Chickens from l’Orléans plus the Bléré Carnival (29th March)

La Nouvelle République today has a report on the poulets fermiers of Orléans. 160 farmers belong to the Orléans chicken farmers' organisation (la Coopérative agricole des fermiers de l'Orléanais). Of a total annual production of 4.3 million chickens – 90% have the label rouge. 36% of the production is in Loir et Cher, with 4% each in Indre-et-Loire and the Cher. In 2007 the organisation was asked to look after the production of the famous Géline de Touraine, the Loire’s finest chicken and on a par with a Poulet de Bresse.

Further information about the Géline and its rescue from extinction can be found here.

Carnival 2007: The Epeigné-les-Bois float

There is also a report on the forthcoming carnival at Blére – Sunday 29th March with a parade starting at 3pm. This is a bi-annual event that involves all the communes around Bléré including Epeigné-les-Bois, Francueil and Luzillé. The previous edition was on 1st April 2007 and certainly worth going to see.

There is now a carnival blog.

2007: Les Blancs: musicians

2007: le roi des cochons

2007: Le roi et la reine

2007: Le roi et la reine encore..................

2007: scenes from the parade

2007: scenes from the parade

2007: for some the excitement was all too much...

More photos of the 2007 Carnival on flickr.