighbours, it seems to be somewhere in the vicinity of 130 - 150 mm just over this weekend alone (and it must have rained about the same amount the previous weekend). And the temperature is regularly getting up into the low 20s. It is apparently shaping up to be the warmest October since sometime in the 1850s.

As for the rain, it has to be several multiples of our average for the month. The stream in front of the orchard is flowing again -- strong and clear. At least we are not flooding like the famous pilgrimage site of Lourdes in the far south-west. 'Bernadette -- she's up to here,' (hand gesture to indicate eye level) 'and the water is lapping at the feet of the Madonna', a neighbour tells us. 'The cleanup will cost hundreds of thousands.'

The grapes from the orchard continue to 'give', as the French say, seemingly unaffected by the warm wet weather and showing no signs of fungal disease. They have a distinctive and strong musky honey scent, very noticeable when Alex mowed and the mower ran over windfalls, and are pronounced delicious by everyone we offer them to.

The overgrown and out of control hedge at the front of the potager has been properly pruned, with loppers and a sharp hedge trimmer, not these dreadful flails that the farmers and local authorities use. The pyracantha was a challenge -- Alex got stabbed on the head by a 5 cm spike on a falling stem. I made him put on eye protection to finish the job. We both had spikes go through our rubber boots -- so that's a slow leak next time I have to stand in a stream... Alex was worried the spikes were strong enough to puncture the mower's tires, so Nicole spent some time carefully raking up every bit before he mowed.

The pile of clippings -- to be burnt one crisp clear day in February.

I weeded the saffron bed in the nick of time -- the rain has triggered an almost instantaneous response, and flowering has started. They flower before the leaves appear and must be picked daily. Yesterday there was no rain, and even quite a bit of sun. The predicted few days like that to come will be ideal for them, especially if there is a dew each morning. This one from yesterday is in perfect condition. Probably I won't get more than enough for a single dish, but it is always a thrill to harvest such an exotic and expensive spice in my own garden.

The new compost bins -- a wonder to behold (and will be full depressingly quickly if I get the rest of the potager weeded anytime soon).

Bombed Bridges

Any bridge that pre-dates World War II in the Loire Valley is a very lucky survivor. Many bridges were destroyed during the War, by both sides, to disrupt troop movements. You can clearly see the remains of the old bridge between Chaumont-sur-Loire and Onzain in this photo - the grassy hummocks in mid-stream mark the old piers. The new bridge is to the left.

UPDATE:  Simon has just found this excellent page (in French) on the history of the old bridge, with a photo of the damage in 1940.

Empty

On an iffy early October day only a few weeks after this photo from sunny late September, the carpark at Chenonceau is virtually empty.