Walking Around Saint Remy sur Creuse

One day during Jonathan's recent visit we took him on the Descartes to Saint Rémy sur Creuse walk that we'd done a few weeks earlier with the walking club. Here are some pictures from the afternoon.

The view across the Creuse from Buxeuil looking towards Descartes.

Male Banded Demoiselle Calopteryx splendens (Fr. Caloptéryx éclatant).

Banded Demoiselles are abundant on all the local watercourses, and one of the loveliest damselflies here.

Another view across the Creuse, upstream from the bridge.

Male Small Pincertail Onychogomphus forcipatus (Fr. Gomphus à pinces).

This species is also abundant around the big rivers.

Jonathan contemplating the Ganne Tower.

A ruined tower from one of Richard the Lionheart's castles.

The grotto of Notre-Dame in Ethni'Cité.

A statue of the Madonna was installed in the cliff face in 1910 and this little chapel created. The altar is described as rocaille, meaning made of rocks, but it looks to me like concrete faux-bois, which might still have been fashionable at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries in the provinces (examples can be seen here and here).

Me and Jonathan walking along the path.

Views of Angles sur l'Anglin

The other day we visited the ever picturesque Angles sur l'Anglin with Simon's brother Jon, who is visiting from Australia. Here are some pictures from the morning.

Overlooking a mill on the Anglin.

The ruined chateau.

The chateau dates from the 12th and 15th centuries. The ruins of a chapel, keep, gatehouse, curtain wall, courtyard, stables, communal areas, well and lodgings are all that remain. It is owned by the local authority, who struggles to maintain it or to know what to do with it.

The town on the other side of the Anglin.

Views of Montresor

The other day we visited the ever picturesque Montrésor with Simon's brother Jonathan and friends Annette and Bruce, who are visiting from Australia. Here are a few pictures from the morning.

Footbridge over the Indrois.

The bridge, built at the Eiffel factory, links the castle to its kitchen garden.

The medieval castle gatehouse.

Amongst the earliest medieval stone fortresses built in the Touraine, parts of the chateau are contemporary with Loches and Langeais. It was part of the holdings of the Counts of Anjou, and as such inherited by Henry II Plantagenet in the 12th century. He is responsible for the building of the twin towered entry chatelet that you see in the photo (similar to the one at Loches, which he also had built).

Citroën Traction Avant at the garage.

Not one of ours and not one we recognised, but very nice.

Swimming in the Creuse

Simon's brother heading out to swim across the river.

It was very hot on Sunday and we decided to go swimming at the popular local wild swimming spot at Lésigny. The river bottom is sandy and shallow on one side, and deep and gravelly on the other. The current is not too strong, and rather curiously, flows in the direction you expect on the deep gravelly side, but comes around in a U-turn and flows 'backwards' across the sandy bit. You could spend your time gently drifting around in an oval.

 Me swimming downstream, but against the current.

It was really pleasant in the water and not too crowded. After swimming we sat around in our folding chairs in the shade of a linden tree and watched French families having fun.

Jonathan on the far side of the river.

Fun and games in the river. I'm the dark head above the towels and Jon is further out and to the right.

Sainte Maure de Touraine Goats Cheese

Everything you ever wanted to know about Sainte Maure de Touraine goats cheese.

 Sainte Maure de Touraine AOP

• is truncheon shaped.
• has a straw which identifies the producer.
• uses the full name 'Sainte Maure de Touraine'.

1618 tonnes are produced annually in the AOP, of which 1195 tonnes is made in dairy factories and 288 tonnes is made on the farm.

 'Sainte Maure' non-AOP is distinguished from Sainte Maure de Touraine by:

• its cylindrical shape.
• the absence of the staw.
• the shorter name ('Sainte Maure', without the 'de Touraine').

The production is significant, being 20 000 tonnes compared to 1618 tonnes for the AOP.

The principle rules of the AOP, designed to preserve the terroir:

1. Geographic area -- all of Indre et Loire and neighbouring parts of Vienne, Indre and Loir et Cher. All milk producers, processors (whether farm or factory), collectors and refiners must be situated within the geographic area.
2. The goats' feed -- more or less all of the products destined to be goat food must come either from the farm or the area of production. The average annual amount of food ingested by a goat is 1100kg of dry material, of which 825kg must come from the geographic area of the AOP. Silage is limited to 365kg per goat per year, and can't exceed 1kg a day. Supplements (ie not forage) cannot exceed 550kg per goat per year.
3. Area of pasture -- each farm must have at least 1 hectare for every 10 goats, of which 50% must be just grass. However, the goats don't necessarily graze outdoors. The farmer may cut the pasture and feed it to shedded goats.

Common Crow

The Common Crow Euploea core is abundant and widespread, occuring from Australia to India. It is a largish dark brown and white butterfly that can often be seen cruising nonchalantly through the air in eastern Australia. It can afford to be insouciant because it is full of toxins absorbed from the plants it ate as a caterpillar. As a teenager I often looked for and found their extraordinary gilded or silvered chrysalises on Oleander Nerium oleander. Like other Danaids (the milkweed munching monarch, tiger and crow subfamily of butterflies), it is migratory, and overwinters in large aggregations in the tropical north. 

Electioneering, French Style

I don't know about where you live, but this struck me as quite remarkable.

The lady in the middle of the photo (in the red jacket) is Marisol Touraine, who was the French Minister for Health from 2012 to earlier this year, and is expected to win the seat for the Touraine in the National Assembly this month. On Wednesday she was walking around the market in Loches with her deputy and office manager, no police, no security and no journalists.

We were sitting at the cafe you can see when she wandered past, only to be called over by a pair of ladies taking their morning café. They then had what appeared to be a serious political discussion in measured and polite tones.

We have seen Madame Touraine at various events we have attended, but a national politician with no police, no security, no journalists in a public street market? Amazing.

Bargains at NOZ

Regular readers of the blog will have seen me mention NOZ before.

For the uninitiated, NOZ is an end of line shop (Europe's biggest, apparently), sometimes filled with bargains, sometimes strangely bereft of anything you might want. There is no telling, as stock is refreshed each week with whatever they have picked up at liquidation sales (I assume). When they have had stock for a while they make it half price, and later 2 for the price of a half-price one.

When we first went to NOZ it was all end of line foodstuffs (much of it weird foreign stuff), bargain cleaning products, and occasionally really good quality and massively reduced items of clothing.

Then, about 4 years ago they had SMEG refrigerators on sale at quite reasonable prices. We didn't buy one, nor did we last year buy a wedding dress for less than €50 or a toilet pedestal for €2.50. The same goes for the formal prom dresses that they had for €70 earlier this year.

On Wednesday they really surpassed themselves. When the following items are 50% off and two for one I may be tempted, although I suspect it dimishes the exclusivity of the brand to buy a brand new V8 convertible Audi at a disposal store.

Hazel Leaf Roller

Last year when the Kew Gardens team came out to collect Red Helleborine Cephalanthera rubra samples we encountered a Hazel Corylus avellana which had little green cigars hanging from the leaves. Kaz said he thought the cigars were made by a beetle but he couldn't remember its name. Once he got back to London he emailed to say that it was the Hazel Leaf Roller Apoderus coryli.

The Hazel Leaf Roller is a weird looking creature, not very big (5-8mm), with a red body and black head. They are related to weevils. The adults are active from May to September. The cigars are to protect and nourish the larvae.

The Hazel Leaf Roller is not closely related to the Nut Weevil Curculio nucum, which is also found in Hazels here.

Further Reading: The Wikipedia entry for the species has an excellent series of photos showing how the beetle rolls the Hazel leaf into a cigar form.

Borough Market

Borough Market is a wonderful place. It is home to all sorts of quality food produce from all over the world. When we lived in London I was a regular, shopping here every Friday evening on my way home from work.

The Italian cheese stall, where I always bought two or three pieces of cheese.

I began shopping there before it got really famous. Lovers of good food knew about it very quickly, and people like me (and Jamie Oliver) shopped at Turnips for fruit and vegetables, the Ginger Pig for meat, Furness Fish and Game for fish, the Olive Oil Co for olive oil, Gastronomica for cured meat and the Monmouth Coffee Company for coffee. I also regularly bought dried fruit and nuts, French salted butter, Parmesan cheese and poultry, and occasionally a pork pie. There were probably about 20 stalls in all. As a regular I knew many of the traders and benefitted from being recognised as a loyal customer.

By the time these photos were taken, in 2002, there were probably 50 stalls and Borough was very well known and a popular foodie destination. Today there are over a hundred stalls.

You can see by these pictures how much havoc a terrorist attack would have caused. The place is teeming with people and packed with edible goodies on tables and display stands.

It was 50 Years Ago the Other Day

...that Sgt Peppers was released.

Its not my favorite album and in fact I find some of it totally unlistenable and no way could I sit through the whole thing. But at the time it was seen by quite a few people as important and according to the TV, newspapers, and radio, today that thought continues.

The real reason for this blog post:
Me and the Strawberry Fields Forever mellotron
in Abbey Road Studio 2 (the Sgt Peppers studio)

Lunch at the Goat Cheese Fair

This weekend just gone was the Sainte Maure de Touraine goat cheese fair. Traditionally the botany club I belong to sets up a display of wild flowers that one can find in pasture. We feature the ones that are good for the goats to eat and those that are toxic. These wild flowers theoretically form part of the terroir of the AOP cheese. So on Saturday I was to be found helping my friend Jean set up a botany exhibition in the market halls at Sainte Maure de Touraine. As part of the deal, the botany association shouted us lunch at the community restaurant.

A giant papier maché nanny goat, with flowing 'milk'.

Plate of charcuterie.

This is what we had for lunch -- a warm Sainte Maure de Touraine goats cheese pastry puff, gherkins, rillettes (pork paste), boudin noir (black pudding), andouillette (chitterlings), rillons (slow cooked pork belly cubes), baby leaf and cherry tomatoes -- all good local delicacies.

Jean tucking in.

 Salt and pepper.

The tables were refectory style, everyone shared. The woman next to me caused consternation by asking for salt and pepper. This is what she was provided with. There were a lot of jokes about Sainte Maure porcelain.

The cheese course.

Of course, at the Sainte Maure de Touraine goats cheese fair the cheese course is Sainte Maure de Touraine goats cheese (with some baby leaf).

Belgians with beer.

At one point I looked across at the next table and noticed that they had beer. According to my table companions, that was because they were Belgian. The man partially obscured on the left is the Grand Master Commander of the Commanderie Sainte Maure de Touraine (cheesemakers guild), and he's Belgian. He's obviously well established, as no one made any sort of remark about it, except as an explanation for the beer.

Ants' Nest

A large ants' nest by a farm track in south-east Queensland.

The Killing Field

A recent visit to the orchard revealed plenty of hunters and prey.

A Crab Spider with a bee.

The crab spider is Xysticus sp. The bee looks like a Megachilidae of some sort. The flower is a Field Scabious Knautia arvensis.

Dead butterflies.

Another crab spider, this time Misumena vatia, who has clearly been going through the Common Blue Polyommatus icarus butterflies at a rate of knots. There are the remains of two on the ground and it has a third on the Common Bird's-foot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus flowers.

 Fur.

I suspect that the orchard's resident Brown Hare Lepus europaeus is no more. Red Fox Vulpes vulpes maybe?

Another crab, another megachilid.

 This is a male Hoplitis sp bee. The crab spider seems to be Xysticus sp again. The plant is Lucerne Medicago sativa.

Pigeon feathers.

 I expect these are Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus feathers, killed by a domestic cat perhaps.

Yet another crab, this time with a fly.

The crab spider is Misumena vatia again, the flower Field Scabious again. The fly is a female parasite fly Cylindromyia auriceps.

Note: This post has been updated to correct the identification of some species.