Friday, August 5, 2011

More About Pigeonniers

Okay, kids. I know lots of you spent last night tossing and turning because you were so intrigued by yesterday's French Fun Facts. Especially about the pigeonniers.

Well, guess what! I went INSIDE one today!

Joe and I drove to the tiny village of Epoisses this morning. We went in search of some speciality stinky cheese, but at the end of the day even Joe had to admit it was even too stinky for him. I mean really, a cheese that is 'smear ripened' with the bacteria of another cheese? No thanks.

Anyway, since the cheese didn't pan out, we decided to take a walk around the grand chateau in the middle of the village.

On the grounds was a HUGE pigeonnier!





We went inside and were surprised by what we saw! There were over 3,000 roosting boxes lining the walls of the building. The pigeons would fly in through the holes near the roof, then hunker down in one of the boxes.





There was a hand-hewn rickety ladder that went from the floor to the ceiling. It was attached to a centre pole that rotated on its axis.





A farm hand would climb up the ladder and remove the pigeon droppings from each box. He would push the ladder around the pigeonnier as he worked.

Not only did the lord of the manner use the guano on his own fields, he sold it to surrounding farms.

Can you imagine the noise and the smell in that building when it was operational? YUCK!

Well there you have it, kids. More than you ever wanted to know about pigeonniers.

You're welcome.

Location:Epoisses, France

6 comments:

  1. That ladder looks rickety alright!! Yowza!
    Well you gave up stinky cheese for a stinky pigeonniers - that's quite a trade! :)
    So now you have me wondering, if this pigeonniers is still operational and if not, how do they keep the pigeons out?
    This reminds me of one of the questions French talk show host Bernard Pivot (who hosted Apostrophes from 1975–1990)would ask his guests... "What profession other than your own would you not like to attempt?" My answer? COLLECTING PIGEON POOP FROM A PIGEONNIERS! :D
    Love Jo xo

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  2. hmmm, interesting. I was surprised by the nesting boxes. Today I learned something that I have never thought of before- thank you Nancy.

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  3. Oh, Margaret. Cows could NEVER fit into those roosting boxes!

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  4. Pigeonniers were only used from the Middle Ages up until the 1800s. I guess birds were much cheaper to feed than cows were. Now there are so many pigeons in France that they are culled on a regular basis.

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  5. Whoa that looks way cooler than I thought! Now I can rest easy knowing what they look like on the inside.

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