Spring equinox...the mighty oaks of Normandy

Handmade nails from the renovation of the farmhouse, made in the estate's forge.

Dear friend,

“Primroses are everywhere,” remarked Madame Francine with a happy sigh the other day, returning from the village with her shopping. In the protected corners of lawns that run down behind the village houses, and tucked into the banks of the lanes surrounding the Chateau, les primevères open pale yellow petals to the warming sun. 
 
At last, spring is not only just around the corner, it’s tomorrow. In her brisk way, Madame Brigitte, with whom I was reviewing the number of cows awaiting calves, expressed everyone’s feelings succinctly: “Nous attendons avec impatience le printemps!”  Bulging expectantly, our pregnant cows are still kept under shelter, spending their days poking at the straw in their stabulations, eating last summer’s hay. Once the pastures dry out, they’ll be outside eating fresh green grass and wildflowers. 
 
Spring is the season of le vêlage, calving. Last month, eight new calves were born. There were four males and four females.
 
“Nature is politically correct for once,” said Henry, with a mischievous grin. Our farmer’s wife frowned slightly. Parturition, not parité, is what counts with bovines! Owner of her own herd of dairy cattle and close collaborator with her husband and son on the management of our herd at the Chateau, Madame Brigitte has little time for ideological niceties.
 
 Our son is back in the countryside, taking refuge from the new confinement decreed last night in Paris. He’ll be lending a hand with an end-of-winter task, le bois -- cutting down failing or invasive trees around the farm buildings and pastures and chopping up firewood.
 
Nowadays, we burn wood for the pleasure of watching the leaping flames and of feeling the warmth on our faces, fingers and toes. But when the Chateau was built, wood was the not only the primary heat source, it was the primary source of energy. Bread for the entire estate was baked in the Chateau’s big wood-fired oven – which you can still see in the walled garden. Wood was burned to make charcoal, its superior heat used in the forge for shaping metal. Here the maréchal ferrand made shoes for workhorses that pulled plows, wagons and carriages. He fashioned hinges, nails, locks and straps for the domain’s doors and gates. With long tongs, he pulled bars used to keep hungry wolves from climbing through windows into the barns. Given enough skill, he would even have created la grille that marks the formal entrance to the Chateau. Many of these hand-made objects are in use today on the grounds of the Chateau. Wood was used in every building on the estate, from les charpentes, the roof trees, to pegs, beams, doors and windows.

The old forges at Champsecret, focus of a preservation campaign in 2019. An interesting spot to visit and learn about the proto-industry of Normandy.

From its foundation in medieval times, the seigneurie of Courtomer included extensive woods. These were carefully managed, providing oak for charcoal and building and less valuable woods for heating. An inventory of 1673 lists woodlots where “from time immemorial,” the seigneurs of Courtomer had nurtured seedlings into mature trees. Selling wood was an important source of revenue. In 1649, the seigneurs of Courtomer sold wood from their forest at nearby Saint-Vandrille to a maître des grosses-forges, a “master of forges” who exploited an iron mine at Champsecret. In 1670, our archives show the sale of wood from the same forest to the owner of a glassworks at Ferrières-la-Verrerie. These early industries flourished in Normandy precisely because the province was so heavily forested.

The forests of Normandy are still a remarkable feature of the region. The Fôret d’Ecuennes close by, which once belonged to the Chateau, is a favorite place for walks and an annual procession to a chapel built by one of the Courtomer family. (Enguerrand had met Saint Francis of Assisi in Italy; more about this baron of Courtomer and the 13th-century Chapelle de Saint-Jacques in May…) We are also lucky to have the Fôret d’Ecouves nearby, and just an hour away, the extensive Fôret du Perche, with its majestic avenues of beech and oak.

“And speaking of the Fôret du Perche,” Henry remarked, putting down today’s copy of Le Figaro newspaper, “they cut the first oak for rebuilding Notre Dame de Paris last week there!”

This is a point of regional pride; the first oak of the 1,300 oaks required to rebuild the calcinated steeple and roof of Notre Dame was cut March 6 at Bercé in the Forêt du Perche. More oaks were cut in the Perche this week. Following ancient tradition, the bucherons, woodcutters, took the trees just before the last lune noire, or new moon, of the vernal equinox. Tradition has it that trees cut when they are still in winter dormancy and before the sap rises – as it does with the moon’s flux – are more lasting. And this wood, replacing parts of the church that were 800 years old, is expected to last a very long time.

When the decision was made to rebuild the steeple and the roof of the nave and the choir of Notre Dame de Paris “à l’identique” using wood, an outcry was heard. Réactionnaire! Modern materials for modern times! This would devastate France’s forests, destroying our most noble and ancient trees!

This "charpente" over the nave of Notre Dame de Paris was made by hand in 1220 of raw oak. It was intact until the devastating fire of April 2019.

But actually, Henry explained to his mother, we don’t need the oldest trees. The ones for the steeple, maybe 200 years old max. The steeple, after all, was an 1859 addition. But for the rest of the roof, he went on, they won’t use big trees at all. That’s because 800 years ago, when nave and choir were built, carpenters did not have the tools to dress large trunks of wood. They did not use saws to cut planks and beams, but specialized axes. And they didn’t dry wood either; the charpente of 1220 at Notre Dame was a “forest” of raw wood dried in place, which remained intact and tight until the fire of 2019.

We would have been proud to offer an oak to the enterprise of rebuilding the cathedral of Paris. Private forests in France are providing half of the required trees; the other half will come from the “forêts domaniales,” former royal or church forests under state control. But the woods that once flourished around Chateau de Courtomer have given way to fields and pastures, and to the ornamental “essences” and “bosquets” of the park. Our predecessor left us a plantation of poplar trees in a damp spot by one of the big fields. These are destined to be matchsticks.

Perhaps our new landscaping plans will also include a plantation of oaks.

A bientôt, au Chateau!

P.S. We'd love to show you our new trees...and to welcome you to the Chateau or to our newly renovated Farmhouse, perfect for smaller groups. Please write to Heather or Béatrice (both are bilingual in English and French), or, of course to me, with any questions at info@chateaudecourtomer.com. We look forward to hearing from you!