… disappointment this new car park is going to turn out to be.

Here I was, expecting some kind of pride, some kind of enthusiasm, some kind of artistic triumph with this new car park. Some cobbles, a few stone walls, raised beds with plants, trees and all other assorted greenery to make the place look a little special, a little different.

And what do we get? By the looks of things, just a flat tarmac area with asphalt and the like simply rolled into place.

Here’s a fine example of what I mean.

This is the small car park just across the road, and they have a raised bed surrounded by a stone wall, with plants and a tree growing in it to make it look nice.

This is the 21st Century, people. Greenery and plants are the way forward. And so is individualism. Cobbles on the surface, the parking areas delineated by cobbles of a different colour. Peculiar angles squared off by raised beds with plants.

They could have done so much more with this than just a flat asphalt surface. And maybe they will – after all, it is early days yet. But it’s still disappointing.

Likewise disappointing was still being in bed at 10:30. Sunday is a day of rest, a lie-in as regular readers of this rubbish will recall, and they will also recall that I’ve stayed in bed later than this in the past. But not when I’ve been in bed by 00:30.

So I had my medication and then looked at the dictaphone.

Phew!

I was in one of these American college places with all Gothic-like buildings a bit like Oxford or Cambridge, something like that. There had been some kind of talk given by the headmaster or principal. There was a dance and supper taking place and somehow I’d been elected to lead the people from this lecture place to where this supper was taking place. So at the end of the talk we set out. I had to go into this auditorium where everyone was sitting, climb up the steps to get to the top then start to turn round. As I walked back down people would leave their seats and follow me and we’d march in time out of the building. We marched in time out of the building OK but when we got outside, I realised that I didn’t know where the meal and the rest of the event was taking place. I couldn’t find it in my diary and I couldn’t see it in on a map anywhere. People were slowly drifting away which was no good. This had to be done in some kind of ceremonial procession but the way it was going on no-one was hanging around because I couldn’t remember and I don’t think that I even knew where I was supposed to be going.
Somewhat later, I was in an office last night and txo people were leaving. They’d been in a huge row or something like that and resigned. One of them had a whole pile of stuff like little cakes and sweets and things that she had for her coffee and she asked me if I would help her carry them down to her car. I asked her which her car was and she said that it was the first one parked outside in front of the Wartburg. I went downstairs and there was a car parked first in the row so I put all the stuff in there and sat down in the seat to get my breath. This other woman came and started to play hell for some unknown reason. I had no idea what was going on. The other woman came and said that I’d put it in the wrong car – that one has obviously pulled up since I parked mine outside the door. So I walked off. I was walking along the River Spree in Germany towards Berlin. These two girls who had left their jobs were getting into a boat and rowing off in this rowing boat. I was walking down the river talking to a group of people saying how people like to row in the River Spree but the current was too fast. The only ones who did it were children who did it for a month in March for Adolph Hitler. I walked along under this bridge and ended up at this square. In this square was one of these chocolate places where the chocolates were on display and you wait at a window and they put them in a box for you. I thought a most unlikely thing to find in East Berlin so I went to take a photo of it. For some unknown reason my camera wouldn’t work. It became entangled around a German passer-by as well. I said “excusez-moi”. He looked at me strangely so in the end I said “bitte enschuldigung”. By the time I got myself organised the shop had closed and the lights had turned off. There was another car, a rare car, parked in the street just past it and I went to take a photo of that. But again my camera wouldn’t work. But also parked on the grass an old 1940s-type of moped thing like a Solex, abandoned for years with rotting tyres and all the grass was growing around it but trimmed back, except over this moped, which was still entangled in the weeds and I wanted to take a photo of that as well but how was I going to do that as my camera was playing up?

No wonder that I was exhausted after all of that and needed all that time in bed to recover.

After breakfast (and the last of the apple and pear purée) I made a start on splitting a few digital sound files. Three were reasonably straightforward (although one needed a little figuring out) but I was scratching my head for the fourth, that bore no resemblance to anything that it was supposed to be.

Luckily there was a song in there somewhere, it wasn’t a pure instrumental, so I did a search for some of the lyrics that I was able to identify. That enabled me to conclude that the tape had been labelled wrongly and that that the music contained therein was not what it was claimed to be.

How weird.

One thing that took me by surprise, and I’m not sure why, was that by the time that I’d done this, it was already 15:00. I know that I’d had a good lie-in but it wasn’t that late. Whatever happened to Sunday?

And although I wasn’t feeling all that hungry I grabbed the bit of left-over baguette from yesterday, made a quick butty and headed off outside.

It’s the local elections today and so there are posters all over town advertising the candidates. Here’s the one for the current lady mayor, Dominique Baudry. Quite clearly she has her opponents around the town, but there again, isn’t that what politics is all about?

It makes me wish that people in the UK would show the same amount of emotion and passion.

Today, I went along the rue du Nord where I could see what was going on down on the beach.

Even though the tide is a long way from being out, we have the peche à pied people wandering around looking for anything interesting in the rock pools.

It’s quite the national sport along the Normandy coast and people don’t need asking twice to come along and participate. But these people don’t seem to have much in the way of equipment so they can’t be all that serious.

Mind, you this looked as if it was going to be quite serious.

Out in the English Channel there seemed to be an incredible storm heading my way. So just as well that there was no-one else about right now, as I broke into a run and did my course along the walls here.

And I pushed on for about 20 metres beyond my target too, and that was impressive. I was pleased with that

Down the steps I went and onto the Plat Gousset to see what was happening down there.

First port of call was to look at the damage to the sea wall now that the area was quiet. And it’s no surprise that they’ve fenced off this area from the general public.

You can do yourself a nasty injury if you were to fall through that. They’ll need to have that repaired without too much delay or it will just become worse and worse.

It had started to rain now but it wasn’t all that heavy and there was some clear-ish sky behind the storm so I decided to carry on.

But from here where I was standing, there’s a good view along the promenade to the Casino and with the old medieval walled city up on its rock in the background.

My running track along the walls by the rue du Nord is to the right of the city walls on the right-hand side of the rock, along the clifftop. I have a nice view over the beach from there.

There’s a new swimming pool in town these days, and regular readers of this rubbish will recall me having posted a photo of it.

But back in the good old days, there was a tidal swimming pool here on the beach at the Plat Gousset. The tide would fill the pool but when it receded the water would remain behind and this is where all of the events would take place.

It’s hard to imagine today that probably 50 or 60 years go this would have been the norm in a seaside resort like Granville. How times have changed in the modern world (except in the car park in the rue du Port)?

Last weekend I came down the steps from the Museum Christian Dior onto the Plat Gousset.

Today, I’m going in the other direction up the steps. And it’s a long way up and I had to stop for a breather a couple of times. But there’s a really nice view from here of the medieval walled city. The College Malraux is the building on the extreme right, and my building is in front of the College and to the left, behind the light-coloured building with the sloping roof.

A couple of young boys ran past me up the stairs, showing off, but I caught one of them up again before we reached the top. That was a pleasant experience.

In no particular hurry I wandered slowly through the grounds and down to the main road.

There’s a car park on the corner and there was this old vehicle in there. A Renault 4, or “quatrelle”, but cut down and transformed into a convertible. That’s certainly an interesting way to go, but it’s not the answer to a real Citroen Mehari or even a Renault Rodeo.

So I pushed on down the street and missed my turning, ending up in Donville-les-Bains instead.

Past the Casino supermarket and down the hill towards the railway station.

Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that I’ve mentioned the chemin des Moulins – Mill lane – in the past, and that there’s a river that runs in a culvert underneath the modern town and out to sea. So here’s the river, the ruisseau du Boscq, as it passes by one of the old mills and disappears into its culvert underneath where I’m standing.

There were several mills along the river, and those that remain (because it seems that some have been demolished) have been turned into apartments.

Yesterday I was in the parc des Val es Fleurs and discovered a new network of paths around the back of the Ecole Primaire Docteurs Lanos.

Being of a curious bent, I decided today to go to explore all the way around there to see what went on. There’s a good view of the Park from here too and the animals in the compound. All kinds of animals in there – some deer, rabbits and fowl of various descriptions.

Although what the animals in the compound were making of the four-year-old having a temper tantrum outside, I really don’t know. I don’t really know what I made of it, to be honest.

Here was something that I found amusing.

This building is alarmed – it probably heard that I was on my way. But I’m not sure about the reference to James Bond on the door frame. It seems to be the back door to the school so that might have something to do with it, although I’m not quite sure what.

But anyway, I thought that it was worth a photograph for posterity. I’m sure that I’ll be able to think of something to do with it.

My walk took me through the school complex of the Ecole Primaire Docteurs Lanos. The playgound, with a little running track and a small football court, is on the left.

Another school, the Institut Sevigne, is the big building up on the hill in the background, I think. I’ll have to go for a wander up there too for a closer look one of these days too.

But I came to a sudden halt as I was greeted by a fence that barred my path. But you can’t keep a good man down and a bit of climbing practice brought me to safety and back to civilisation.

This building in the Cours Jonville has quite often caught my attention. I’ve often wondered what it is – or what it was.

But it’s all clear now. There’s an application for planning permission on the fence by the door, and it refers to “the old Banque de France building”. So there we are.

Apparently they want to have two commercial shopping outlets, a semi-public gallery and a couple of apartments.

They want to cut the hedge too.

The signs of this anti-virus precautionary measure and starting to become evident now.

The Prime Minister has issued an order that all non-essential public places should be “closed for the duration” and that includes the Subway sandwich bar.

The town was pretty much deserted today. There was nowhere open, in line with this order, i reckon, and so there were hardly any people wandering around. Not much danger of catching this virus if everyone is staying indoors.

But they will have plenty to go at if they stay in at home.

No waiting next week at the roundabout at the junction of the rue du Port, the rue Lecampion and the place Godal.

And the reason? They are connecting up the fibre-optic cable. D-Day is getting closer and closer, and i hope that we will all still be alive in order to make the most of the new fibre-optic service whenever it starts.

——— TO BE CONTINUED ——-

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