The Deux-Sèvres Monthly, July 2017 | 27

by Mick Austin

26 | The Deux-Sèvres Monthly, July 2017

Where We Live...

Fourme d’Ambert (AOC)This is one of France’s oldest traditional blue cheeses, with a history longer than the better-known Roquefort. Legend has it that it was already being made at the time of the Druids and the Gauls. It’s a very mild cow’s milk cheese produced in the Auvergne region of south-central France.

Fourme is an old French word for cheese, as taken from the Latin name forma, and describes its cylindrical shape. That shape is quite unusual in that it is much taller than it is wide, rather like a tall baby Stilton. Like Stilton, it should be cut horizontally, so it usually appears in shops as thin rings cut from the tall fourmes. Then all you need to do is cut it into pieces as you would a Camembert. It has also been similarly much abused in the past by the practice of putting alcohol (eau-de-vie or port) into the centre of the cheese to moisten it.

The fourmes were traditionally made with unpasteurised milk from the high pastures, with around 25 litres for one cheese. There are a handful of small farm producers making it that way today, but most is made in the larger modern dairies with pasteurised milk. Maturation takes at least 28 days before it can be called Fourme d’Ambert, but can take up to three months.

Its centre should have an ivory colouring with well developed and regularly distributed blue veins. It should be springy to the touch and ‘have a subtle scent of woodland undergrowth.’ The cheese should ideally be stored for a few days in a cool place an in its original paper wrapping. If you have a slightly less mature cheese it can be left for a few days or even weeks in the bottom drawer of the fridge. To enjoy the full flavours, take the cheese from the fridge and let it rest at room temperature for at least an hour before serving.

With its delicate taste, fragrance and mild, rounded flavour, Fourme d’Ambert more than holds its own as part of a varied cheese board, often accompanied by sliced pears, and can also be used in a variety of sweet and savoury dishes.

The cheese goes equally well with an artisanal baguette or a farmhouse loaf and perhaps a wine from the region, like a Côtes d’Auvergne, or a Sauternes. Or why not try it with dried fruits (walnuts, hazelnuts etc), fresh fruits (figs, cherries etc) or even bananas or mango chutney!

It came right out of the blue,” laughs Maguy. “It was in 2006. Olivier was almost 40 years old and was in the Czech Republic for an astronomy conference. I was a 29-year-old air hostess living in Germany at the time. We had friends in common but we had

never met before. I was there to listen to him at the conference. He proposed literally minutes after we first met and he found out my name. What did I do? I said no, of course!”

If there’s one quality you need as an astronomer, it’s patience. Olivier had made his mind up and over the next 18 months he tried to persuade Maguy that he was serious about their being together. “For the first few years we would meet up in Paris or in Germany when we could. After all his efforts trying to make me change my mind, I finally accepted his proposal in the summer of 2008 and in 2009 we married in La Chapelle-aux-Lys, in the Vendée, where Olivier had bought a rundown house a few years earlier. We carried on with our lives as before, until in 2012 I fell pregnant and stopped flying. We moved to Nantes as the house in La Chapelle-aux-Lys was still not ready to move in to.”

So, after 15 years spent travelling and discovering the world, Maguy returned permanently to her native France in 2012 – “Something I thought would never happen” – to make a home with Olivier and their son Elouan, now four, and a daughter Youna, who is now one.

They finally managed to move full-time into their house in La Chapelle-aux-Lys in 2016 and are now working hard together to turn a shared passion and a dream into reality: Welcoming people to their home and helping them discover the wonders of our sky, the galaxy and far beyond. Together they have created an astronomy association based at their home, which they have aptly named Les Bêcheurs d’étoiles (the star shovellers).

“I bought the house and land in 2004 without really knowing anything about the area or the local people,” says Olivier. “My decision was based purely on the quality of sky observation!”

He then began the renovation work, usually by himself but often with the help of new-found friends. As soon as he possibly could, he set up his observatory in the garden to enjoy the perfect star-gazing conditions he had searched for. “One evening I invited the local mayor and his wife to come and have a look at the telescope. They said they’d pop round for 15 minutes for a quick look. They arrived at 11pm and didn’t leave until 3am the next day!”

It took less than a day for the whole village to find out what the mayor and his wife had experienced that night. Olivier was no longer the unknown outsider!

Since 2009, they have been welcoming small groups of people to their observatory to experience the unforgettable. This year, for the first time, Olivier and Maguy are holding star-gazing evenings every Wednesday from July 5 to August 9 inclusive with simultaneous English translations. For more details visit their website at www.Becheurs-dEtoiles.net where you’ll also find details of other events and even get the chance to stay overnight in an Inuit tent during your star-gazing adventure.

The couple also help organise a festival called ‘Astrolys’ which has been held in their local village for the past eight years. This year’s event is on the weekend of 12th -13th August with a theme of Astronomy and Archeology (see poster on page 7).

“We will be exploring the interaction mankind has developed with the cosmos right back to ancient times,” says Olivier. “From the Saturday afternoon to the Sunday evening, visitors can follow

There are many reasons a man might propose marriage, but one of the more unusual must surely be that made by astronomer Olivier Sauzereau. He met a young woman in the French embassy in Prague who, coincidentally, also came from north-western France. When he heard that her family name was Béchetoille (literally meaning shovelling the stars) there was only one thing he could do – he had to propose. It was meant to be. It was written in the stars...

A Marriage Made in Heaven

Olivier and Maguy Sauzereau

OurSTORY

Photo: Wikicommons/Havang

”

The famous image of Halley’s Comet, taken in 1986 © Olivier Sauzereau

The Sauzereau family in their

observatory © Olivier Sauzereau

A Star PerformerAfter more than 30 years as a professional astronomer Olivier, who found school such a struggle, had his work recognised in 2008 with the equivalent of a university degree – the Validation des Acquis et de l’Expérience – from Nantes University. In 2012 he also got a PhD from the same university.

Most of his work nowadays is taken up with astronomy conferences, both here and around the world, and teaching at Nantes University and in various schools. He has written ten books on astronomy, for adults as well as teenagers and young children, and made three films.

Surprisingly enough, Olivier even has time for a second passion: Jules Verne. Also born in Nantes, birthplace of the 19th Century French novelist, poet and playwright, Olivier has become something of a Verne specialist and has just finished a three-year project to turn every one of Verne’s 64 published books into TV documentaries.

Maguy, meanwhile, is kept more than busy with her two youngsters. But she still finds the time to play a major part in everything that goes on at Les Bêcheurs d’étoiles and to teach French to English-speakers. Oh, and she also enjoys her job working as a waitress in the English-run Café Bonbon in La Chapelle aux Lys. They are both busy people... and wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Deux-Sèvres Monthly, July 2017 | 29

On this month

This is one of a series of articles featuring those in the region with interesting stories..... If you feel your French Adventure is worth sharing, please contact us.

Mick Austin is an award-winning freelance journalist based in the Pays-de-la-Loire. He has had his work published in several expat magazines and newspapers and has also written the Mayenne Tourist Board’s only English language brochure. He runs a gite business at www.gitefortwo.com

July 5, 1946: French designer Louis Reard unveils a daring two-piece swimsuit at the Piscine Molitor, a popular Paris swimming pool. Parisian showgirl Micheline Bernardini modelled the new fashion, which Reard dubbed the ‘bikini’, named after the Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean where there had been a US atomic test the previous week. There had been two-piece bathing suits on show in the 1930s but only a tiny piece of midriff was revealed. In 1946, the first war-free summer in years, designers came up with fashions to match the mood of the people. Reard and fellow French designer Jacques Heim developed competing bikini prototypes. Heim called his the ‘atom’ and advertised it as ‘the world’s smallest bathing suit’. Reard’s design, which was basically a bra top and two inverted triangles of cloth connected by string, was significantly smaller and he promoted it as ‘smaller than the world’s smallest bathing suit.’

July 12, 1998: France beat favourites Brazil 3-0 to win the football World Cup in front of 80,000 fans at the Stade de France, in Paris. It was the first World Cup France had hosted since 1938 and the first time they had won it. It was a great improvement on their 1994 performances, when they failed to even qualify for the finals. Playmaker Zinédine Zidane scored two goals before defender Marcel Desailly got a second yellow card and was sent off. Although a man down, the French side continued to attack and, in the third minute of added time, Emanuel Petit

scored their third goal to make France the first host nation to win the World Cup since Argentina in 1978.

July 25, 2000: An Air France Concorde crashes soon after taking off from Charles DeGaulle airport, plunging to the ground near a hotel in Gonesse. A huge fireball killed the nine crew members, 96 passengers and four people on the ground. An investigation revealed that the plane that took off just before the Concorde had dropped a piece of metal on to the runway. When the Concorde ran over it its tyre was shredded and thrown into one of the engines and fuel tanks, causing the disabling fire.

by Mick Austin

Micheline Bernardini modelling the first two-piece swimsuit. © Flickr/Recuerdos de Pandora

28 | The Deux-Sèvres Monthly, July 2017

...A look at what makes France so specialconferences, films, workshops, a planetarium show, exhibitions and talk with experts or just like-minded people interested in discovering our skies. There will, of course, be star-gazing at night and also sun observation during the daylight hours. Entry to the festival is free and people can just stroll around, enjoy the atmosphere and discover whatever comes along.”

La Chapelle-aux-Lys is now part of a network throughout France aimed at watching meteorites as they fall to earth. Since last year, there have been permanent cameras set up on the roof of the town hall linked to others all over the country. The spread of those cameras, unique in the world through its density, helps catch meteorites falling to earth in real time, so helping research.

The local connection doesn’t stop there, however, as the whole district has been the first in France to sign an agreement to protect the sky. In 2010, the mayors of 19 villages agreed to pay particular attention to the choice of lights to cut down on the amount of light pollution. Arrive at La Chapelle-aux-Lys and you’ll see on the road sign, under the name of the village, ‘Village étoilé’ with four stars. The highest rating is five stars and is a national qualification rating the quality of the sky above the village.

Two years ago, Olivier also set up an observatory in Kenya for a safari company eager to offer more than just animal photoshoots to their clients. Small groups of people can experience a true ‘Out of Africa” experience during the day and at night Olivier guides them through the wonders of the southern hemisphere sky.

“Our sky conditions are fragile,” says Olivier. “The last few decades have seen a great loss of contact between man and the sky and the cosmos. Who of us can still point out a few constellations? Since the beginning of mankind, astronomy has always been at the centre of our lives, enabling people to know the time in the year and set up calendars, among other things. But we are nearly losing that contact.”

So how did two separate lives lead up to that most unexpected of marriage proposals?

Olivier fell in love with astronomy when he was 12, after listening to a talk from a Canadian astrophysician at a conference in Nantes. He couldn’t get enough of the subject and joined an astronomy club, reading everything on the subject he could lay his hands on, attending conferences and spending many sleepless nights observing the stars.

“My school results suffered as my passion became almost a full-time job,” says Olivier. “In my late teens, I had the chance to spend some time at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the Pyrenees and got some real-life training working with professionals researching the far sky. I decided to leave school as I couldn’t fit into the traditional education system. I was always well behind on some subjects and far ahead in others. I started working at the Nantes planetarium as a guide and speaking at conferences.”

Then, one night in 1986, while gazing at the sky above the Pic du Midi Observatory, he took a picture of the famous Halley’s Comet. Beginner’s luck, perhaps, but it was a picture that was sold worldwide (Life magazine, for instance) and catapulted him into the world of the professional star photographer.

Over the years he has developed a photographic style that is less ‘classical’ and more an attempt to make someone looking at his picture feel the magic of the moment. “I want someone to look at my pictures and feel what I felt at the time. The magic you experience as an astronomer, sitting alone in the middle of the night, among beautiful scenery, often far away from human life. Watching the universe and feeling just how small we are in that world.”

Maguy was born in Ancenis, between Nantes and Angers, and left France as a young adult in 1999 with a social worker diploma in her pocket and a burning desire to discover the world. She wanted to experience different cultures, challenge her values, beliefs and thoughts and discover other people’s way of living.

She first arrived in Hungary in 1999 at the time of the Kosovo war and worked in a refugee camp with families and children that had, quite literally, lost everything. “A very emotional life experience,”

she recalls. From there she spent several years in Germany working as a trainer for young people wanting to commit themselves to projects abroad.

“After a few years of that I got fed up sending volunteers overseas while I was left sitting in an office,” says Maguy. “So I quit that job in 2002 and went on a two-year journey through Asia, travelling slowly overland through south-east Asia first and then on to the Indian sub-continent. I took time to discover people from other cultures and backgrounds, their aims in life, their values and interests. I worked as a volunteer in many different social and environmental projects, from a Buddhist orphanage in Thailand to an organic farm in India, through a panda research centre in China to a de-mining project in Cambodia.”

She returned to Europe in 2005 and settled in Germany working as an air hostess. “It was a job I would never have thought about had I not met by chance – twice – a German air hostess in India. She put the idea into my head.”

There then followed several years where she worked part-time, enjoying a free month of travel after every three months’ work. Never able to stop that burning desire to meet people and discover different cultures.

That is until one day in Prague in 2006, when she met a French astronomer...

Make contact...Olivier’s website: www.sauzereau.net

Association website: www.Becheurs-dEtoiles.net

Astrolys Festival on Facebook: @Association-Astrolys

The Milky Way, taken in Kenya © Olivier Sauzereau

Olivier in Kenya. © Olivier Sauzereau

The two World Cup teams