Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - La Dame de Chambrille

La Dame de Chambrille

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

 

La Dame de Chambrille

One of my favourite discoveries this year was a mysterious granite rock formation (a geological oddity in an area where limestone prevails), located along a footpath, in the woods, not far outside of La Mothe-Saint-Héray, Deux-Sèvres. Its towering presence is enhanced by the legend surrounding it, and the fact ‘she’ has been named, La Dame de Chambrille (the lady of Chambrille). 

The towering presence of La Dame de Chambrille

 

Once upon a time, many years ago, Berthe, the beautiful daughter of a local squire fell in love with her neighbour, Guy de Tremont. Unfortunately, the elderly Baron de Chambrille asked for Berthe’s hand in marriage, to which her father agreed, despite poor Berthe’s despair. Some time passed after her wedding, when, by chance Berthe and Guy crossed paths once again, and soon began meeting in secret every night, only parting at the first light of dawn. 

 

The Baron became suspicious and followed his wife, watching the lovers before stabbing them one morning in a fit of jealousy. Berthe was petrified and became the rock with a profile of a lady’s face that bears her name, the Dame de Chambrille. Guy dragged himself, despite bleeding heavily, towards his home, where he died, his blood becoming the little red pebbles still visible in the stream that runs through the valley, his tomb, a flat rock found at the water’s edge. 

 

The red pebbles of Guy de Tremont

Like many similar tales, it might be a sad one and a little grisly, but I do love the magic of a good fairytale, and you have to agree, that rock does have an uncanny likeness to a damsel in distress, staring down at the stream where her lover’s body lay.

 

La Fouace

La Mothe-Saint-Héray is also home to a local delicacy that we have sadly yet to taste, though it’s not through want of trying. The fouace is a round brioche bun, but it’s not just a boulangerie speciality, it too has an interesting story behind it. The name comes from the Roman word ‘foacius’ meaning to be cooked under the ashes, or in the hearth, and it is from this same word you get fougasse from Provence and the foisee from Burgundy, among just a few to be found all over France. The Mothais fouace is said to be the real fouace, as not only was it mentioned in one of the Gargantua books by François Rabalais in 1534 but even in the Middle Ages, pilgrims on the Compostela route to Santiago would detour to stock up on these local delicacies, thanks to the reputation and quality of the local flour. I am always rather excited by a story that links the Chemins de Saint Jacques with food (see here). 

 

Until the war there were twelve fouaciers in La Mothe-Saint-Héray, but more recently the patisserie Favreau was the only holder of the secret recipe, that tradition dictates is only passed down to those who take over the business. Sadly, the Favreau patisserie closed in 2021, and when no buyer could be found, the recipe and manufacture moved to a local Mothais farm. It is now sold in the local COOP, but only from Wednesdays to Sundays.

 

In the spring of 2022 when we set off on our loaded Bromptons to follow the Sèvre Niortais river from its source to the Atlantic, La Mothe-Saint-Héray was our morning coffee stop on day one. We arrived on a sunny, Monday morning during the April school holidays, to find all the boulangeries were closed, despite our need for fuel with our coffees (thankfully the bar was open). Let’s just say by the time we arrived in Saint-Maixent-l’Ecole at lunchtime, I was running on empty. Returning one summer afternoon this year, to explore a bit more, we were able to buy our favourite flans at one of the boulangeries, that we ate in La Dame de Chambrille’s woods, but the fouace once again eluded us. 

 

The Orangery at La Mothe Saint Héray

The Orangery in La Mothe-Saint-Héray is also worth a visit, and as it’s always good to have a reason to return, maybe next time we will be lucky enough to enjoy a stroll around the beautiful gardens and a taste of a fouace. 

Book review of Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

Joy Chandler has had enough!

All she wanted was a lovely family Christmas with perfect turkey and luxury crackers. Instead, daughter Sara announces she’s getting divorced...and where is the fizz? And son, John and perfect wife Vanessa announce they are leaving for New York… and are the vegetables organic? And not one of them has made her a cup of tea!

So Joy decides she’s going to leave them all to it and head to France to visit her younger sister Isobel - a break from it all is just what she needs!

Isabel’s potato farm in France might be rustic, but Joy is hoping to find a bit of the old her again. Do her family really only think she's their dogs body? Where has Joy’s joy gone?

Being with Isobel is loud and chaotic and being together brings out both sisters’ mischievous side! And being in France adds a welcome touch of ooh la la to Joy’s life again. Soon, she has a new job, a new man and maybe even, a second chance at living!

An uplifting and hilarious story about living life to the full and always, always having fun! Perfect for fans of Judy Leigh and Dee Macdonald.

Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

My review

I couldn’t help but feel for Joy as this book launches into a nightmare of a Christmas, which is anything but joyous and leaves her expectations of a fun, festive, family time in tatters. I was exhausted by it all and couldn’t wait for her to set foot in France in the hope she would find some peace from the chaos back at home. With the rest of her family about to embark on new beginnings, that was what I wanted Joy to find too. 

Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

Joy and her sister Isabel are totally different, but with sixty years of experience, they knew how to work well together. Joy soon found her place in the heart of Isabel’s chaotic kitchen and her pottering around in the brocante barn and bookshop was beneficial for them both, as was the challenge of finding out more about their new neighbour Luc.

Eugénie was one of my favourite characters, a Frenchwoman of a certain age and with her own unique way of living – from dressing, to voicing her opinions, to romance, I loved it when she appeared for her morning coffee ritual.

As this gentle, great fun read played out, watching a new Joy emerge, with a fresh way of thinking and feeling about herself and her family, put a huge smile on my face.

If you need an escape this Christmas, head to Brittany with Joy, you won’t regret it.

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Maddie Please

Author Bio  

Maddie Please is the #1 bestselling author of joyous tales of older women including The Old Ducks’ Club and Sisters Behaving Badly. She had a career as a dentist and now lives in rural Herefordshire where she enjoys box sets, red wine and Christmas.

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Here are my reviews of two of Maddie’s previous novels set in France:

Sisters Behaving Badly 

Old Friends Reunited 

Sisters Making Mischief by Maddie Please

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - Jean-François Cail

Moulins railway bridge Jean-François Cail 1858

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - Jean-François Cail

Today is Saint Clement’s day, patron saint of metalworkers and blacksmiths, so the perfect day to share the story of local industrialist, Jean-François Cail who was a legend of a different kind. 

Jean-François Cail, Chef-Boutonne

 

Who was Jean-François Cail?

 

If you have ever visited our local town of Chef-Boutonne in the south of the Deux-Sèvres department, you may have noticed the name Cail pop up here and there. The main square where the Saturday market is held is Place Cail, the lycée (secondary school) is named Jean-François Cail and busts of the very same man can be found on a roundabout, set high up on the wall of the Hôtel de Ville and outside the cultural centre housing the cinema and library. So, who was Jean-François Cail?

 

Born in a tiny house on an alleyway in Chef-Boutonne in 1804, Jean-François was the third of eight children in a family too poor for him to continue his education beyond the age of twelve. Even at this young age, he had vision and ambition, making a simple potato grater that he sold at the weekly market. In this rural community where many relied on farming to survive, bread was a staple food, that would have been in short supply if the wheat crop failed. Potatoes were typically dried and ground to make a flour substitute, so the ability to grate potatoes made this process much easier for the 19^th century housewives. Shunning the life of a farm labourer, Jean-François became an apprentice boiler maker, working with copper and iron to make and repair cauldrons, pots and stills. And so began a journey that took him from Chef-Boutonne to Nantes and eventually Paris, in 1824.

 

Model of the Crampton, Château de Javarzay

Working alongside chemist Charles Derosne in Paris, Jean-François Cail went on to achieve great things. Their knowledge complimented each other’s, and they revolutionised the sugar refining and distillation industries, with Cail taking over the company when Derosne retired. Always looking ahead for the next project, he purchased two rural domains growing sugar beet and farming cattle, where he developed agricultural methods to make farming less labour intensive, including using steam engines for threshing. Jean-François also became the first French manufacturer of the British designed Crampton steam locomotive and as well as constructing metal infrastructure for the railway network, his company designed and built the main building at the centre of the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. In a nod to his early years, during the siege of Paris in the early 1870’s he turned some of his factories into mills to produce flour to help feed the starving population.

Hôtel de Ville, Chef-Boutonne

Having left Chef-Boutonne with six francs in his pocket, he died with an estimated wealth of twenty-eight million gold francs, but never forgot his humble beginnings. He was one of the pioneers of social benefits, offering his Parisian workers housing and health care and he bought what is now the Hôtel de Ville in Chef-Boutonne, refurbishing it to use as an old people’s hospice and hospital for the war wounded.

 

Eiffel Tower - CAIL

He now lies in the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, and Gustave Eiffel honoured him by including him as one of the seventy-two scientists, engineers and mathematicians who have their names engraved above the arched feet of the Eiffel Tower. 

 

Most visitors to the museum at the Château de Javarzay, where there is an entire floor dedicated to Monsieur Cail, leave with a sense of disbelief that someone who had such an impact on the French industrial revolution, isn’t as well-known (even in France) as his compatriots like Eiffel or Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

 

Jean-François Cail museum, Château de Javarzay 

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history - la fée Mélusine

La fée Mélusine, the Donjon, Niort

Poitou-Charentes myths, legends and history

Thank you so much for the positive feedback on last week’s post about the mysterious cries through the fog, your comments put a smile on my face much like a ray of sunshine does on a cloudy day and inspired me to share more tales from the Poitou-Charentes. Before I launch into today’s post, I’d like to explain why I’m still using the old regional name of Poitou-Charentes, despite it ceasing to exist at the end of 2015.

 

France is made up of ninety-six (mainland) administrative departments, that are then grouped into thirteen regions. The old Poitou-Charentes region was made up of four departments, the Deux-Sèvres (where we live), the Vienne, the Charente and the Charente-Maritime. On 1^st January 2016 it was consumed by the new super-region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, home to twelve departments, in a geographical area that stretches from the Loire in the north to the Pyrenees in the south, making it the largest region in France. For the purposes of these tales of local myths, legends and history, it’s going to be Poitou-Charentes all the way, as most of our travels by bike fall into this area.

International Day of Tolerance 

Today is International Day of Tolerance. A day to embrace our differences and spread kindness, to create a world where everyone feels accepted and valued. Having this week commemorated the 106^th anniversary of the end of World War One, once known as the “war to end all wars”, yet with current world politics in turmoil, I can’t let this go by without a mention. 

 

We all need to be more accepting and tolerating of others, wherever in the world we live and whatever we believe in.

 

I am different, nerdy some might say, with a thirst for knowledge that often leaves my poor brain smouldering at the choice of information out there to absorb. My improved French language skills have enabled me to actively seek out interesting historical stories in the local papers or listen to podcasts in French, and I am no longer afraid to open a book written in French – if any of you have ever learned a new language you will know the difference between reading a short news article and stepping into an actual book.

 

My discoveries have sent me back in time across the centuries as well as indulging my love of a good myth, legend or fairytale. However, now there are more books available to me, full of fascinating stories, I’m going to need more time to immerse myself into them or fear a premature death as I’m crushed beneath my toppling ‘to be read’ pile.

La fée Mélusine, Lusignan

La Fée Mélusine

One of my favourite local legends is all about the fairy Mélusine, said to be one of the area’s most celebrated builders of châteaux, towers and abbeys. However, as with all fairies, Mélusine promised great riches, that came at a price and living as a fairy with a secret curse, she certainly ticks the box about being different from those she lived amongst.

 

Mélusine was the daughter of a fairy named Pressine, and as a punishment for going against her mother’s wishes, she was cursed with reverting to her fairy form every Saturday, that of half woman and from the waist down, a serpent. She would only be able to live and die like a real woman, if the man she married agreed never to see her on a Saturday. 

 

For many years, Mélusine lived in the vast Poitou forests until one day, by a fountain in a clearing, she met a young knight in a state of distress. Raymondin had been hunting wild boar with his uncle, the count of Poitiers, when the boar had turned on the men and in trying to kill the beast, he had accidently killed Aimery, his uncle. Tormented by his actions, Mélusine comforted him and assured him all would be well and if he did as she advised, he would have a rich and successful future. 

 

Lusignan, Vienne

Raymondin fell in love with the beautiful woman of the forest fountain, and they married, with him agreeing to never visit her chambers on a Saturday. By following her instructions, he was rewarded with vast areas of land on which she built a magnificent chateau she named Lusignan. Raymondin and Mélusine lived a happy life where they welcomed ten sons, although eight of them were born with mysterious facial disfigurements. They included Guy who was born with only one eye, Antoine who had the scar of a lion’s claw on his cheek, Odon with one ear larger than the other, Geoffroy with a tooth the size of a tusk and Horrible who had three eyes. All was well in their unusual family unit until one Saturday, Raymondin, provoked by his brother, peered through a hole in her door to see his wife bathing in an enormous marble bath, her long serpent’s tale splashing around in the water.

 

The spell had been broken and Mélusine is said to have flown from the window, her cries of despair ringing in the air as she fled, cursed forever to remain half woman, half serpent, with the wings of a dragon.

 

La fée Mélusine, Lusignan

It is almost impossible to find a medieval château, a ruined tower or an abbey in the Poitou-Charentes that doesn’t claim to have been built by Mélusine, and I have also fallen under her spell. I loved visiting Lusignan and its château ramparts, and it always puts a smile on my face when we come across her image on carvings, sculptures or paintings on our travels. As well as buildings, her story is also linked to many celebrated and important local families, all claiming to be her descendants, including the counts of Lusignan and La Rochefoucauld. We even found her inside the village church in Bignac, Charente, painted onto the black funeral band that shows the parish in respectful mourning for the local baron, François VI de la Rochefoucauld, in 1680.

La fée Mélusine, Bignac, Charente

 

The Rochefoucauld family also have links to the Château de Javarzay, although sadly I’ve yet to find a link between Javarzay and Mélusine, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up looking.

Poitou-Charentes legends - the cries through the fog

A misty evening in the Deux-Sèvres

Looking back over the last twenty years, autumn days that began with a foggy start, nearly always became hot, sunny afternoons, so much so, opening the shutters to the morning mist, made me smile. This year once more, the weather has thrown a new pattern at us and there have been many days where the sun tried, but failed, to break through the foggy start. 

 

In our department of the Deux-Sèvres in western France, Meteo France reported that on average, September this year was 80% wetter than normal and October 45%, with some hillier areas (around Parthenay) recording levels of rain 150% higher than they are used to. It is no surprise that soil humidity levels have also reached record highs for this time of year, feeding the hungry fog monster that seems reluctant to share with the sunshine. All this just one year on from water restrictions that were brought in mid-October, alongside news articles reporting record low levels in the water table.

 

Foggy fields in the Deux-Sèvres

The low cloud and grey skies this year have at times made me feel quite claustrophobic, and that was before this misty phase began, so I am really hoping this won’t become a new norm thanks to climate instability. Despite my woes, we have fared better than those who live just a bit further north from us, around the Loire valley, where a local news report stated a weather station in Angers hasn’t registered one minute of sunshine in the last ten days. This week, as we celebrated a sunny start with a cycle ride into Chef-Boutonne for morning coffee with friends, we could see the dark, purple bruise of fog looming low on the horizon to our north. 

 

Ile de Ré, Charente-Maritime

Now the 2024 season at the Château de Javarzay is over, I have had more time on my hands to dive into some reading about the legends of the Poitou-Charentes and in particular, places we have visited. When I found one that talked of foggy nights, and an historical battle on Ile de Ré that took place on 8^th November, nearly four hundred years ago, I knew it needed more investigation.

 

Our area has a fascinating link to the rise of the Protestant religion, thanks mainly to the trade routes between Poitiers and the port at La Rochelle. Poitiers university is one of the oldest in France, dating from 1431 and whereas the Sorbonne in Paris had no sympathy for the new religious ideas of the Protestants, they found the academics at Poitiers to be more accommodating. The Protestants felt that the Catholic Church had become too powerful, too corrupt and was making too much money. They wanted a religion that was accessible to everyone, not just those who read Latin, and where simple prayer was more important than the worshipping of relics and paying the church for forgiveness. Their ideas began to spread, mainly with the merchants who were moving towards La Rochelle with wheat, as the limestone rich soil here produced a drier grain that was less likely to rot when loaded onto the sea-going vessels. The inevitable clashes between the supporters of the two religions led to a turbulent time.

 

Sablanceaux beach, Ile de Ré

In 1627, La Rochelle was under siege as Cardinal Richelieu and the troops of Louis XIII closed in around the Protestant stronghold. In June, the Duke of Buckingham had arrived on the Atlantic coast island of the Ile de Ré with eighty boats and around four thousand men, to support the Protestants in La Rochelle. The English landed on the beach in Sablanceaux and gained control of the island from the governor, the Count of Toiras, holding it for three months, until Richelieu sent four thousand troops over from the mainland. 

La Couarde-sur-mer with Loix in the distance, Ile de Ré

The retreating English had one objective, to head west to rejoin their boats moored near Loix. On the 8^th November, at the wooden bridge in Feneau, between La Couarde-sur-mer and Loix, a bloody battle ensued that saw the losses of over two thousand English soldiers and two hundred of their horses. It is said that if you are out on foggy nights on the marshlands around Feneau, the cries and eery moaning of the English soldiers can still be heard, along with a dull voice repeating “tue (kill), tue, tue…” – the echo of the soul of the French troops harangued by their superiors to finish off the English.

 

A typical souvenir shop on Ile de Ré

I’m happy to report that the Ile de Ré is a much more peaceful place to visit these days and somewhere we enjoy cycling, although only outside of the main tourist season. It might no longer be a battleground, but it is still witness to an invasion of thousands of holidaymakers every summer. I wonder how many of them know about the bloody history of the island, or have heard the cries in the fog as they leave the main tourist paths and venture into the marshlands?