Rural Life

Summer Storms

Last weekend for the Comice (story to follow), the weather was hot, really hot - like 32 degrees in the shade.  That sort of hot spell ends with a bang, and sure enough on Monday 22nd there were storms rumbling around.  We were on the edge of three during the day, but could see the major clouds tracking to the north west of us.  Angers got a hammering (40mm in two hours), as did La Fleche, and up near the Belgian borders, things were very unpleasant we heard.

Since then, the weather has been gently cooling down a bit, but that doesn't stop Atlantic depressions sending in more storms and we got hit last night.  It started to rumble around at about midnight, and eventually cleared off at about 3am, but not after freaking out the normally quite mellow cats, and completely trashing our garden abri.  We heard the thunder and rain and some distant knocking so John got up at about 1:30am to see if he could see the problem, and said he could see through the roof of the abri.  The following pictures show what was left of it this morning.

 

 

Dramatic stuff, wouldn't you say?  I would also add: what numpty thought that plastic sacking that wasn't up to being exposed to direct sunlight would be suitable for a summer shelter?  The stuff disintegrated, and disintegrated further when I was picking it up off the lawn to tidy up this morning - if anything was ever not fit for purpose, this was it!!  Next year I think we will have to invest finally in a decent summer shelter, after all, it is up for about 5 months of the year.

La pluie au Vieil Bauge - or a bit of a wash out!

Currently Maine et Loire is facing severe water restrictions due to the drought - since March we have had perhaps an inch of rain in total, which is not enough to get grass, grains and maize growing well, while the market gardens near La Loire are having a difficult and expensive time of it.  Bauge itself had magnificent weather for their Millenium celebrations on the 13th and 14th July, so why did the much needed rain have to fall on Saturday when Vieil Bauge had its own village fun day?

There were a good number of hardy folk at the petanque competition that started at 1:30pm, so that although the semi finals and final were played out under torrential rain, the participants were too involved (and too well lubricated) to care all that much.  The dog obedience and agility show, that was the novelty this year, ran in front of a hardy few who got soaked while appreciating that all the dogs would have been eliminated in proper competition as they went the wrong way round jumps or generally misbehaved - it was a wonderful demonstration.

Many had pre-booked their dinners so from about 6pm people started to converge on the party site.

 

Until we re-arranged the catering tent, they were not prepared to approach for their drinks however, but once that was sorted, they came.

 
I can be a bit acerbic about the Cadets de Baugois, but this jolly band made the best of things by cramming themselves into the trailer we had hired for the dance band (who had relocated to the Community Centre), and instead of marching and playing, just played.  They did jolly well and were more in tune than usual.  Of course the challenge was to find a place for the conductor.

 

This didn't work entirely well, so he tried another option, where he could use both hands.

 
He did end up in the trailer with the band in the end, but UK Health and Safety would probably have been horrified.  People took it all in good part, and some thought about dancing.

 
But in the end, as the fireworks were cancelled, people either drifted off home or went to the Community Centre to dance, while we got to eat our dinners and then dismantled some of the shelters and put away the vulnerable or valuable goods.

 
It was a shame the party was rained on, but at least we were able to ensure that a large part of the day's festivities carried on.  Durtal's River Festival had to be cancelled completely, and the decorated boats will not be seen at all this year, which must be very frustrating for the many volunteers who put in hours of work creating them.

 

The Pilgrim's Return

I was working away this morning on a number of tenders when I got a call from John to join him in town as quickly as I could.  "Bernard is due back at any time now and a bunch of us are waiting to greet him!"  So I dashed off as quickly as is possible here, parked up and found John waiting with a number of others, including Annick, Bernard's better half, and the local press photographer.  A little while later and a murmur went up - "He's on the way, nearly here".  Why all this excitement?  We haven't seen Bernard for a couple of months now as he has been doing the Pilgrim Trail all the way to St Jacques de Campostelle.  He finally got there last weekend.

I'm not totally clear on all Bernard's reasons for doing the pilgrimage, but part of it was that he wanted to find himself and that he wanted to prove he could do something like that to himself and his family.  He did a bit of training, including with the Sunday morning group, and got the right kit, as he would have to carry EVERYTHING with him.  It took him 61 days and I lost count of the number of kilometers but certainly near or over 1,500.

Annick gave us updates from the route - he had got to Dax, he had grown a beard, he was into Spain, he had slept in Police cells as a pilgrim can demand lodgings from the community and they are obliged to provide, he had slept in the board room of a fire station too on that basis.  On Sunday, we were told he had made it, although after weeks on the trail he found being among some 200,000 other pilgrims a bit difficult.  But now, she said, it is time for him to come home.

To a round of applause and some cheering, Bernard made the last few yards to his favourite cafe in the town, was photographed for the paper and then settled in for a drink or two with his friends.  Sadly we couldn't stay to celebrate with him - work called.  But we were delighted to have been part of the Pilgrim's Return, so very proud of him, and perhaps just a little jealous too.

 

 

 

The janvier blues don't exist

In the UK they can't seem to decide if Monday 17th or Monday 24th January is the most depressing day of the year this year.  The January blues seem to have hit harder this year than previously - I guess a combination of 'flu, roads full of pot holes, VAT rises, austerity measures, redundancy notices and stories about murder on the BBC website is enough to dint the happiest of spirits.

Here in rural France, January is a particularly convivial time.  People send New Year cards and those arrive all through January.  Most clubs and societies have their AGMs at this time of year - a new committee for a new calendar year seems to be the philosophy.  These meetings always end with a glass of something or two (usually alcoholic) and a sharing of a galette des rois or Kings cake (again generally more than one). 

The tradition of the galette is a long one, and round here they are either made of brioche - a lovely light sponge, and frosted with sugar flakes - or what they call frangipane - a layer of puff pastry, almond paste piped thickly into the middle and then another layer of puff pastry and baked to a rich golden colour.  Both styles of galette have in common that each will contain a feve or bean - originally it was a real bean, nowadays it is a small porcelain figurine (highly collectable), and in rare cases a small gold coin.  Whoever gets the slice of galette with the feve is king for the day and also gets a gold card crown.  Such ceremonies go on all through January, we normally get three or four rounds, and who can be glum with that?

It is also a time for group dinners - the Comite des Fetes had theirs in December, but the one for Huguette's walking group was on the 14th January, and last night, the biggest knees-up of the year took place - the dinner dance for the volunteers who worked at the Comice (see previous posts).  As the big centre in Bauge is being renovated, they hired five coaches to transport over 300 of us to away south of Saumur, where in a local centre, the Comice band had set up and one of our local caterers had been hard at work.  Apertifs, a four course dinner, lots of wine and methode traditionnelle (Saumur fizz which is as good if not better than champagne), dancing - what a night!  We caught the early coach home (1:30am) with the pensioners and those who were working or hunting this morning (Sunday), but the hardened party animals stayed on until gone 4am, alternately waltzing and bopping the night away.

With February, we are into the pancake season, so we won't be glum then either, and with March the hard work of the peasant starts again - there is no time for being down in rural France.  To close, a couple of photos of last night's party.

 

 

Restaurant review and the Chateau at Angers

Something of a two in one today, and not the promised review of the gastronomic restaurant in Bauge either.  Due to some monumentally bad planning on my part, we ended up needing to be in Angers on Monday, but I did get taken out to lunch.

We went to the Brasserie de la Gare, which is just opposite Angers Station and only does food (no attempts to just get a coffee or a beer there have ever worked).  As we were in the big city, it wasn't exactly a workers' lunch, although the place was full of office workers by 1pm.  The basic menu was 14,80 Euros a head, excluding wine and coffee (city prices) and only three courses.  You could have a Greek salad or the starter of the day - that was marinated sardines and was nice where the sardines had been descaled - one of mine hadn't and it was like eating cellophane.  For main you could have a filet of fish with beurre blanc, but we went for the dish of the day - steak with ravioli and a roast tomato.  That was an excellent dish - the steak was good and tender and full of flavour (not always the case over here, as they don't hang their beef long enough), and went very well with the dollop of creme fraiche and the spinach and ricotta ravioli.  For pudding John had creme caramel (lots of caramel but the creme was a bit dry) while I had mousse au chocolat (and a veritable chocolate hit).  The Anjou Gamay was very nice (no pichets of wine at this restaurant) and the coffee was stronger than I have experienced in years.  Not at all bad overall, and cheaper than some options further away from the station.

John then went off to do the job we were in Angers for him to do, while I took myself off to the Chateau, which I haven't been round for about 7 years.  The entrance was good value at 6 Euros, due in part I think to the fact that there is a lot of work going on to restore the Logis du Roi following the awful fire of January 2009.  The main thing to see in the Chateau is the wonderful Tapestry of the Apocalypse - nothing like the Bayeux tapestry,this is vast and colourful and woven tapestry rather than applique, and is full of vibrant reds and blues (the greens are sadly gone the way of all flesh).  If you are a Biblical scholar and know Revelations, then the images would be familiar - the seven churches (of Sardis?), the four horsemen (only two of whom survive in the tapestry), the beast of the land and the beast of the sea, the fall of Babylon and the building of the new Jerusalem.  I am not such a scholar, but I spent a very happy and peaceful half hour in the great gallery admiring the scale and beauty of the work.

I also did the rampart walk and took a few pictures, as it was a rather nice afternoon.  I started at the high tower at the Cathedral end and you can see where I had to go next.

 

To the left is the dry moat where King Rene and his successors kept animals, to the right is the castle courtyard and buildings, shown better in the next picture.

 

You can see there is a nice low level parterre for the ladies to promenade in or for soldiers to practice in, and there is a vinyard just next to the rampart at high level and also vegetable gardens just in front of us, but not looking very pretty.  To the right is the bulk of the chapel and at the other side of the courtyard are some buildings built onto the rampart walls which now house administration and a restaurant.

 
There remains a formal garden at high level which is intended for the herbs and plants that would have been used for cosmetics for the ladies of the court and medicines for dealing with all of the chateau residents.  At this time of year there is little there apart from the box hedges, a few perenials including cotton lavendar and cardoons, and some chard.

Finally, wandering around Angers I found a place to photograph one of the main galleries which houses sculptures, but has wonderful natural light.  Sadly, as it was a Monday, I could not go in to see how well the roof really works, but it looks good from the outside and is an imaginative way of keeping old buildings going for modern needs.

 
Now the tram works are nearly over, Angers is once again a nice city to spend an afternoon wandering around.

 

Ploughing matches at the Comice

On the Saturday of the Comice there are trials for the departmental ploughing championships and it is all very serious and the tractors and ploughs are HUGE.  Frankly I don't understand that side of it.  On the Sunday of the Comice it is a less serious side to ploughing, with competitions for horse and donkey drawn ploughs, rotavators, and the ancient tractors.  Here you can see Boce and St Martin d'Arce head to head - all made more difficult by having to be done in fancy dress.

 

These older tractors and ploughs mean that it is often not a one person job - and this plough looks way too complicated to me!

 

While there are the odd Massey Fergueson tractors - the beloved Fergies of the Archers and similar - the ancient tractor of preference round here is the McCormack International Farmall.  We spotted two sizes - the full grown version:

 

and the rather more skeletal Cub version:

 

which I think is rather cute.  If only we had a nice big barn to keep one in and a few thousand Euros to buy one - these babies don't come cheap!!

The Sabotier at the Vieil Bauge Comice

In the same way that you find craft stands at agricultural fairs in the UK, you find a number at the Comice.  Sadly, as with UK fairs, there are only a limited number that demonstrate their craft, as most are more intent on selling.  However the great great grandson of the village sabotier from the 1870s set up a wonderful stall at the Comice.

His complex display included a step by step set of objects from tree trunk to finished sabot.

John got into a long discussion with him - apparently oak and chestnut are no use for making sabots as they tend to split as they dry, but the birch logs here are ideal as are poplar so that the finished product is not too heavy.  This is important as a sabot is a wooden clog - in days gone by the essential and durable footwear of choice of the agricultural community.  A couple of years ago we needed to borrow a few pairs for our "Windmill in Old Amsterdam" act, and most of the village ancients had at least one pair to offer to the team.  I was lucky in that I was able to borrow a fabulous pair made by the sabotier for his father, and they fitted well.  Others had to do the traditional thing and stuff loads of straw in theirs to keep them on their feet - apparently that keeps your feet nice and warm in winter too!

Here is the full stand in all its glory, with the sabotier explaining his craft to interested parties.

He is also a talented carpenter as his day job and the son of our next door neighbour.  Note he is wearing sabots to be truly authentic!

 
 

Animals at the Vieil Bauge Comice

As well as a motley collection of horses that drew some floats for the procession on Sunday at the Comice, farm animals do play a part in the Comice diary.  On the Saturday morning there is the formal judging of the animals, and you can see them altogether.  At lunch time, the winners are moved to shaded pens in the main field and the others go home for a nice rest and feed.  I took these photos while they were still all lined up, so for the concerned out there - it was hot but not too bad and they were due to be moved just as soon as their owners got away from the beer tent.

The main livestock round us are dairy cows, although there are some beef herds knocking around.  This photo shows the winning Friesian, Jersey (generally very rare round here) and Holstein cows before they went to the display pens.  All are good milkers.

 

This Percheron mare was very proud of her foal - he was a bit big and heavy of foot but motherly love doesn't see that!  As in the UK, there is increasing interest in heavy horses as more sustainable methods of transport, and the heavy horse sections of shows are increasing in popularity.

There were a couple of very nice donkeys this year - normally there are more. 

No rural show would be complete without the most dangerous of farm livestock - the small, cute pony.  I reckon if I had got too close to this little monster he would have had my leg!  John regards these as competition but would like to remind people (particularly second home owners) that he doesn't need to see a blacksmith every 6 to 8 weeks, nor does he need extra hay and oats in the winter, regular grooming (he can do his own, thanks), and he can be left unsupervised for weeks at a time, which you can't do with livestock!

 
  

Feeding people at the Comice in Vieil Bauge

Another insight into the Comice 2010 I'm afraid, but it has dominated our lives rather over the past few weeks at least.

I mentioned that there was a huge marquee for eating and dancing in as part of my last post.  To follow on from that, here are some scenes from Saturday evening, before we really got going.  There was no chance of taking photos on Sunday night - we were way too busy with over 2,000 meals to serve and clear up after.

Before the main service, the volunteers got to eat their meal (four courses with wine, naturally) and meet their colleagues for the evening and get their orders.  Here is Reynald Mesange passing on wisdom to some of the team.

Meals were served as the happy punters came down one of two lines (there were three lines on the Sunday), with John helping to keep the lines supplied with all they needed and me chopping bread in the background.  Here are the lines at a quiet moment.

The diners then turned right as we look at the image and went into the big marquee to eat - on Sunday night we had ushers moving people to empty and clean tables, but on Saturday night we could let them go as they wished.

I should say that this only shows one side of the marquee - to the right there is the dance floor and then further to the right there are more huge columns of tables and benches.

This shows the band set up - it was a six piece band who did the full range from musette and guinguette to the latest dance music from the charts, and in a variety of languages as well.

 

Soon there will be more, including the inter-village games and nice pictures of farm animals and tractors.  I will also do a full blog on the decorated floats, but that will take a lot of photo editing and I am due back at work next week for a day or two as well!

 
 
 
 

A Comice Agricole is big

and the one at Vieil Bauge last weekend was one of the biggest around.  We are still recovering from it all and trying to work through the photos, but to give you an idea that this wasn't just some little village fete type thingie, I show two photos below of the Comice site from the portion of field below where the Sunday morning ploughing competitions were taking place.  The photos almost meet up and beyond the edge of the one showing the right hand side of the space, there was a 17 hectare car park, while beyond the main show ground and the road was the site of the Saturday ploughing matches and livestock show.

So here is the left hand side of the site, not including the small fun fair further still to the left.  The giant marquee to the far left could seat 1,200 diners at a time, and leave space for a dance floor.

And this is to the right, and remember there is a slight gap between the two and then ever more stands with agricultural vehicles and then the car park further to the right as well.

Big, innit?