Local Hero

Those of you who drop in on our blog from time to time may have noticed that we have a penchant for 'Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry' and that we've been posting one of the illuminations each month since January. The Duc du Berry died in 1416; his duchy was just to the south/south east of Touraine; the area is still known as the Berry.  

The brothers Limburg (Dutch, but working in France & Burgundy in the very late 14th/very early 15th century) created his book of hours, arguably the best example of late medieval illuminations--handpainted illustrations and embellished capitol letters in books written on vellum. Printing didn't exist as yet so only the very rich could have a book with so much artwork created to order. 

There's a local Touraine lad who was also highly skilled at this artform--Jehan Fouquet. Born in Tours, he lived a little later circa 1420 to 1480 and, in addition to being a brilliant illuminator, was also a talented painter in general; painting portraits and altar pieces.

Pieta, Nouans les Fontaines

This (large) altar piece is in the church of Nouans les Fontaines, about 1/2 hrs drive to the north east of us, not far from Montrésor. Painted on wood panels, it is quite moving when you see it for real as Mary, the mother of Christ is portrayed with eyes reddened by weeping. This realism is what makes Fouquet special. He was painting at the point of transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance. He'd travelled to Italy and been influenced by all that was happening there. Nouans les Fontaines also has a small museum dedicated to Fouquet you can visit it by putting €0.50 in the turnstile (exact change only.

The Visitation

Fouquet was commissioned to create a book of hours for a rich patron Étienne Chevalier. In case anyone was ever in any doubt that it belonged to Chevalier he had his name plastered everywhere. Personalising your possessions is not new. You can clearly see it on the cornice above the figures in the illumination on the right here. Created around 1460 the 'Livre d'Heures d'Étienne Chevalier' is special not only because the illuminations are of very high quality but also because Fouquet did something novel. He dispensed with the traditional bordering of any illumination with foliage and flowers. This gave him a larger space to work with and so the illuminations become more 'mini' pictures. They are still very delicate and small--16.5 cm by 12 cm--just think how fine the brushwork had to be to make sure the details are as clear as they are. Not to mention the cost of the paints and real gold which was used. 

Adoration of the Magi

Fouquet also wasn't above a bit of political statement making either. In this illumination of the Adoration of the Magi the 1st king offering gold is Charles VII (he's kneeling on a blue cloth with fleurs de lys--a good clue, but looks like him as well). There's an additional star to the one top right shining on the Christ child; the 2nd star shines right on Charles VII. Finally in the background are 3 French heralds blowing trumpets celebrating the success of the french soldiers attacking--surprise, surprise-- the English!

Most of the illuminations which survive can be seen in the Museé de Condé in Chantilly, north of Paris. Same place as the famous race-course.

Forgot to mention: Excellent online exhibition by the Bibliotheque National de France of Fouquet's work. French version is more extensive but there is an English version available.

Vignes et vin

It's March and this month 'Les Tres Riches Heures de Duc du Berry' shows the peasants working hard in the vinyards cutting the canes back and getting underway with the spring ploughing. In the background, hovering over one of the castle towers, is a cute little golden dragon. It is details like this which make the miniatures so fantastic. 

March

Over the weekend we noticed that our wine rack was looking a little empty and quite sad, so today we decided to replenish. Although we buy in the supermarket and direct from other producers we buy most of our 'everyday' wine at the co-op in Francueil. 

We first came across it on holiday in the early 1990's. Then, most of the wine, if not all--we really can't remember--was sold  'en vrac' [you bring your own containers of 5 or 10 litres and fill up like at the gas station]. Certainly that's the way we bought it then. Towards the end of our holiday we'd buy some specifically to take back to The Hague where we were living at the time. This meant decanting it into bottles [cleaned empties provided by the gite owner, Margaret], sealing the bottles with plastic corks you could buy in the supermarket and writing out sticky labels.  

One of each

When we were based in Loches during our house hunting last year, we decided to revisit the co-op and buy some wine to take back to the UK. The local signposts, if you come via the small road from Luzillé to the south still say 'cave cooperative' but they now market themselves under the name 'La Gourmandiere'. Most of the wine is now sold in bottles, although they still do it 'en vrac' as well. They also sell great bernache - more about this in the Autumn. 

Now that we live here we drive up once every couple of months a buy 2 or 3 1/2 cases. Sometimes we combine it with a visit to Vouvray. Today we just went to Francueil and bought 1/2 case each of rosé, sauvignon and cot.

Today we spotted a new leaflet on the counter as they sorted our order. Starting this month they will be holding a market the 1st Thursday of each month March to September. We'll certainly visit come April or May.

Luck and an experiment

 N/NW towards St Flovier

Last day of February; we have some sun and it's pretty cold. There's quite a nasty N wind coming over Eric's field. When I had a wander round earlier it made my eyes water. I took a couple of photos simply because the sun was out and it wasn't grey any more!

looking SE/S towards Limeray

As always, taking decent wildlife photos presents a real challenge and it's one both of us fail to meet most of the time! It requires endless patience and a real dose of luck--being in the right place at the right time with your camera. We have been lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time but mostly sans camera. Photos of flowers and plants is fine; buildings even better. Photos of deer which arrive in poor light and are at least 50 - 75m away = much much less fine. Last time we mentioned chevreuil we used a stock photo so we thought it was about time we offered some proof! 

chevreuil v early one morning

We've been seeing them quite regularly. There's always 3, two hinds and a juvenile buck. They nibble our grass as they amble past. One of the 3 stopped long enough early one morning late last week for Niall to go and find the camera and grab a fast photo. Apologies for the poor quality--we've tidied it up as best we could.

Our feeder remains constantly busy; the blue tits squabble with the single willow tit. The great tits muscle out the blue tits until they come back mob-handed.  On a little rise we've strewn seed and this is the domain of the chaff and green finches. We've had a visit from a solitary gold finch but he didn't want his photo taken alas.

great tits, blue tits and 1 greenfinch

However, there is one greenfinch who likes coming to the feeder and despite the fact that he's a bit hopeless at hanging on he persists. So in order to to try and get a photo of him I untertook at bit of an experiment. I have a very nice pair of Minolta Activa 10 x 25 binoculars. So holding the binoculars in one hand and the camera in the other I brought the camera right up to one of the lenses and pointed both at the feeder. It took a fair bit of patience and a bit of trial and error. The end result may not be brilliant but it did work after a fashion... You can see the greenfinch on the right waiting to get onto the feeder. 

Priory & pigeonnier

From our house the most direct, but not the fastest, route to Tours is the D50 via Le Petit Pressigny, Ligueil, Menthelan and Veigné. If you take this route you pass through Le Louroux.

The village has a wonderful lake and a priory. We used this route recently and as we weren't in a hurry we re-visited the priory--we'd seen it many years ago. The lake was, once upon a time, the priory's stewpond:- making sure the monks had a plentiful supply of fish to eat all year round.  

Le Louroux: pigeonnier, calvaire and priory

Although it is an historic monument you can just wander in. It is in the process of being restored with the support of EU funding. There wasn't a soul about. 

15th cent: lodging on left, monk's dortoir/grange on right

Le Louroux is among the 101 priories founded in the 11th century which were dependent on the Abbey of Marmoutier; 10 of which were located in England. Priories like Le Louroux answered to an Abbey. Marmoutier iself dates from the time of St Martin [4th century] and is probably the most famous abbey in Touraine. In the early 13th century one of the Abbots of Marmoutier re-organised the lands of Le Louroux so that it became a model of agricultural exploitation.

medieval bus shelter & phone box

 The original gatehouse to the priory had rounded towers on each side. The one on the right is now what must be the most historic bus shelter and public telephone box in the departement! The beams inside are lovely.


The monk's dortoir was part of a huge 15th century grange which divides the courtyard in two. They have restored the dormers and some of the other windows sport renovated stonework. It has also been beautifully re-roofed. We were able to take a peek through one of the restored windows on the lower level  [not glazed or shuttered] to see the supports which have been put in to hold up the lathe and plaster dortoir floor. In the photo you can just see the metal beam underneath the original wooden cross beam both of which are now re-enforced by the new A shaped support.

dortoir floor supports

The priory church is a bit of a mix. We couldn't get in but from the outside it's clear the nave and bell tower are 12th - 13th century. The bell tower has some very nice romanesque arches.

pigeonnier

Just outside the walls of the priory precinct is a large pigeonnier which, like the stewpond would help make sure the monks had enough to eat. It certainly looks big enough to have housed over 500 birds. We've written about pigeonniers before. Size gave an indication of the wealth of an estate.

Calvaire, detail

In the cemetary opposite there's a 15th century calvaire. A calvaire is different from a croix [cross] in that it includes more figures than just the crucified Christ. The calvaire at Louroux has Mary on the left and St John on the right. There's also a figure on the reverse, but it is too worn for us to make out who it might be. A few years ago we visited Britanny and the ones we saw there were amazing; very elaborate with many figures.

Waiting on sunshine

The weather has been grey, by turns misty and rainy. Definitely not the kind of weather that makes you think of doing outdoor things. Although it is not cold; 13C today. Hopefully we'll get some drier weather soon as our grass needs cutting but it is just too squelchy to run the tractor mower.

buds just waiting for some sun

Our poor neighbours, down for the half term week from Paris were telling us that often in previous years they have been able to sit outside --with a good fleece-- for lunch. Not this year. Their 3 yr old doesn't seem to mind too much--she's turned into a little mudlark.

small but beautiful

  As this is our 1st year here we have been doing regular rounds to see what's coming up plant wise and today we found lots of lovely little dog violets. This in addition to our drifts of snowdrops, numerous clumps of daffs and 3 weedy crocuses. We've also spotted tulips but whether they will bear flowers remains to be seen. We're just as likely to get foliage.

Now all we need is some sunshire.

almost ....