This year we have re-stocked our lakes with mirror carp, thanks to our friends Jo & Lee from St Brice Carping.
A mirror carp due for a new home at Chateau de Grandchamp lakes.
Last year’s drought caused our lakes to suffer from algae problems and low water levels. Our fish had a tough time and some of our biggest and best carp did not make it.
Last summer we installed weighted pipes that blow air into the lake and oxygenate the water. This solution gave us the confidence to re-stock with carp. We also experimented with dye that prevents too much algae growing.
Carp transportation was a bit of a challenge! Our solution was to use large dustbins with lids in our trailer.
Barry converted a solar powered air pump to run off our car cigarette lighter. This ensured plenty of oxygenated water for the journey. Our first mistake was to use tap water and travel to the lakes. Tap water is not good for fish. We replaced this with lake water and the fish travelled in that.
A success! We arrived home after a very slow journey, with some very lively fish.
We have four kinds of carp. Common, mirror, grass and crucian, plus roach etc.
Lee with a common carp caught at St Brice Carping.
One of the most exciting things about living in an old house is finding things from the past. When we had to block up a large hole in a wall we were going to decorate, Barry suggested a Time Capsule. What a great idea!
A chance to leave something behind for a future owner to discover.
We had lots of ideas as to what items to leave inside.
Something about us and our family, something about the house, our village?
We decided on a copy of our local paper and the village magazine (both mentioning our Heritage days). A photo of our family at Easter in front of the Chateau and handprints of our two youngest grandsons who also helped put everything into the hole in the wall.
The items were wrapped in plastic and put into a metal tin.
Our time capsule is certainly well hidden! Who knows how long it will be before it is discovered?
Work on repairing the beams in the stables in 2022 meant we could safely access the rooms above. Here the boarded partitions had old estate accounts glued to the walls from 1814. It is so exciting to still be making new discoveries.
There are times when leaving areas to nature just looks scruffy. It can give the impression we don’t care, or worse don’t know what we are doing! Every now and then something happens, sometimes something quite small that makes it all worthwhile. In July we saw black and white butterflies that we had never seen before. They were on thistles in a patch of meadow that has been completely left alone. Having to look them up in a book we found that they are Marbled White butterflies. We were so pleased to read that they like “unmanaged grassland”. At last! Something is benefitting from our rewilding ideas.
Farmers sometimes leave the margins of their fields for wildlife. At Grandchamp we leave whole fields, but we do sometimes mow around the edges, just to show that it has been deliberately left alone not that we cannot be bothered! It also makes us feel less guilty that we could be spreading weeds onto neighbouring properties.
In September we saw a new species in the very same spot! A Clouded Yellow this time. Apparently they like vetch and clover so our meadow is perfect for them.
The donkeys will enjoy browsing on this land later in the year. It is nicer not to mow here as we know there are hare hiding in the long grass. Hare hide their young in grass nests above ground so mowing now after leaving the meadow for so long could be a terrible disaster for them. The donkeys don’t mind long grass and enjoy all the tasty herbs and weeds along the way.
This battle between American and German soldiers took place right outside the chateau. A division of Patton’s army was sent to Brittany but to get there they had to make their way through Lower Normandy and cross the river that marks the border between Normandy and Brittany. The chateau is situated on the main road that leads to Brittany.
One column took the direct route to pass the chateau and on to Pontorson where a bridge crosses the river. Another column took a route further south to a crossing at Antrain.
This gave the German soldiers an opportunity to ambush the American troops as they knew they would have to pass that way.
They hid 88 mm flak guns in the woods east of the chateau and along the road towards Le Rouvre where there was a farm.
We do not know the date the Germans arrived at Grandchamp. Local people remember the Germans were in the village of Tanis for about 2 years. The Le Chevalier family knew they would be coming. They did not want the German soldiers to find any weapons on the property, so they buried their hunting guns in the garden. They also moved a large cupboard across the door to their wine store.
On the day of the battle the family fled the chateau running across the road through their farm opposite and along a track towards the village. They hid behind a hedge.
At Le Rouvre a German soldier warned the family that lived at the farm a battle was about to start. There were anti tank guns hidden near the road close to a railway crossing. The family ran from the farm and hid in the embankments.
As the American tanks approached Grandchamp the Germans fired on the Americans. For 3 hours there was fighting. A large number of American and German soldiers were killed.
The Dumont family who lived at Le Rouvre farm saw a lot of damage done to the farm in the intense fighting. The farm opposite the chateau also suffered great damage.
We were given some photos by Joel Le Chevalier of the battle and the damage done to the farms.
Joel remembers that for a long time after cattle and horses were kept in the farmyard of the chateau as the damage was so great it took some time to repair the farm buildings.
After the battle the families returned to their homes. The chateau had no damage, the farm opposite had buildings destroyed.
Le Rouvre Farm was still on fire. The road was blocked with damaged tanks and vehicles it remained impassable for 7 days.
The Distinguished Service Cross was awarded to First Sergeant John L Morton for his gallantry in action.
Each year on 1st August our village remembers the battle and a memorial has been placed at Le Rouvre. There is a plaque that tells a brief account of the Battle.
This year in September we will be celebrating the liberation of Tanis by the American troops. As well as our open days telling the story of the chateau, we have a talk from a General on the battle and a music festival
What a wonderful month August has been. There have been highs and lows and not much renovating due to the high temperatures, but terrific all the same.
The joys have included an English country wedding and having our grandchildren visit. We have enjoyed hearing the excitement of visiting France and watching them all enjoy the freedom of our grounds. Favourite activities have included egg collecting, tractor rides, foraging, music, looking after animals and top activity swimming. It’s great to see our grandchildren take on a new activity and succeed at it. 5 out of 7 learned to swim this summer.
The lows were weather related. Our lakes lost a lot of water. The depth that was left was warm and rapidly accumulating algae. Warm water does not retain oxygen as well as cold, algae just makes things worse. It was a dreadful morning when we checked the lakes and found many of our large carp had died and a few roach. There was not much we could do to try and save the remaining fish. We considered all sorts but settled on ordering an aeration system to try and improve oxygen levels. Weighted pipes arrived with a device to attach to the end to blow air bubbles into the lake. Since we installed this, we have not lost any more fish. For next year we will improve oxygenation with planting, including introducing some native water lilies to create some additional shade.
The grass we keep for our ponies and donkeys stopped growing and became increasingly brown and useless. Like many people we had to turn to our fresh hay reserved for winter feeding. We had to be extra careful to check hooves daily, picking out any stones or dirt and washing hooves to keep them in tip top condition.
One of the unusual things we have seen as the water level in lakes receded was an assortment of shells. We discovered that we had a large quantity of freshwater mussels. It was sad to see so many shells but hopefully it is a sign that we have plenty of them living further out in the water. We did have to look them up as we both knew nothing about freshwater mussels. They have an interesting life-cycle that relies on our fish and their shells show rings that enables us to see how old they are. Each black line on the shell is one years growth, just like counting the rings on a tree trunk. The shells are surprisingly large. Our photo shows a euro for a comparison. Ours appear to be 12 years old. They help to purify the water.
August is an unusual time to see leaves falling from the trees. Our plantation of white poplar trees dropped its leaves. I think the trees have done this early to prevent any more loss of water through the leaves. I have heard others talk of an early autumn and I wonder what nature will do in response to the drought. Perhaps an early autumn might mean a good year for nuts, berries or mushrooms. It will be interesting to see what happens.
August 1st is always a sad time in our village as people remember the Battle of Le Rouvre in 1944. We found out a lot of information about this as we did research on the chateau’s history. We discovered a battle right on our doorstep!
It has been a great summer so far. Chateau restoration is slow but steady with a few decorating jobs well underway. The old front door has a new coat of paint having had lots of restoration on the beautiful chestnut wood underneath. The metal door furniture is being cleaned ready for putting back on. A tiny storage room has been painted and the floor sanded and varnished.
Outside, the haymaking has gone well with lots of hay in storage ready for winter. This is always a huge task for us, but it is so satisfying to be self sufficient in feed during the winter months.
We have recently returned from Italy on a pen buying trip. It was great to just get in the car and go. No airport queues, no ferries. 690 miles of beautiful scenery, lovely food and interesting places to stay. Our journey trough France was great, like browsing a wine catalogue Macon, Chablis, Chardonnay, each region proudly showing signs for the products each region is famous for.
As a keen gardener and grower, I love peering over hedges as we travel along to see what everyone else is growing. As the landscape changes and each region differs it is great to see how gardens and fields differ to what we can grow in Normandy. The best thing – acres and acres of beautiful sunflowers.
As we drove closer to the Alps there were lovely towns and villages around lakes of blue water, we stopped for somewhere to stay. We found a stunning chateau to spend the night. What a treat to stay in such a lovely place with so much history and best of all it was finished! Not like our constant chaos of unfinished rooms. Parts of this chateau were a lot older than ours, with stone stairs and interesting architectural features. There was a chapel in the grounds undergoing a major refurbishment.
Then we were off again, through the Mont Blanc Tunnel to Italy. Magnificent views and such welcoming and friendly people. We purchased the pen collection, then home again. 400 pens to sort through and photograph for our internet shop. But what a fantastic collection of pens!
Whatever activity is going on, it is accompanied by the whine of the 3D printer. A complete set of table settings is being printed and painted for a wedding next month. We certainly have a wide variety of projects at the moment. Designing and creating beautiful objects for our customers.
