(Not) Surveying Butterflies Around Chaumussay

As regular readers know, I participate in a national butterfly monitoring project run by the Muséum National d'histoire naturelle in Paris. Last Wednesday I sallied forth with my clipboard to walk my transects around Chaumussay, counting butterfly numbers and species in a systematic way on particular sites. My Chaumussay sites are mostly dry limestone, with two natural grassland sites on steep slopes, two transects that run along tracks through crops and one that runs through improved cattle pasture.

A male Adonis Blue Polyommatus bellargus nectaring on Common Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus. This was the only species flying in any numbers. They are a limestone grasslands specialist which over-winters as a caterpillar.

I didn't manage to get in a May survey because the weather never got good enough to bother going out to look for butterflies when I had the time to do it. Luc Manil, who co-ordinates the project, said it was as if nature had just come to a halt in May. Plants didn't grow and butterflies didn't emerge.

 A Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis, one of many orchids I saw. This protected species is easy to spot on the limestone roadside bank at Chaumussay as you take the road to le Petit Pressigny.

By 5 June though summer had hit with a bang. The afternoon was very warm, although cloudy, and with a light breeze. All around me farmers were manically making hay. They hate having to wait until June to take their first cut of hay, and the mowing, windrowing and baling activity was relentless and furious. I got shoo'd off my last transect as the farmer was coming up the lane on a tractor towing a rake.

 Bedstraw Broomrape Orobanche caryophyllacea -- not an orchid, but still magnificent. This is the largest and frilliest broomrape here, common and easy to spot. It is described in Rose as 'deliciously clove scented', but since there was a steep ditch and bank between me and it, I limited myself to photos.

Even so, we hadn't had enough warm days for the butterflies to respond. I was shocked by how few individuals I saw, and how few species. I saw more orchids (14 species, dozens of individual plants) than butterflies (8 species, 28 individuals).There were no Violet Fritillaries, none of the larger whites and all the species that over-winter as adults must have died, as I didn't record any.

I think this is the shield bug Odontotarsus purpureolineatus, but I've never seen it before. Thanks to Eric on Le Monde des Insectes online forum for pointing me in the right direction.

But that doesn't mean it was a wasted afternoon. I saw lots of things besides butterflies, and there are lots of caterpillars around. The butterflies are coming, and my next survey should be a completely different picture. To make up for May's deficit I will try to schedule the next survey for late June. Already the swallowtails are turning up, ready for summer.

One of the somewhat unexpected additional impediments to my butterfly surveying. This huge pile of lumber has appeared, plonked right on the path of one of my transects. Surprisingly, this is where I recorded my 'best' species for the whole afternoon -- a Southern White Admiral Limenitis reducta.

A female Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa rests on vegetation by a ditch. These at least are abundant and active at the moment.

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Orchard News: After telling everyone that our cherries would be at least another week, the Burlat has snuck up on me. I picked the first kilo yesterday. Burlat is an early variety, and has been in the market for over a week, but the our orchard always lags the commercial production.

Closerie de la Bruzette

Just recently we had occasion to stay overnight in a lovely chambre d'hôtes at Fondettes. The Closerie de la Bruzette is run by a local family, who have lived in the house for several generations. Charmingly, they have furnished the rooms with pieces that were handed down from the current owner's great-grandmother. It is in the fashionable style of her day, known as Henri II (which is 19th century, but in a renaissance revival style). This type of furniture tends to be huge, and quite robustly decorated with ornate carving and elaborate cornices. I think it is often made from chestnut, and is generally way too big to fit in a modern room with any degree of comfort or elegance.

Bedroom.

The furniture at Closerie de la Bruzette was quite the nicest examples of this style that I have seen and I liked the way the owner had sensitively modified some of it to fit modern bathrooms. He had also had a staircase built of reclaimed timber, and had bought a few modern pieces of art from a local wood sculptor which made a nice link between past and present.

Bathroom.

The family are friendly and all speak some English. They very kindly offered a garage for Célestine, and discreetly warned us that the other group staying there all talked very loudly, so they hoped we would not be disturbed. A shared kitchen / dining room, equipped with fridge, sink and hotplate, is made available to the guests so you don't have to go out to dinner if you don't wish to. Likewise, one of the enormous sideboards is full of cutlery and crockery for the guests' use.

Communal dining room.

The place is in a very quiet area, with plenty of private parking and a large garden to enjoy. The only warning I would issue is to make sure you have a very good map or GPS, as the back blocks of Fondettes is not the easiest area to negotiate if you are unfamiliar with it. It does make a very good base to explore Tours and the area to the west of that city once you get your bearings though.

Closerie de la Bruzette.

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Botany Club Outing: There is an outing to look at Red Helleborine orchids at Panzoult on Sunday 16 June. Meet at 2.30 pm in the car park in front of the Mairie at L'Ile Bouchard (to the right, between the two bridges).

Out with the Old

In general we have been happy with our Aurlane MySpace shower cubicle, and it was certainly an exciting day when it was installed and we could take a proper shower.

One aspect of the shower has not been so good though, and the problem started fairly early on in its life. The duckboard base, which was made of bamboo, began rotting and splitting almost immediately once it was exposed to soap and water. It was also impossible to clean properly, with too many nooks and crannies and narrow gaps between the slats that were too narrow to brush clean even with a toothbrush.

The old bamboo duckboard waiting to go to the tip.

Eventually it began to smell and finally it got to be dangerous. Simon emailed the manufacturer when we first bought the shower cabinet to ask how to best take care of the bamboo, in the hopes of prolonging its life. He didn't get an answer.

Snazzy new recycled plastic duckboard installed in our shower.

Once it was clear something really had to be done he tried again, and this time received a very prompt and helpful response. We could buy a new showerbase, made from recycled plastics, for about €100. That sounded rather expensive and it wasn't exactly our fault that the original one had fallen to pieces and was a health hasard, but we decided not to push it. We could buy direct from the manufacturer, or from a local supplier. We chose to go with a local supplier, Bricorama in Chatellerault, which saved us the delivery fee. It's fairly obvious that this was a known design fault that developed with these showers. To their credit the manufacturer has fixed the problem rather than putting their heads in the sand about it.

The new duckboard is very smart looking and nicer underfoot than the old one ever was, so on the whole, we are happy. One small niggle, after we installed it, we realised that it was missing a foot. Fortunately I hadn't taken the old one to the tip at that stage and we salvaged all the feet off it, which are identical to the new ones. Problem solved.

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Points: There are 2 points for anyone who can tell me what the word for a duckboard showerbase is in French, and another point if you can tell me how it is pronounced.

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Visitors: Our friends Megan and Bryan arrived bearing gifts of exotic smoked cheddar from Glastonbury and jars of stem ginger in syrup. They've left again, on their way to Switzerland, with Lee, their trusty Aussie accented GPS. We plied them with local wine (Domaine des Rainettes, Bourgeuil, cab franc 2008 - very good, lovely raspberry nose, velvety mouthfeel) and homegrown strawberries (which we made them pick themselves...) Megan spotted a third little Pyramidal Orchid in the middle of the orchard, so I am chuffed to bits. This means that all of the orchid species have established new plants this year.

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Poster Campaign: A couple of years ago we asked readers to print off and put up posters to promote our custom day trip and tour business Loire Valley Time Travel. We thought you might be kind enough to help out again, by placing posters on notice boards at workplaces, where you have French lessons or anywhere you think someone planning a trip to France might see it. If you would like to put up a poster for us, please click on this link to the original post, which gives you links and instructions for printing off the posters. Once again, we would be delighted to treat you to the sights of Preuilly in Célestine if you are in the area and you let us know what clever spot you've stuck a poster.

We don't all see things the same way

One of the most beautiful orchids in the Claise valley is also one of the rarest in the département - indeed over most of France except the south east. The Red Helleborine Cephalanthera rubra is easy to find on our dry wooded limestone buttes in late May and June, but it occurs almost nowhere else in Indre et Loire and is uncommon or extinct in all the surrounding départements.

Red Helleborine.

Like many orchids, it has a very particular trick to get itself pollinated. The flowers do not produce any nectar, so they are not attractive to most insects as there is no reward. Nevertheless, they are insect pollinated - by a small black bee called the Harebell Carpenter Bee Chelostoma campanularum and a closely related species, C. fuliginosum, both of whom specialise in collecting pollen and nectar from Bellflowers Campanula spp.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower C. trachelium.

It's not the female bees that pollinate the Red Helleborines though. It's the males. The Red Helleborines look just like Bellflowers to the male bees, whose visual system is very different to ours. The little bees use Bellflowers for more than just food. They use them for shelter too, crawling inside for a nap during the day, or overnight. The male bees, ever hopeful of finding a female, crawl inside the lookalike orchids, thus collecting the pollenia and transferring it on to the next orchid they visit. The orchid has evolved to time its flowering in relation to the Bellflowers in order to exploit these particular bees.

Susan

See also Rampion Bellflower C. rapunculus on Loire Valley Nature, where I have included a photo which shows a bee sleeping in one of the flowers.

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La Chasse: When I went down to the boulangerie yesterday I noticed that the local mounted hunt were in the abbey carpark getting dressed in their uniforms. Hunt season is over so I assume they were attending a mass. Yesterday was the Feast Day of Sainte Diane, who of course has no connection to Artemis. So was it a coincidence or not? I asked the grocer if he knew what they were up to, but he said he didn't and suggested I go and ask -- 'They won't eat you!' -- but I had other stuff to do, so didn't go down there and pump someone for further information.

Retirement Paradise

People often ask us if we will go back to live in Australia. The answer is maybe, but maybe not. As with most people it depends a lot of finances and family. There are very few places in Australia that we feel we would enjoy living. This is one of them, and our friends who do actually live here know how lucky they are.

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Orchard Update (sort of): The annual production of dolmades has begun. Sadly, not with our own grape leaves, which are struggling, but with those plundered from friends' vines.

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Welcome: Today we are expecting our friends from England, Megan and Bryan, for an overnight stay as they head off to the Alps for a camping holiday. Megan is a heritage professional, originally from New Zealand and an ex-colleague of mine. Bryan is an artist. The dishwasher was returned from the repair shop just in time! Along with the dolmades I have made (yes, made, not purchased...) céleri rémoulade, carottes rapées and guacamole.

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Renovations: Bricolage has recommenced, with Simon constructing a wood storage area under the stairs. It doubles as a means of hiding all the ugly electrical cabling coming from the fuse box and gives us a neat storage space for the vacuum cleaner and a shelf as well. He is sporting a quite impressive bruise on his hand, where he bashed himself in the process of putting the piece together.

He has also installed a new temporary plug in our bedroom. Up to now, power in the bedroom has been via an extension cable run from a power point in the office. So now we can do away with the cable across the landing (although we still have a cable across the door way of the bedroom).

The 4 Minute Shower

Water is a precious commodity in Australia. For all of the years we have been  living in Europe, most of the country has been in the grip of severe drought. The highest level of water restrictions applied for years where my sister lives, so you have designated times when you can water your garden (unless you use grey water, in which case you need to post a notice out the front of your house that you are recycling water, or your neighbours will dob you in to the authorities for watering outside the alloted hours). You are not allowed to wash your car or top up swimming pools.

People are encouraged to take timed showers, limiting themselves to 3-4 minutes. Kids are educated in waterwise ways and recruited to monitor their family's showers. Local authorities will hand out shower timers such as this one in a friend's bathroom so it's easy to know how long you've been running the water.

Personally I find a 4 minute shower easy to achieve, unless I'm washing my hair (then I need 6 minutes).

Frost Free and Fancy

This has been a particularly spectacular year for orchids, and the peak season still has more than a month to go. All the wild orchids have appreciated the cool moist conditions, flowering generously in response to the first really consistently wet spring for a decade.

Two species in particular have benefitted, not just from the rain, but from the relatively high minimum temperatures over the last 6 months. It has been a miserable winter and spring from the point of view of many rainy days and not much sun, but it has been the maximum temperatures which have been low, not the minimums. There has been remarkably few frosts, and for the frost tender species who have had to struggle through the unusual periods of snow and frost of the previous few years, this is as much a relief as the rain.

As a consequence, this year the Greater Butterfly Platanthera chlorantha and the Monkey Orchis simia Orchids are both putting on better shows than we have seen for about 5 or 6 years. These are both common roadside orchids that have been notable by their relative absence for a few years, and are making a very welcome return this year. In a good year, the colonies of Monkey Orchids are very noticeable as crowds of pink flower spikes in the grass. The Greater Butterflies are more discreet, but groups of their starry spires are easy to spot on grassy banks once you know what to look for.

Steve Drags His Heels

Long time readers of this blog will be familiar with Steve, Son of Steve and the Pseudo-Steves. For those now completely mystified, they are Siberian Irises.

Just now they are putting on a lovely show in both the front courtyard and the back garden. Well, all of them, and their Bearded Iris mates, except Steve. He is obviously saving himself for a big finale to the iris flowering season, and is going to flower after everyone else. So tant pis, he misses out once again on being on the blog. His place is taken by one of the Pseudo-Steves, looking magnificent.

One of Steve's beardy mates.

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Nature Update: Yesterday was haymaking central in the Val de la Claise Tourangelle. Everywhere I went for my butterfly survey there were men out on tractors making or carting newly made hay. Somewhat worryingly, I saw more orchids than butterflies on my survey, both in terms of species and total numbers. A fuller report with photos will follow next week if I get time.

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Steve Update: Steve obviously felt I was maligning him, and came out very early this morning. As a result I photographed him at about 7.30 am and can now present him (sadly, not in his true colour, which is more like the dark veins in his throat markings, but the camera doesn't cope with the colour of his petals -- he is a shade or two darker than the Pseuds in reality).

Stinking Orchids

The locals, even my French botanist friends, do not regard Lizard Orchids with much fondness. When we go on orchid outings, Lizards are rarely recorded. In fact they are common here, but they are dismissed as nasty stinking things by virtually everyone.

Lizard Orchid in our neighbour's orchard.

Their French name translates as 'billy goat orchid'. It's rather a shame, because while they certainly can smell off-putting (like unwashed bottoms I always think) it varies considerably from plant to plant, and on the temperature. Mostly they are not very scented at all, but local people dislike them and don't find them attractive. This means they are frequently mowed off in their prime.

Personally, I love them. They are tall and a most unusual colour - a sort of silvery purple, with festive twisting streamers. I wonder what can be done to make the French love their Lizards? After all, in some places this is a rare orchid, cherished and protected.

If you want to learn more about Lizard Orchids, please go the species account on Loire Valley Nature.

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Botany Club Outing: There is a general botany outing on Sunday 9 June to look at cornfield plants on Dominique Tessier's organic farm La Morellière at Saint Laurent de Lin. Contact me if you want directions -- it is north of Langeais. Meet at Dominique's house at 10 am, or 2.30 pm if you only want to attend for half the day. Bring a picnic.

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All Safe on the Mammarian Front: I went for my follow up check yesterday in Loches, after my mammogram in March found a small spot in my left breast. I am happy to report that the spot has disappeared and the diagnosis is that it was probably a cyst (pronounced 'kist' in French). The doctor I saw was of the kindly, reassuring, grey haired variety and explained to me, when I asked, that the dozen or so bright white 2-5mm diameter dots that show up on my x-rays are calcium deposits, and entirely normal for my age. They are the remains of previous cysts that have dried up. A cyst is a capsule of fluid that appears on the x-ray more like a pale blob.

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Film Suggestion: If you like to practice your French by watching a film now and then, you could do worse than I Love Périgord. Despite the English language name, this is a French film made by French film makers. Occasionally the dialogue switches to English, as some of the characters are English, but then it is subtitled in French. It is the French poking fun at the English and the French in equal measure. It's not the slickest rom-com around, but Bernard Le Coq as Adémar (the father) is very good. It's nice, fun, quite silly light entertainment.

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Orchard Update: The nectarines are coming along nicely, as are the pears and apples. The cherries, which will be the first to pick from the trees are still green marbles, but in reasonably good numbers. No plums or peaches to speak of.

To my surprise, the whole potager is fragrant. I couldn't see anything flowering that I thought could be responsible, so in the end I decided it must be the strawberries. I picked about a kilo of strawberries yesterday. The strawberries are the most maintenance free plants ever. I don't even bother to weed them and never water them. This year I am pleased to note that there is at least one bumble bee nest hidden in a hole amongst the strawberry leaves. I'm worried about the grape vines though. The leaves don't look totally healthy -- I suspect mites. 

The Bee Orchids are everywhere and flowering like mad. The most exciting orchid news is that I discovered a new Pyramidal Orchid, completely at the opposite end of the orchard to the other little group. This is a protected species, so it's a particular thrill to have it coming of its own accord. Unfortunately, I only noticed it after I had stood on it. That was a downer, as it was just about to flower.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday hacking weeds off in their prime. I don't have time to pull them out, so I'm hoping cutting them off before they can seed will help. The vegetables I've planted out all appear to be thriving (potatoes, tomatoes, aubergine, zucchini, peppers, chilli, celeriac, celery and leeks).

Lansyer's Loches

Emmanuel Lansyer 1835-1893 was considered the second best landscape painter of his generation (after Corot), but he is hardly a household name today. He began his career as an architect, working for Viollet-le-Duc. Later he studied painting under Courbet and then Harpignies. When he was 29 he switched careers to become a landscape painter, and by the end of his life was widely recognised as talented painter of some merit.

La Tour Saint Antoine from the terrace of the sous-préfecture (that is to say, from the terrace below the Agnès Sorel tower of the Logis Royal, which used to be the sub-prefectural office). I think you could just about get this view without having to step into fresh air, but I think you might have to lean to the right quite a lot, and the terrace is nowhere near as extensive as the painting shows.

The Tour Saint Antoine taken from the artist's garden ie from the other side of the citadel, but looking in the same direction.

His family home in Loches was gifted to the town and is run as a museum dedicated to his memory and works. The house and garden are charming, and very thoughtfully presented. The staff clearly love the place and are delighted when foreign tourists take the time to visit. The museum is free and the views from the garden spectacular as the house is on the citadel, right next to the medieval gateway (known as the Porte Royale) .

The Porte des Cordeliers with the Logis in the background, from Les Cordeliers.

A photo through a window in Le Moulin des Cordeliers (now holiday apartments) with the Porte des Cordeliers on the right.

I was going to post Simon's photos of some of Lansyer's works and then search out the modern view in our photo collection. However, I very soon realised that Lansyer adjusts the view to suit his composition. In most cases it would be impossible to stand where the artist purports to be doing so. Hence, I have chosen to show three of his works and three similar views taken by us in the last few years.

The Chateau of Chenonceau. I doubt if you could get this view even if you were on the river. It is supposedly from the river bank.

The Chateau of Chenonceau.

We liked his paintings a lot. They weren't the cutting edge of creativity, but they were extremely competant, and his architectural background is very evident and used effectively. Perhaps a bit much sienna brown in the palette for my taste, but you can say that about almost any landscape painter.

Wildlife Watching in the Touraine du Sud in June

Wispy lavender blue Bellflowers Campanula spp and deep blue Meadow Clary will be in abundance on roadsides. Meadow Clary is easily as garden worthy in appearance as its fashionable South American Salvia cultivar cousins, but its strict requirement for very chalky soil means that it doesn't transfer well to the garden.

Nettle-leaved Bellflower C. trachelium, one of the less wispy and more robust species.

Drifts of shocking pink Perennial Pea appear in the grass and spires of Foxgloves on the edges of woodland.

Somewhere in between the two, rich purple vetches rise up roadside banks and tumble down ditches.

By early June the scarlet coloured Field Poppies will really be getting underway. It seems to me no wonder that these flowers have been associated with remembrance and rebirth since at least Egyptian times. Their enthusiastic return year after year cheers everyone up.

The average maximum temperature in June is 23C. It is the driest month, at only 46mm average rainfall, delivered on just 7 days of the month. We should get more than 200 hours of sunshine. Here's hoping!

Big Egos

One of the product ranges I miss from Australia is Ego skincare. What I like about them is that they come in big reasonably priced pump action dispensers, which just don't seem to exist in France. The largest size pump action skin lotion I've found is a 400ml Nivea product, and I've never come across a sunscreen in this style of pump action. The Ego skin lotion is in a 1 litre bottle and the sunscreen in a 500ml bottle.

Australian Old Growth Forests

While we were in Australia the Tasmanian Forest Peace Deal was signed. Activists hoped that it would be an end to a long fight to protect the old growth forests from unacceptable exploitation. This fight has been going on for all of my life, and still the logging companies and the hydro-electric companies are allowed in to wilderness areas to destroy everything. The Tasmanian government seems wilfully unaware that there are other ways of managing forests and other ways for local people to earn a living besides working for largescale unsustainable forestry employers whose approach is to clearfell natural forest to produce large volume low quality products.

It appears that it is not the end though. The Tasmanian government has still not adequately protected some areas and species, and may still choose not to submit a request for the World Heritage Status to be extended over the forests to the east.

Wet old growth eucalypt and tree fern forest in New South Wales.

There is a fine small scale specialist timber industry in Tasmania which is desperate to see the situation improved, but as one of the artisan furniture makers said, it's now too late for a couple of the really high quality furniture timber tree species -- they've been cut down along with all the others and made into plywood (and until recently, pulp!!).

The focus on Tasmania may mean that old growth natural forests in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales are quietly being destroyed too, while they are out of the public eye. The whole situation is one of the saddest conservation struggles I know. Old growth natural eucalypt forest, particularly the wet forests such as in Tasmania and New South Wales are amongst the most inspiring and special places on Earth (see my 2009 post on visiting a valley full of tree ferns, and Ian Fraser's post on Monga NP). It is perfectly possible to manage them sensitively for the benefit of people and the environment. Unfortunately, I think the compromises made by both sides of the Forest Peace may result in aspects of the agreement not being met. Once that happens it will unravel very quickly and we will be back with the vitriole and the destruction as a modus operandi.

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Weather Update:  No wonder we are all feeling miserable and complaining about the weather. Following a particularly sun free March and April, May has turned out to have had the lowest levels of sunshine on record. We had 142 hours, when the average hours of sunshine is 210 and two years ago we had 311! Normally I would be picking grape leaves to make dolmades, and thinning flower buds on the vine. With the cold dull weather, the leaves aren't big enough, and there is no sign of flower buds.

Turbulent Times in Azay-le-Rideau

I've delayed posting these photos of the Indre river at Azay-le-Rideau because we wanted to show the spring 2011 counterpoint photos. A week ago the water was swirling and raging through Azay-le-Rideau, churning over the weir by the bridge.

This time two years ago, you could easily have walked across the weir without getting you feet wet, but you will have to trust me on that. I cannot find the photos, even after several hours of increasingly frustrated searching.

It seems to us that the water is exceptionally high, but in fact the levels are coming nowhere near the flood markers from past years. If you are in Azay-le-Rideau, stand on the bridge and check out the flood markers on the boathouse steps. The water has been at least a metre higher in the past, and significantly higher that it is now on at least half a dozen occasions.

Update: Colin has sent me a link to his blog with a photo of the weir completely exposed.

Saché's 'Secret'

Saché is a picturesque village known for being the country retreat of 19th century French writer Balzac. Much of the tourist focus is on the chateau he stayed in and the sites in the surrounding Indre valley that he made the setting for scenes in his novels.

But Saché has another famous past resident, and a souvenir of his time here is in set in plain view in the middle of the mairie carpark. Recently we stopped here with some art loving American clients. They were astounded to see that it is safe to erect a work by Alexander Calder as a piece of public art in such an out of the way place. The standing mobile is not defaced by grafitti, shot up by rednecks or stolen by scrap metal merchants.

One of the truly wonderful things about France is the abundance of art that you can get right up close to. It is presumed that members of the public will respect the works, and the authorities see it as their responsibility to encourage the arts at all levels. French curators are not keen on ropes and barriers, and there is an expectation that the general public are interested and educated when it comes to viewing art.

American artist Alexander Calder loved Saché and his estate endows a foundation which allows artists to live in his house here and spend three months working whilst supported by the foundation. He had spent the late 1920s and early 1930s in Paris, and later, after he was married, bought a house in Saché. His wife was Louisa James (related to the writer Henry James, who also loved France). By the 1960s he was internationally famous and living in the Touraine full time. During this time he constructed a studio and then a house overlooking the Indre valley. Between them the couple made many of the household objects -- she hooked rugs to his designs and he forged pans and cutlery for the kitchen. He died in 1976, and she 20 years later.

Glory in Glass

Not much really old stained glass survives in the Touraine (and very little in situ). This area has been a battleground for too much of its history. The Protestant iconoclasts in the 16th century Wars of Religion did much of the damage, but the Revolution in the late 18th century, the Prussian War in the 19th century and the Second World War in the 20th can all take their share of the blame. Almost all of the stained glass you will see now is 19th century, and some of the surviving older glass has been moved from its original surrounds.

The church in the lovely village of Montrésor is one of only half a dozen that I know of which retains some of its medieval or renaissance glass. It was commissioned by Imbert de Bastarnay (grandfather of Diane de Poitiers) and built between 1519 and 1541 in the gothic style. The window over the altar is a rare survival from that time, and depicts the Passion and the Crucifixion. At the other end of the church the gable above the entrance was opened up in the 19th century to take some very beautiful renaissance era windows that were formerly part of the choir screen (not shown here). The colours in both sets of windows are rich, intense and jewel like, far less flat than their 19th century counterparts. They are truly striking windows, and doubly so because of their rarity.

Considered a very fine example of a Renaissance building, the church is open every day.

Our medieval historian friends Niall and Antoinette have written more fully and more knowledgeably about the church here.

Black Farm Chickens

Preuilly is blessed with an excellent butcher, who I use regularly. A few weeks ago I bought two chicken legs from him for our dinner. I asked for deux pattes de poulet, just as I had heard an old lady doing a week earlier. Just as he had done with the old lady, the butcher repeated the request as deux cuisses de poulet. Whole chicken legs are usually referred to as cuisses, even though the word actually means thigh. Pattes de poulet makes more sense (chicken legs) except that pattes is frequently used to just mean feet. In fact, when I overheard the old lady, I was intrigued, because I assumed she was buying chicken feet. The butcher got out a new waxed cardboard box and opened it up to get her order -- deux cuisses de poulet.

Whether they are pattes or cuisses, they are a top notch product. They are Label Rouge, a trusted French quality accreditation system, and are black farm raised chickens from the Loire Valley. Not the famous Dame Noire or Géline de Touraine breed, but I think very like. The meat is as dark as duck and the drumsticks have vestiges of the black feathers. On the label it tells you that the chicken has been raised on the farm in the open air and killed at a minimum of 81 days old. Its origins are traceable up to the point of sale, and each piece is numbered. Two legs weighed 570 g and cost me €5.42 (at €9.50 / kg). They did two meals for two.

And in case you are wondering how I cooked them, they were marinated in soy sauce, pineapple juice, ginger and garlic then slow cooked in the oven over a bed of vegetables, with the marinade forming the pot liquor. I served them with buckwheat noodles.

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Orchard Update: Yesterday I planted tomato, aubergine, pepper, chilli, celeriac, celery and leek seedlings in the potager. We had two warm sunny days in a row and it seemed like my last opportunity for a while. The bees of all species have been going crazy the last two days. The paulownia was seriously buzzing, as were the gardens of Chenonceau and Cheverny the day before. They obviously think it is their last chance for a while too. I roughly dug part of a new bed, maybe for green beans, and I picked the first few strawberries. It looks like this year will be the strawbs swan song, so I need to be thinking about creating a new bed for new strawberry plants. With the damp weather at the moment I am losing more fruit on them than is ripening enough to pick. The Early Spider and Lady Orchids are coming to an end, starting to look faded and past it. The Bee Orchids are spectacular -- they seem to be a particularly deep pink this year. Still to come, and budding up nicely are the Pyramidal and the Lizards.

Apparently it is the wettest spring since 2008 and the coldest since 1987.

We Won't be Going That Way!

Last Thursday we had intended to go from Chinon to Azay-le-Rideau along the river. On the day we were foiled by flooding as shown above, so we turned onto the route that takes you through the army tank training base in the forest. No go here either, as the army were out and shooting. We took the deviation as directed, skirting around the edges of the base. A perfectly pleasant drive, so our clients were not disappointed and we were all amused by the sentries in their camouflage gear topped by hi-viz vests.

Freddo Frogs

Freddo Frogs and Caramello Koalas -- classic Australian kid bait (or as I see Cadbury refers to them, 'pre-teens confectionary').

They need to be consumed fridge cold in my opinion. They aren't proper chocolate of course (being about 30% sugar and only 23% cocoa solids), so chilling them doesn't cause any more distress to food snobs than simply eating them in the first place. I am pleased to see though that when Cadbury switched a proportion of the product's cocoa butter to palm oil, sales suffered and they switched back in 2009.

When Sarah Turnbull, author of Almost French, married a Frenchman called Frédéric, he was (perhaps inevitably) quickly dubbed Freddo by her Australian family.

The Wreck of the Adolphe