FRENCH WORD-A-DAY

Purple tansy, or phacelia cetifolia, is an excellent insectary plant and heaven to the local pollinators (a veritable bee magnet!). While phacilia is known to attract les abeilles, my husband, alias Chief Grape, uses it to clean the soil of his vineyard (folding it into the soil, once the flowers have passed). The parcel, above, was planted with grapevines last year. See what the field looks like now, in the pictures just below. (That's  my Mom, upper right. She will be here in 6 weeks!)

une fleur des champs

    : wildflower, field flower

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Dans un grain de sable voir un monde et dans chaque fleur des champs le Paradis, faire tenir l'infini dans la paume de la main et l'Éternité dans une heure.

To see a world in a grain of sand and heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palms of your hand and eternity in an hour. William Blake

Improve your French pronunciation with Exercises in French phonetics. Click here. 

A DAY IN A FRENCH LIFE... by Kristin Espinasse
Mediterranean and medicinal plants in our vineyard

Come with me, now, on a stroll through our vineyard and let's identify some of the wildflowers growing here. I will add more, as the season unfolds--like the petals on this white and fuschia fleur, just below...

Jean-Marc, hunched over (see his foot) to reach a baby vine, at pruning time. 

FUMMETERRE / FUMITORY
"smoke of the earth"
 
I first noticed this flower in a field beside Cousin Sabine's house. Her father, André, explained that he planted it as a fire repellant. Only, now that I've typed those words, I'm beginning to doubt my memory--for how could a field of delicate flowers prevent the spread of flames?

But I do remember talking to another uncle, Jean-Claude (see both uncles, here), who tells me he collected these flowers as a kid, for the pocket change it brought him. The explanation:

L'infusion de fumeterre est un vieux remède des Provençaux pour soigner une mauvaise digestion. Fumeterre herbal tea is an old Provençale remedy to treat indigestion.

In the book Ces Précieuses Plantes de Méditerranée, it is noted that people here in Provence used to swear by its longevity properties: "qu'elle avait le secret de faire vivre à cent ans!" (that it had the secret to make--or keep you living--at the age of 100)

Fumeterre, from the papaveraceae family, grows in our vineyard here near Bandol. I've seen it jutting out of the rock walls, or réstanques, and lying low between the newly-planted vine rows. 

A google search of "fumitory + medicinal uses" brings up more info, including it's various names "earth smoke" and "beggary", and vast properties--everything from intestinal spasms to conjunctivitis.

 Too bad it can't help Smokey, who suffered nerve damage to his tongue some years ago... Good news is it doesn't keep him from smelling the roses and les fleurs des champs. 

 Bon, that was a quick stroll today. We'll play this flower game again soon. For now, I've got to get Chief Grape his lunch before he changes hats again (taking off his field hat and putting on his accounting hat: it's tax time soon and our dear friend Rachel (marraine, or godmother to our daughter Jackie, is on her way over to help with the comptabilité). 

Have a lovely weekend and on se voit la semaine prochaine (see you next week)!

Amicalement,

Kristi

COMMENTS 
Meantime, if you can identify any of the other flowers in this edition, the comments box is here.

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      A just-pruned, one-year-old mourvedre vine.

The various wildflowers and "weeds" growing in this vineyard attract so many helpful* insects, such as la coccinelle, or ladybug. Here she has landed on the cire, or wax that protects the newly-planted vines. This being last year's crop of new vines, the wax is breaking off and the red cire is now back to its natural color.

*A ladybug in a vineyard is a good sign that chemicals are not used to treat the vines. Also, ladybugs eat those insects that would normally damage the vine plants.

COMMENTS WELCOME: by adding notes to this page, we all learn more about French language and culture (in this case: plant culture :-) Click here to comment or to add a correction.

 
A centuries-old olive tree is still producing. Beyond, in the nearest vine field, Jean-Marc planted those phacelia flowers. The flower field is gone now, but a few purple tansies return each year...

Another bright reminder of this new-born vineyard's agricultural history.

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