Tag Archives: as marcillat

Sunday 29th May 2011 – What a beautiful day!

Yes, definitely a leading candidate for the nicest day of the year so far. And I spent the morning sleeping – after all, it is Sunday. And if I hadn’t had to have gone for a ride on the porcelain horse I might still be there now.

But then again I might not, for Percy Penguin rang me for a chat this morning. She says that she’s missing me and so I told her to improve her aim.

And so after breakfast and a little relax it was off to the footy. Marcillat’s 2nd XI are pretty awful and they kept Commentry out until about 60 minutes into the game when they completely folded up and lost 4-0.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire manzat puy de dome ligue football league franceThat led to a quick thrash down the road to Pionsat just in time for the match against Manzat. Mind you, the start was delayed while the referee checked the names, identities and shirt numbers of the Manzat team, all 14 of whom seemed to be called Mohammed.

I counted 5 players who were obliged by the referee to change shirts, and why they were wearing the incorrect shirts I shall leave it up to you to work out. I’m far too cynical to be objective.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire manzat puy de dome ligue football league franceWhat else was strange about this match was even though it was the last match of the season and despite that fact that no other side was playing, Pionsat could only muster 12 players, none of whom was a goalkeeper and Christophe ended up taking the gloves

Not that he had much to do – he didn’t have one save to make and the only shot that beat him was a shot that would have beaten most other goalkeepers. No-one can be disappointed by that goal

fcpshApart from a slight wobble on the hour mark, Pionsat were never under any pressure and ran out 3-1 winners, with 2 of the nicest goals I have seen for ages. They were slicing through the Manzat defence like a hot knife through butter.

In the end the Manzat goalkeeper, who had been screaming at his defence throughout the match, stormed off in disgust and while I don’t agree with him doing that, I did have some sympathy with him.

This evening I had a shower seeing as the water was at 41 °C and at 21:30 I was outside eating a pizza, so nice was the weather.

Tomorrow of course I’m packing ready to leave. I’m on the road late Monday night to do a few hours before bedtime. I hate trying to drive through the daytime.

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Saturday 28th May 2011 – The first thing …

… that I remembered this morning was the usual cacophony of bells and whistles and the like. Second thing was the boulangère outside. And I hadn’t left her any money and I wanted to see her to cancel the bread while I’m away. Ahhh well.

And so after a leisurely morning of not doing much it was off to Commentry. And no OSB in the DiY place either. That’s a blow. I’ll have to use one piece of anything that I’ve got around here and then get the rest in the UK. But they did have a bundle of coving stuff there – end of series and the like – all for €3:00 and so that ended up in the back of Caliburn.

At the Bonnes Affaires I bought another one of the huge casseroles with lids, and that will be the beichstuhl for outside, when I come back.

And at the swimming baths at Neris something quite unusual happened. I was there before it opened and in the queue in front of me was a young kid. When she got to the ticket office to pay, the attendant asked her how old she was.

She was 11, so she said, and the age limit for an unaccompanied child is 12, so the attendant turfed her out. The kid burst into tears and so, feeling quite sorry for her, I found myself saying to the attendant “that’s ok – I’ll keep an eye on her”

When I was the stepfather to Roxanne we used to go to the swimming baths every week. I taught her to swim and to do lots of other aquatic things too and we used to have a great time there. It was something that I really missed after I split up with her mother – I was such a good dad to her, I reckon – and so with this girl we had the same kind of fun in the swimming baths. I taught her to do somersaults underwater, to swim on her back, and then we did a quick 12 lengths of the pool, and it’s quite a long one too and I was shattered. I have to say that I haven’t had so much fun for ages. It’s what I really miss, doing something useful and productive.

But just imagine that in the UK!

simca aronde commentry allier franceAnd while I was at Neris-les-Bains I encoutered another old car from the early 1960s parked up outside the swimming baths. The Simca Aronde was one of the most popular cars of its size in France during the 50s and early 60s, selling almost one and a half million examples, and there are still quite a few about here and there.

This is a P60 model, launched in 1959 and manufactured up until 1964. This one here is in surprisingly good condition for its age and looked really nice.

Tomorrow it’s the final matches of the season. We have Pionsat’s 1st XI, having blown their season last week, playing against Manzat who are already relegated. That’s at 15:00. That clashes with Marcillat’s 1st XI playing Commentry, but Marcillat’s 2nd XI are playing at 13:00, also at home, and so I reckon I’ll go there first and make a good day of it.

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Saturday 7th May 2011 – Well, I’ve been a busy little bee today.

Yes, and I don’t normally do all that much on a Saturday either.

We started off at this meeting at the Maison Ducros-Maymat that is threatened with demolition. The mayor turned up to meet us as promised, but only 50 minutes late. He told us about the reasons for its demolition, which was sound logic as far as it went, but once we began to push back the barriers, his logic became more and more shaky. What was so funny about this was that one of my arguments is that all of the civic and social functions of the town ought to be regrouped around a focal point, like the town square. Dispersing them is really dispersing the soul of the town. Just at that moment two people, clearly out of breath, came up to us and asked “where is this restaurant – the Queue de Milan?” And so we explained that it was another 500 metres outside the town opposite the old railway station. It rather proved my point.

gite communale st julien la geneste puy de dome franceAfter that I headed out to St Julien la Geneste to the formal opening of this Gite. It was an old house that the Commune bought and has modernised into holiday accommodation.

It’s been excellently done, that’s for sure. And I was talking to the manager of the place and he was telling me that they need a web-site doing. So I’ll give him a quote and see what happens.

eglise de notre dame des bles gouttieres puy de dome franceOn the way back, Marianne and I went for a good drive around.

The first place that we visited was a little chapel situated on one of the highest points in the area. It’s the Eglise de Notre Dame des Blés – the Church of Our Lady of the Meadows and it was built as recently as 1959 as a site of pilgrimage.

There is, apparently a religious procession up here once a year, although I’ve not been able to tag along quite yet – I’ll add it onto my list of things to do.

view puy de sancy eglise de notre dame des bles gouttieres puy de dome franceBut never mind the chapel for a moment – just look at the view!

It’s a shame that the weather wasn’t clearer because had there not been all of this haze the view right across to the Puy de Sancy would have been stunning. It’s not too bad as it is.

This is certainly one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the whole area without a doubt and I’ll have to come back another time.

abandoned railway line paris orleans montlucon gouttieres les bouchards puy de dome franceYou’ll know that I have an interest in abandoned railway lines and I’ve featured on these pages quite a bit about the abandoned Paris-Orleans railway extension between Montlucon and Gouttieres that opened as late as 1932 and closed as early as 1939.

We’d walked up to the Tunnel des Bouchards from the Pionsat direction a while ago, and so today we went to try to find our way up to the tunnel from the other direction.

That wasn’t at all possible given the time and the conditions. We need much more time to do this and to come back in February or March when there is no vegetation.

Back home again, Marianne and I had an informal meeting to plan our next line of attack about the Maison Ducros, and then went out to one of the other members of the Pionsat Patrimoine who was having internet issues – for which I diagnosed a new cable (which now works).

I managed 10 minutes to do a quick bit of shopping at the Intermarche and then it was off to Marcillat to watch their 1st XI take on Breuil, 2nd in the division. And much to my surprise, and that of everyone else in the crowd, Marcillat wom 3-1 even though they were under the cosh for much of the game. Mind you, this was a game at level 6 of the French pyramid – 1 level higher than Pionsat (although in a different part of the pyramid) but believe me, Pionsat’s 1st XI could have played both these teams at the same time and won the match with some to spare. The level of football in the Allier is way below that in the Puy-de-Dome.

Tomorrow, still no footy at Pionsat (what a waste of a weekend this is!) but according to Franck, the Pionsat trainer who was at the match this evening, there’s a match at St Marcel, about 5 miles from Pionsat (but in the Allier), kick-off at 15:00. I don’t recall ever having been to St Marcel 😉

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Friday 6th May 2011 – Some of the things …

dismantled caravan being pulled out of barn les guis virlet puy de dome france… that I have to do around here! It’s not very easy. In fact it was quite a pantomime to drag the old caravan body out of the barn as I expected it might be. And as I also expected that it might, it did come out in bits as well, eventually.

Mind you it took some moving, with a hand-winch, a rope and a couple of stout chains and my estimate of having the Ford Cortina 2000E estate in there by knocking-off time – well, knocking-off time on Tuesday, maybe. We shall see.

Liz asked me the other day “are you lonely?” Too right, when you have a job like this to do. Wives and girlfriends do have their place occasionally, and had one such been here, then the Cortina would have been moved and the caravan body dragged out and the Cortina put in there by the close of play yesterday.

But then again, which wife or girlfriend would give up what she has for half of what I have?  And in any case, as I know from bitter experience, he who travels fastest travels alone and it’s better to be on your own that be badly-accompanied. Had I still been living in a state of Holy Matrimony, I would still be driving a taxi or a bus around Crewe. I’ve come an awfully long way in the last 18 years, and I wouldn’t have got here in a taxi or a bus.

Anyway, enough of me reminiscing. The caravan body is out and it’s ready to be burned. Tomorrow I’m out at this house that they want to demolish (first I knew of this was a letter from the Mayor of Pionsat saying that the President of Pionsat-Patrimoine had nominated me ….. – pity he hadn’t told me about it) and then off to some fete or other that Marianne, the journalist from La Montagne, wants me to photograph. That’s followed at 19:00 (just for a change) by Marcillat’s 1st XI being thrashed by Breuil – there’s no match at Pionsat this weekend.

Sunday I’m busy, Monday I’m out in the evening so I can’t leave a fire unattended, and so it’s Tuesday for my fire and for putting the Cortina in the barn. That’s 3 full days for someone to come up with a major change of plan.

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Saturday 16th April 2011 – One thing you have always wondered …

… is “what happens to the shop-soiled and damaged goods that LIDL can’t sell?” I can answer that for here in France – it all goes to “Les Bonnes Affaires” in Commentry. One of my favourite “end of series” shops – it’s had a major makeover and a huge pile of the junk that’s been in there for years has all gone. It’s now packed full of LIDL special offers in damaged, damp or torn packages.

The lady who runs it doesnt have a clue about pricing. Some of the stuff is 3 times as dear as it was when LIDL sold it. But other stuff is for nothing, like the battery-operated LED motion detectors at €2:99 and the 12 Volt LED lights with MR16 fittings (the ones that I use here) at just €2:00 each – I cleaned out the stock of them, I can tell you.

It was a really profitable half hour in there, I can tell you.

So this morning I did some tidying up in here and threw away a load of stuff that I no longer need. And then moved the Sankey trailer and dumped it in the lane (and now watch someone want to come past for the first time in a hundred years)  before going off to Commentry for the shopping. Apart from the usual, I bought 6 tomato plants for €2.30 and 3 aubergine plants for €1:90. I hope that I will have better luck with the aubergines and tomatoes than I have had previously. And the LIDL in Commentry has been enlarged – and about time too – it was far too small.

Swimming at Neris was next on the agenda. The water was lovely and a good warm shower finished that off nicely. Back home I gave Lieneke some of my mint cuttings (anyone else want any? I’ve a load)  and at 20:00 went to watch Marcillat’s 2nd XI play, seeing as there was no footy at Pionsat this evening.

Franck, the Pionsat team coach, was playing central defence but he couldn’t save them from a right spannering – 6-0 thay went down and they were lucky to get nil as well. They really are awful. Within the opening 30 minutes Marcillat had had to use one of their substitutes and he was booked twice and back in the dressing room. An astonishing performance.

But there’s footy tomorrow afternoon at Pionsat – the 1st XI are playing St Bonnet. Pionsat beat them 4-0 down there and they really do need to run up a cricket score tomorrow to keep their promotion hopes alive. We shall see.

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Saturday 8th January 2011 – I had to go …

…and lie down for an hour in a darkened room today.

Yes, I’ve been to order my windows for the bedroom and the bathroom. A whopping great €1100, for which they wanted a 50% deposit on the spot. I’ve never spent that much money in my life, and you should have seen the moths come flying out of my wallet when I unlocked it. These windows at Lapeyre are three times the price of Brico Depot windows but then again they are supposed to be 100 times better. I hope so.

Apart from that, there wasn’t much of any excitement happening in Montlucon. I’ve bought another pile of stuff that I need to carry on working in the bedroom and I did my monthly shopping. But I had a huge GRRRRR at the Auchan. I have €8:50 in credit on my card there so I asked the girl to cash it up – but having checked me out she then forgot to do it and if I’m not careful I’m going to lose this money. I only have until the end of the month to claim it.

At Brico Depot someone from a florist’s left a note on Caliburn for me to go round there to chat to them – one assumes about solar panels and the like. But there was no-one at home so I dunno what that was all about. Next stop was the swimming baths at Nerys-les-Hughes where I spent most of my hour in the water watching half a dozen kids aged about 9 or 10 having a load of fun on a huge foam-rubber raft-type of affair. It’s a long time since I’ve seen kids have so much fun without any adults moaning at them.

I was told that tonight there was to be a football match at Pionsat – one of the matches that was postponed from December. But the place was in total darkness – apparently the game has been re-rearranged for tomorrow. But there were lights on at Marcillat. Their first team had a game and so I wandered off up there for a couple of hours. A Promotion League match this was. That’s about one division higher that Pionsat’s 1st XI but in all seriousness Pionsat’s 3rd XI could have stuffed rhe both of them – at the same time. The standard was pretty dire.

But you can see that I’m slowly emerging from my winter hibernation – I’m getting ready for footy again.

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