Lime Kiln

For economic reasons, when it comes to erecting buildings, man often exploits the underground resources of a region. In the Touraine that is shining white hard limestone and slate, but also clay and soft chalky limestone. A multitude of lime, tile and brick kilns peppered the landscape in the Middle Ages and these persist either as ruins or in place names.

The opening in the top of a brick lined bottle shaped lime kiln near Le Grand Pressigny.

The oldest kilns date from the 14th century, but production reached a peak in the 19th century and declined in the 20th. There are 579 such industrial kilns surviving in Indre et Loire, in 160 municipalities.

The 'eye' at the base of the kiln, through which the lime was extracted.

The tiles they manufactured were used on roofs and on floors at all levels. Lime was used in construction directly or as render, then extensively for making cements and as a soil improver.

The walking group take a break at the base of the kiln. I'm standing on top to take the photo.

Three lime kilns and at least nine tile kilns are known from around Le Grand Pressigny, and at least a dozen tile kilns and a brick kiln around Preuilly sur Claise.

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Gluten Free Tea Cake

My coeliac friend Elizabeth posted this recipe on her blog a while ago. I have subsequently made it a couple of times, using a mixture of sultanas, dried apricots, prunes and my homemade preserved orange peel, or sultanas, currants, dried apricots and cranberries -- just whatever I have on hand really.

A mixture of dried fruit soaked in tea.

I used some of the syrup from the orange peel instead of golden syrup and skipped the fresh orange zest in one version.

Mini loaves tin coated in homemade cake release.

I always make up my own gluten free flour from chestnut, buckwheat, fine polenta or corn meal and chickpea flour, with a sachet of baking powder added. I double Elizabeth's original recipe to make three small cakes (2 loaf, one 15cm square, or 6 mini loaves). Nuts were half homegrown walnuts, half supermarket almonds, chopped - again cos that was what I had in the cupboard.

Dry ingredients.

It definitely needs all the milk - the mix is quite sloppy, but the cakes crack across the top, which is a sign they need more moisture. The end result is not unpleasantly dense, with good texture and mouthfeel. Simon says he would like more obvious fruit, but I thought it was good.

Mini loaves in my new Pyrex tin (purchased at Noz for just a few euros).

N.B. Start the day before you intend to bake, as the fruit mixture needs to soak for at least 4 hours and preferably overnight.

Full sized loaf.

Ingredients

350 g dried mixed fruit (make up your own mixture rather than use a commercial mix eg 100 g each of sultanas, currants or prunes and apricots and 50 g of cranberries or preserved citrus peel. Chop the larger fruit.)
300 ml hot, strong black tea
400 g Gluten-free self-raising flour (make up your own mix from 125 g each of chestnut and buckwheat flour, 100 g of corn meal and 50 g of chick pea flour plus 2 tsp of baking powder.)
100 g ground almonds
200 g soft brown sugar
2 tbsp golden syrup or mild honey
100 g chopped mixed nuts (I used walnuts and almonds.)
Finely grated zest of an orange (optional)
2 tsp ground mixed spice
4 eggs
4 tbsp canola oil
300 ml milk
   
 Method

1.  Place the fruit in a bowl and pour the hot tea over. Cover the bowl and leave overnight for the fruit to absorb some of the tea. You can add a dash of Cointreau if you like.
2. Coat your tins with home made cake release (recipe here on Baking in Franglais).  
3. Heat the oven to 160C.
4. Mix the flours in a large bowl and stir in ground almonds, sugar, nuts, orange zest and mixed spice.
5. Add the syrup, eggs and oil to the fruit mixture and tip this into the dry ingredients. Stir well adding enough milk to make a batter consistency.
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tins and put them on a shelf in the centre of the oven.
7. Bake the cake for about 1 hour or until it has risen and feels firm to the touch in the centre. Depending on the size they will need between 45 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes.
8. Remove the cakes from the oven as they are ready and leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Turn them out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
9. Serve slices with custard as a dessert, or spread with butter or cream cheese if serving for afternoon tea.
10. The cake will freeze well.

Pierced oval Wedgwood platter courtesy of BRB.

Photograph courtesy of BRB.

The gilt decorated lidded jug courtesy of BRB, who inherited it from his granny.

Photograph courtesy of BRB.

Yum

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Signs of the Times

Spring is moving into another phase. Now we have these.

Snakeshead Fritillary Fritillaria meleagris (Fr. Fritillaire damier).

Male Violet Oil Beetle Meloe violaceus.

Cowslip Primula veris (Fr. Coucou).

Grey Willow aka Pussy Willow or Common Sallow Salix cinerea (Fr. Saule cendré).

Garden Grape Hyacinth Muscari armeniacum (Fr. Muscari).

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Lockdown

On Saturday night the Prime Minister of France ordered the closure of all "non-essential" commerce beginning at midnight on Saturday. He said that groceries, pharmacies, tobacconists and petrol stations can remain open. “I have decided to close all non-essential locations, notably cafés, restaurants, cinemas, nightclubs and shops,” he said. “We must absolutely limit our movements.”

This means that all museums, art galleries and chateaux have closed until further notice. This has had an immediate effect on our business as Susan was supposed to be doing three days of walking tours of chateaux, starting yesterday. We have also had three other multi-day tours cancelled.

It's spring!

Luckily there is no ban on going out of the house, so yesterday we went on a little walk in the countryside. It was a lovely warm spring day, and our friends Alison and Bob joined us. We were, of course, sensible - no bises, no handshakes, and we maintained a healthy 1.5 metre personal space gap between us. The above photos were taken on the walk.

It would be ironic if the lockdown meant that we went walking in the country more often.

Desert Rock

When we visited the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra in December 2017 I noticed that they had a piece of the meteorite that fell at a site in the Northern Territory called Henbury. I've been to the Henbury meteor craters so I took a photo of the rock. Now I can put them together on the blog.

The Henbury Craters, 145 kilometres south of Alice Springs, were formed by a meteorite impact about four to five thousand years ago. Several tonnes of iron-nickel fragments have been fossicked from the site. The largest of the dozen or so craters is 180 metres across. The first person to study them was Arthur Alderman, a geology lecturer at Adelaide University. You can read his 1931 report here.

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.

***********************************

COVID19 News: Last night we got the news that France was going to almost entirely shut down in order to try to get COVID19 under control. All non-essential shops must close until further notice, all historic monuments, only supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open. I was due to meet Mexican clients at Azay le Rideau for three days of chateaux visits. I spent yesterday evening in frantic correspondence with their booking agent but it is clear that it would not be practical nor appropriate to offer any kind of tour. The tour had to be cancelled and I will have to live with the loss of income. A tour in June was cancelled yesterday morning and the previous day two other tours for March. We don't know when our next pay cheque will be.

Swimming Across the Bay

One of the things I liked about both Saint Jean de Luz and San Sebastian when we went there for a mini break in September last year was that people use the beaches and the water for all sorts of activities. They don't just park themselves on the beach and roast themselves, with occasional dips to bob up and down to cool off in the shallows.

We saw sailing, paragliding, stand up paddle boarding, jet skiing and some proper swimming. A surprising number of people were swimming from one side of the bay to the other. Some, like the one in the photos, were kitted out in wetsuits and attached to tow floats. These are designed to make you more visible in the water, and will hold a drink and some light clothing, which gives you more options about how you plan your swim to fit in with other activities. I quite fancy doing that sometime. 

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Home Made Hand Sanitizer

Yesterday when I went to the pharmacy, Claire the pharmacist was just labelling up her new display of hand sanitizer. And it was just what I had come in to buy. I had a good sized container of hand sanitizer with a pump dispenser in the bathroom, and a mini squeezy bottle for my hand bag, but Simon had requested a small bottle of the stuff for his backpack.

Emergency hand sanitizer supplies, made in-house by the pharmacist.

Commercial supplies of hand sanitizer having run out, Claire had made the product on the shelf herself, using the official World Health Organisation recipe so the labels were hand written. She reckoned the quantity she made would last a morning. She wasn't confident that she would be able to get more pharmaceutical alcohol immediately, so stocks won't last. She has also run out of little bottles, so if you need a refill, bring your own bottle.

She had spent part of yesterday participating in an hour and a half webinair led by a virologist and another senior health professional so she was keen to pass on her top tips. My friend Michel arrived at that point so we had a discussion about all the things we needed to wipe with disinfectant around the house, as well as all the handwashing required. Claire advised bleach for wiping door handles, car steering wheels and stair rails. 

Despite being in the least affected 'county' (département) in the country, with only five cases so far, most people are taking the COVID19 outbreak seriously. Kissing and handshaking on meeting has more or less stopped and people are joking about doing elbow or ankle bumps. You still can't get away with just generally waving at a group and saying 'bonjour!' You need to wave at each individual and greet them individually.

If you want to make your own hand sanitizer, I suggest two parts 70% alcohol, one part aloe vera gel or glycerin. Should you need to know, hand sanitizer is 'gel hydro-alcoolique' in French.

Once all this is over and you still have litres of hand sanitizer, this link gives you a way of using it up that is much more fun.

Also yesterday we had our first unequivocally COVID19 related cancellation -- an American couple due to tour with us for three days from 24 March. Whilst we regret the loss of income, we are more sanguine about not meeting people who've spent time in airports and on public transport recently. Simon is in the 'at risk' group and we need to be careful.

Update: Simon says to tell you not to spill this hand sanitizer on anything that has been dyed. We now have a ring mark on one of our leather armchairs.

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Walking from Barrou

On 20 February the Thursday walking club outing departed from Barrou. This was a bit challenging for me, as the last time we did this it was a very hot day and I nearly expired on the uphill bits with my heart going crazy. Fortunately, with my new diagnosis and treatment my heart coped (although it wasn't entirely happy). My knee coped too -- just, as it wasn't happy on the inevitable downhill sections. Luckily the temperature was in the mid-teens, so much more comfortable for walking. I survived, although I was last back to the cars. Here are some photos from the afternoon.

Wild Daffodil Narcissus pseudonarcissus subsp pseudonarcissus (Fr. Narcisse jaune).

This is the wild ancestor of many garden daffodil varieties.

Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris (Fr. Pin silvestre).

Lots of pine trees had come down in this section of the forest in the high winds we've had over the past few weeks.

Jane picks her way through the waterlogged ground.

The little mark in the middle of the photo isn't a bird, it's a bat, hunting in the daylight.

A sign warning that there are surveillance cameras in this privately owned forest parcel.

More and more forest owners are using trail cams to monitor trespassing activity.

A view of the Creuse Valley, looking towards Barrou, with the wind turbines at Pleumartin in the distance.

A perfectly charming view, which the wind turbines are not disturbing.

Chateau des Courtils.

In old French a 'courtil' is an enclosed garden close to a manor or a farm, so it is possible that in the Middle Ages this property was famous for its gardens. In around 1442 it was a fortified house owned by a vassal of the Baron of Preuilly, and some of the towers and ditches from that period survive. By the 16th century it had lost its defensive aspect, becoming a staging post for the many hunts that ranged across the Creuse Valley. In this period and the 17th century it was a vast aristocratic house, teaming with a constant stream of guests. Although vast it was modestly decorated and well integrated into the landscape. Two ranges of accommodation set at right angles, with ground floor, first floor with large windows and wooden shutters, topped by spacious attics lit by dormers. Between the accommodation wings a third element with a second floor to raise it higher.

In the mid-20th century most of this was rased and a modern building erected. The old buildings had never been listed as Historic Monuments, so they did not benefit from any protection, and had become very run down.

 Corrugated iron shed.

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

The Chaumussay Book Club

The Chaumussay book club is not a group of women who each read the same book and meet once a month to discuss it. Instead it is really a community library set up and run by local residents where you can go to borrow books (in French and in English) and hang out with friends while working on a jigsaw.

The book club was started by Maude some years ago. There are now hundreds of books available and they are stored in the former primary school, behind the church in this very small village. The books are organised according to language, author and theme. There are both fiction and non-fiction. All the books are donated, and anyone can turn up, borrow a book and stay for a chat or a cup of coffee. It is all completely informal, with no strict rules or regulations. Books must be signed out so they can keep track of them, and that's about it. Otherwise it is about friendship, companionship, sociability and sharing.

Maude (left foreground), Jane (fourth from left, in plaid shirt), and Marc (on right).

Maude's right hand woman, managing the English language section, is American born Jane. She's not the only American who attends either. Recently I met Laura, who tells me she started going just to borrow books, and started staying to sit with those doing jigsaw puzzles, chatting and playing games.

I ran into Jane ages ago at the blood test clinic and she encouraged me to come and see what they do, but it wasn't until Laura reminded me about the group that I did anything about it. I wanted to get myself into the habit of reading for an hour a day in French to improve my language skills in preparation for applying for French nationality and thought this would be a great way of finding some good books. Instead of just randomly choosing something from the public library shelves, at Chaumussay I can talk to others and find out what they recommend and liked.

The first book I'm tackling, based on Jane's suggestion, is Les Noëls Blanc by Christian Signol. It's the first part of a family saga, based in the Corrèze and chronicling the lives of the Barthélémy family from 1900 to 2000. It is exactly the right level of French for me so I'm happy to be getting on well with it. I just have to be disciplined enough to put the time aside to read each day. It's still a bit of a chore, not the completely relaxed and natural process that it would be in English.

The book club is open every Saturday afternoon so check it out if you would like to borrow a book or help with a challenging jigsaw. Just turn up -- you will be made welcome. 

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos. 

Walking for Crepes

Every February the walking club we belong to holds a public subscription walk that finishes by everyone scoffing homemade crêpes and cider. Us club members are asked to make 45 crêpes as our contribution. Here are some photos from this year's event.

We set up the salle des fêtes (village hall) in readiness for all those crêpe eaters.

 Walkers (including me) wait for the off.

We soon end up strung out alongside the old railway line.

This old bread oven is probably mostly used now to cook pizzas in the summer.

Old willows along a stream.

Donkeys in a field.

Barren Strawberry Potentilla sterilis (Fr. Potentille faux fraisier).

These will never produce red fruit like Wild Strawberries do. You can easily tell the plants apart because the central tooth at the tip of the leaf is shorter than the teeth either side. Whereas on a real Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca (Fr. Fraisier des bois) that central tooth is longer.

A beautifully laid out garden in a rural setting.

Long-leaved Lungwort Pulmonaria longifolia (Fr. Pulmonaire à feuilles longues).

This intensely purple-blue early spring flowering wild flower is called lungwort because in the ancient Doctrine of Signatures plants were believed to have properties to treat body parts that they resembled. The leaves of Pulmonaria are said to resemble lungs, hence the name.

Artichoke plants in a vegetable garden.

Each walker was given a plate of five crêpes. Quite a few opted for a doggy bag.

A hall full of walkers enjoying our crêpes and cider.

We catered for about 180 walkers.

************************************************

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

We are also on Instagram, so check us out to see a regularly updated selection of our very best photos.