INRA and Apple Disease Research in the Loire Valley Region of France.

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The Loire Valley Region France’s Loire Valley region frequently evokes images of châteaux, those grand homes and historic structures encompassing immense medieval fortress-like castles and extravagant renaissance mansions alike. A visitor from abroad can’t help but be impressed with each Loire Valley château: from the imposing castle of Angers, housing its immense medieval tapestry of the apocalypse; the elegant feminine mystique of château de Chenonceaux, built over a river; the sheer enormity of Chambord with its Leonardo da Vinci doublehelix staircase; Chinon, site of the historic meeting between Joan-of-Arc and Charles VII; Sleeping Beauty’s fairy tale castle, Usse; to the geometric or playful gardens found at Villandry or Chaumont sur Loire, and many, many more (Fig. 1). Mon dieu, qu’ils sont magnifiques! Although the Loire Valley is famous for its picturesque and historical châteaux, it is also a region rich in horticulture, often called the “Jardin de la France” (Garden of France). The Loire, France’s longest river, flows roughly east to west through central France past cities such as Roanne, Orleans, Blois, Tours, Angers, and Nantes before discharging into the Atlantic Ocean. Voila une tres belle region! The region is well known for its grapes and wine, pears, apples, strawberries, asparagus, lettuce, artichokes, and field and greenhouse nursery crops and ornamentals. Although apples are also grown elsewhere in France, such as in the Bordeaux region, the Rhone Valley, and Provence, the Loire region is the top producer; France produces about 25% of the apples in the European Union (3) and is a net exporter of apples. During the late 1990s, the American authors (J. R. Hartman and S. Thomson), while on sabbatical leaves, worked in the laboratories of the French authors (L. Parisi and J.-P. Paulin) on apple diseases. In this article, we report on the French apple industry and describe the national institute for agricultural research and its role in understanding apple diseases. We review results of work on apple scab and fire blight in France and provide impressions from the point of view of American plant pathologists working in France.