Arnaud de Môles

It is a few years since I visited Auch and its magnificent cathedral. It has eighteen windows by Arnaud de Môles. If I saw this glass in an English church I would label it Victorian but I’d be wrong, big time.

Arnaud was born in 1470. His stained glass shows virtuosity; the colours are vibrant and the depictions realistic and detailed. Hard to believe that they are 500 years old. Here is another at Auch.

Note the whale’s gaping snappers at the bottom of the window ready to have Jonah for lunch. You are reading about Arnaud for two reasons. First he did the windows above the altar in the church at Fleurance, cursorily mentioned yesterday. It is supposed locally that he accepted the commission in Fleurance as he had been born there. Wiki doesn’t agree and I don’t have a dog in the fight. Here is one of his Fleurance windows.

Aren’t his windows splendid? The second reason I’m writing about the talented Arnaud (1470-1520) is that I didn’t have time to explore yesterday. Let me explain; the vendange starts tomorrow on a neighbouring vineyard. My hosts rent their gîtes to the vigneron who installs fourteen friends and family for a party. It is character building making up so many beds. Then we went to do some shopping but – catastrophe – we had a puncture. By the time we got back for lunch we fell on the rosé like characters in Ice Cold in Alex.

One of their horses ran well at Newmarket in a good race in the afternoon, so equilibrium was restored and I will go on an expedition today. The weather is gorgeous and Robert has been playing a lot of tennis with our host. So far I have seen deer and a fox in the woods and A saw a hare. There is a kingfisher but I haven’t seen it yet. There are plenty of mushrooms but they aren’t edible. I’m pretty hopeless at identifying trees so it helps that V knows what she has planted in the policies.The two that caught my attention are a red oak (Quercus rubra) and a red maple (Acer freemanii) both flourishing and displaying a fine autumnal blaze. They are at risk from deer, sanglier and squirrels. Squirrels in particular like sweet maple sap.

Anda