Tag Archives: puy de dome

Thursday 17th November 2011 – HAVE A CLOSE …

gorges de la sioule puy de dome france… look at this photo and see if you can spot where the Gorge de la Sioule might be.

It’s one thing I like about going out to Liz and Terry’s early in the morning – the fact that they live right on the edge of the gorge. And because the gorge is so deep and so steep the sun can’t shine into it until it has well-risen.

That means that the surrounding ground is quite warm whereas at the bottom of the gorge the air is quite cold and damp. And when the sun is high enough to enter the gorge it dramatically heats the cold damp air and you have clouds of condensation rising up from the gorge quite spectacularly.

Liz had to do some kind of newspaper interview the other week, in which she described the Combrailles as “The Land That Time Forgot”, and you can see clearly exactly what she means by that.

mont dore puy de sancy puy de dome franceBut it’s not just that view from here (in case you haven’t guessed, we’re at the bird-watching site at the back of St Gervais d’Auvergne again) that is spectacular. There’s a spectacular view across to the Puy de Sancy and the Mont Dore away over there.

All swathed in a hanging cloud or two too.

And if I’m not mistaken, I reckon that I can see some snow up there too. Winter is definitely icumen in. Lhude sing Rudolph

It’s a litle-known fact that when the system of départements was created, what is today the départements of the Puy-de-Dome was to be called the départements of Mont-Dore – which is after all the most significant feature of the region. However, the locals objected, saying that it sounded too much like the mont d’or – a mountain made of gold – and would give the impression that this was an extremely wealthy region.

And so today Terry and I bricked up one of the doorways (their house is two small cottages knocked into one) and fitted the window in the upper half, and then fitted the new door in the other doorway.

And it wasn’t as straight-forward as you might think either. The old doors had been made-to-measure for the doorways and of course, as we discovered as we were trying to fit everything, the door openings were not built straight. That was a complication we didn’t need.

Fitting the door was exciting though. We spent 10 minutes trying to make it seat on the hinge pins,and you’ve no idea how easily it fitted when we took out the wedge that was trapped underneath it.

And we also spent half an hour trying everything that we could to make the door close and you’ve no idea how well it closed when we took the packing strip out of the aluminium closing tray.

Ahhh well. You live and learn, I suppose.

Anyway,tomorrow I’ll be fitting the wind turbine if the weather holds, and now that I have my diamond core drills, I’ll be drilling from the house through into the lean-to and running cables there.

If I’m not careful,I might even have light and power in there tomorrow night.

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Monday 23rd May 2011 – I’ve found a new spot …

chateauneuf les bains puy de dome france… from where I can take a good photograph of the Puy-de-Dome, my favourite photo object. It’s from the old road from St Gervais to Chateauneuf les Bains.

I was in Chateauneuf this evening as it was the opening of the Tourist season there and they were talking about all of the events that they will be doing. In my capacity as radio presenter I was invited. We were treated to some Gospel singers too, which made quite a change. Not my cup of tea at all but at least it shows initiative.

On the way back I took the old road and it was from there that I had the view. It’s a beautiful road, that one, but totally impractical if you are in a hurry.

And that was it, really. The internet is back and so after my long lie-in this morning (I had a Day of Rest today to make up for my long working weekend but someone still managed to wake me on the phone at 08:45) I caught up on the outstanding correspondence and the like.

Nice hot water outside and so a solar shower was called for. And quite right too – it’s really nice being clean. I should do it more often.

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Friday 19th November 2010 – BACK TO WORK TODAY :-(

I managed to struggle round to Liz’s for 13:30 via a quick stop at Nathalie’s to pick up her meeting schedule that we are obliged to broadcast. And then Liz and I drove down to Gerzat and recorded our next series of radio programmes.

This new guy doing the recording is much more efficient – no more searching for pencils, 10 minute chat breaks, all that kind of thing. Everything is ready when we arrive, we are allowed a few minutes to compose ourselves (which is better than a few minutes decomposing ourselves I suppose) and then we are off.

“We’ll start at 14:40 and break at 14:47” he says
And that’s what we do. And then the next one –
“We’ll start at 14:50 and break at 14:57”
And we do that.

And that’s how it continues until the series of recordings are over. A military precision, you might say.
And then after the programmes are recorded, no panic-stricken 15 minutes of frantic listening and so on.
“Is it OK?” we ask
“Yes” he replies, with an air of bewilderment as if “why shouldn’t it be OK?”

And then the bombshell

“How would you like to do a Christmas Special?”
“Errr …. such as?”
“Well, an hour or so of your programme to be broadcast on Christmas Day?”

Move over, Morecambe and Wise, what?

So we spent the rest of the day, Liz and I, planning our show. We’re aiming for maybe 10 Christmas Carols, a little bit of the nativity, a Christmas Story, a couple of poems and then a pile of the usual mayhem.

But how about that for fame? They obviously like us on the airwaves in the Puy de Dome.

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Monday 6th September 2010 – I just KNEW …

… that it wouldn’t be THAT easy.

clermont ferrand puy de dome franceI’ve been all the way to Clermont Ferrand today about this perishing driving licence. And here’s a pic of part of the centre of the city with the Puy-de-Dome towering in the distance. I hope you like it.

So I got to the city early this morning (well, early for me, anyway), found a parking space, paid for three hours parking and picked up a nice thick book (on the Treaty of Yalta, in French if you must know) as I know what these Government departments are like

puy de dome franceAt the prefecture I took my ticket for the queue and was totally astonished to find that the number of people ahead of me in the queue is … errr … NONE – now that’s a first in any Civil Service department anywhere in the world. What a waste of all of this parking money that I’ve just spent!

And so the woman at the counter went through my paperwork, and suddenly came to a dead stop.

clermont ferrand puy de dome france“What’s this?” she said, brandishing a document that she had found.
“It’s my medical statement that I had done on Friday” I replied
“I can see that” she said, “but why have you had it done?”
So I explained slowly and gently that it was for a PSV and HGV driving licence.
“I can see that” she replied “but who told you to do it?”
“I understood that this was the procedure and no-one has told me any different” I replied
“Well, the doctor should certainly have told you different. He ought to know that for all new French commercial driving licences, whether for a new candidate or a transfer in from abroad, the medical is done here by our official doctor!”

clermont ferrand puy de dome franceSo I explained that I needed the licence, and an International one to boot, by the end of September. She retaliated by offering me a medical appointment in, if I heard her correctly, the year 2016.
Yes, it was too good to be true. I knew it would be.

But after a lengthy discussion she did in fact become quite helpful in her own way. She promised to do her best to have my medical certificate accepted. And if she failed, she would send my Belgian licence back to me to take to Canada, but she would “make sure” that I received an International Driving licence.

pope urban II clermont ferrand puy de dome franceNow having had years of promises made to me by all kinds of Civil Servants the world over, my bitter experience is to reserve judgement until I have the paperwork in hand. But it was really nice to find a French Civil Servant doing her best to deal with a difficulty that is not covered by the rules and regulations, and doing her best to think around corners and find a solution.

So after that I went for a wander around. I had paid for all this parking and I wasn’t going to waste it. And in any case I hardly know Clermont Ferrand, even though it’s the “county town” of the area where I live.

cathedral clermont ferrand puy de dome franceThe most important place to visit in Clermont Ferrand is the cathedral. I went inside and managed to take one photo, and then we had an announcement –
“it is now midday and the cathedral is closing until 14:00. Could all visitors make their way to the exits”.
Yes, even God has his two-hour lunch break here in France. Heaven help the sinners in the meantime.

I can’t be doing with this.

So  had a good wander around until 13:15 and then off to the Footy offices where they gave me some log-in details for the website so that I can see my programme. And I am indeed refereeing on Sunday as announced earlier.

Then to Brico Depot for some wood for Terry, followed by a stop off at the Carrefour at Riom for some shopping. But I didn’t do much as I was waylaid at the computer counter. I have a couple of printers here – the very old first-generation printer/scanner/copier that won’t work on Windoze Vista and so I have to copy it onto the old laptop to print it, and the little DJ540 that swallows expensive ink cartridges at an alarming rate. And I need a working printer to print out my refereeing stuff and stuff for the local history group, so I was pricing up another load of cartridges for theDJ540 when I was interrupted by a pile of Epson SX115 printer/scanner/photocopiers reduced on sale to just €49. And the ink for them is the cheapest on offer. So I bit the bullet and purchased one of the aforementioned.

At Liz and Terry’s I gave Terry his wood and inspected our new toy, the Ifor Williams trailer, which isn’t half a mega-beast and well-worth the money that we paid, and then back here to pull more caterpillars off my brassica – I’m in the middle of the second round of the cabbage-white infestation.

It was my turn to animate the Anglo-French group this evening and I had everyone discussing DiY tools and words that derive from them. It went down rather well.

And in other news, terrorists have attempted to bomb a Primary School packed with children, and an 8 year old boy discovered the primed and armed bomb, picked it up and took it into the classroom to show all of his classmates. The carnage that might have been caused can only be imagined.

Now where did this outrage take place? Iraq? Afghanistan? Well actually, it was in Antrim, Northern Ireland, which for those of you who are geographically-challenged, is in the UK. Of course it is rather ironic about how the UK is going to war to deal with “terrorists” who attack armed soldiers who are trained to fight back and to kill, so I carefully scrutinised the news report for the expressions of outrage, horror and revulsion from the British Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the B liar and assorted American politicians who have criticised Scotland’s “interaction” with one of that ilk, yet do you know what? There’s not a word!

And I wonder what they would have said if it had not been the white-skinned Paddy O’Reilly who had planted this device, but the brown-skinned Abdul Mohammed?

And I’m waiting for the aforementioned Paddy O’Reilly to be uncovered and to be named as someone with an interest in the Irish Republic, because I shall be eagerly awaiting the Anglo-American invasion of that country to sort out that nest of vipers that are sending foreign fighters abroad to spread their messages of extremism and hatred amongst innocent children.

But I am not holding my breath as it isn’t going to happen. The Brits and the Americans, and the Irish, and most of the other white-skinned westerners are the biggest bunches of hypocrites I have ever encountered.

It makes me sick.

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Saturday 14th August 2010 – A good few weeks ago ….

… I went to a talk about the history and one of the items that was discussed was the local railway network. With this area being situated on a coal seam and the existence of coal mines all over the place there was at one time a railway network around here that was much more comprehensive than you would think at first.

And most people immediately think of railways as being standard-gauge – 4’8.5″ with substantial earthworks and the like, and there is a great deal of evidence for that, especially for our famous railway down the hill here that was opened to traffic in 1932 and did’t even last 25 years.

I drive regularly (or I used to when I used to go to Brussels) along a certain road that runs into Montmarault from the Montaigut direction and I’ve been convinced that I’ve seen traces that correspond to what the Ordnance Survey would call “dismantled railway” along the side of the road, although there is nothing on any map that I have ever seen that would confirm anything.

But at this talk one of the items discussed was the railway line that ran from Marcillat en Combraille to Commentry. Now Commentry was a major ironworking centre and Marcillat has the remains of a few huge limekilns and so a line bringing the lime from the fields to the blast furnaces seems like a likely proposition. But the only line here as far as I am aware is the old standard gauge line that used to pass down here and which doesn’t go directly to Commentry.

But further enquiry revealed the existence of the “lignes economiques” – a whole series of narrow-gauge lines that ran on light railway principles with the minimum of earthworks, and the border area between the Allier and the Puy-de-Dome was littered with these lines. Anyone who has seen the the Father Brown film will recall what a “ligne economique” looks like.

The relics that I have seen not too far from Montmarault are in fact part of this light railway system but my attention for the moment has been seized by a narrow-gauge line that used to run from Marcillat to Commentry – and points beyond, as I have discovered. I’ve tracked down a list of the names of stations along the route but a casual look on an Internet satellite viewing program hasn’t come up with anything. That’s a shame – long-time readers will remember that we tracked down a bridge of James Brunlees by spotting it on a satellite viewer.

culvert underneath D2144 RN144 durdat larequille allier franceOne place however has crossed my mind as I have crossed it on many occasions. The railway passed through the village of Durdat Larequille somewhere and not too far from there is what looks like a hollow fold in the ground with what might be a bridge over it. And so on my way back from Neris les Bains I stopped for a look.

I’m right about it being an overbridge but if it’s for a narrow-gauge locomotive and train then it would have to be flaming narrow. I couldn’t stand upright in that tunnel under there

culvert underneath D2144 RN144 durdat larequille allier franceThere’s no evidence to suggest that the bridge has been infilled to any extent, suggesting that at one time it might have been of larger size, and I can’t see what might have been a track bed of a railway running to and fro underneath it.

I’m reluctantly coming to the conclusion that this may well not be a railway bridge after all, and that’s a disappointment – I had high hopes for this.

Yes – I was in Neris today. The weather is becoming colder and colder and there was no chance of a solar shower and so after shopping in Commentry (which was boring, I have to say) I went off there. 29°C in the water and only 20°C in the baths itself – but that’s because some person had for reasons best known to him-or herself decided to open up the side of the pool. It used to be an open-air pool complete with poolside cafe but it’s now covered with a balloon-type of marquee. And who on earth would want to open it up today in this weather?

But now I’m nice and clean so I’m going to change the bedding and have a good night’s sleep. And I need it too. I didn’t have the alarms on this morning and when the phone rang I crawled over to it and answered “ok Terry – see you in a bit” only to hear a French voice on the other end. Yes, I was totally out of it this morning. I’ll have to do better tomorrow.

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Monday 9th August 2010 – As you know by now …

birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome france… my favourite photography spot is at the birdwatching point near St Gervais d’Auvergne where there is one of the most marvellous views in the whole of France.

And just as I crested the rise the sun came out from behind a cloud and shone right onto the radio mast on the summit of the Puy de Dome.

It was well-worth a quick stop to take a photo even though, like most photos, it just cannot do justice to the view that we had. Nevertheless I reckon that it has come out rather well and I’m quite happy with that.

I say “we” because I was with Marianne the local journalist on our way down to Liz and Terry’s. They had very kindly invited a few of us round this evening for a drink and a chat. And it’s always nice to be with friends.

lieneke new roofing edge tiles woodwork les guis virlet puy de dome franceMind you, I’d been with Terry – and Simon too – for most of the day as we have restarted work on this roof of Lieneke’s.

Before I tell you anything at all about what we’ve been doing, let me first post a photo of what we’ve actually done so far. Here i this photo you can see that we’ve finished off the main roof. It’s all properly edged and trimmed and you can see the new woodwork that we’ve fitted to support the slates.

building up sloping stone wall lieneke les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut back on the new task today, what we need to do is to build up this edge to a level and then slope the sides upwards to reach the roof.

There was a flat roof here but a flat roof is no good around here, as a couple of modern builders will find out this winter. We have tons of snow and it lies on a flat roof without falling off, gradually melting and as the melt water is locked in by the snow on top the only way for the water to go is downwards. It percolates through the roof and the joints and then drops into the room below. A sloping roof is an essential – and a good slope at that. 40° is not excessive.

building up stone wall lieneke les guis virlet puy de dome franceWe built the scaffolding up at the end and at the sides and ripped off the old roof Once that had been done Terry built a brick pillar at the far edge to make a level with the half of the wall nearest the camera and with the stone pillar that was halfway along the wall

While Terry was shopping for breeze blocks Simon and I filled in the old window space with stones and I may say that we did an excellent job of that And when Terry returned I carried on mixing while Terry and Simon built up the rest of the wall

While I was clearing up, I had a visit from the Jehovah’s Witnesses – the second time that that has happened The first occasion was ages ago and two nice young women; today was some guy with a beard I don’t have an issue with them as long as they don’t harass me If they believe in what they are doing and don’t try to proselytise then that’s fine by me. At least it keeps them off the streets.

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Monday 19th July 2010 – There was no conversation group today …

clotilde lapeize espinasse puy de dome france… so Clotilde invited a couple of us round for a chat and some snacks, which was very nice of her. Of course Strawberry Moose came along too to meet some of his admirers.

Clotilde’s house is gorgeous but it’s really discouraging to hear her say that it took 46 years to get it into the condition that it’s in today. And she showed us a photo of how it was when she bought it – and it really was a right tip too.

birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais de l'auvergne gorge de la sioule church sauret besserve puy de dome franceOn the way down to Clotilde’s, I went the long way round with my new camera via the birdwatching centre at the back of St Gervais d’Auvergne seeing as how it was a beautiful early evening. This as you know is my favourite photography spot.

Here’s a beautiful view of the Gorge de la Sioule just down there in the centre of the photograph and over away to the left is the church at Sauret Besserve

puy de dome franceI wanted to take a couple of photos of the view from there – a view which you all know is one of the best in the whole of France – and see how the new camera performs in the excellent weather conditions.

This is a close-up of the radio antenna on the Puy-de-Dome – a little bit of crop-and-enlarge from a full-size image. We have a new high-quality lens and I was keen to see how that performed too.

moon puy de dome franceBut that wasn’t all that was exciting about my little visit to the centre ornithologique this evening. As I was there this evening, the moon rose. Quite early for once, I know, and so I gave it a little go with the new lens too.

Quite honestly, this photo couldn’t have come out much better, could it?

All in all, I’m well-impressed with my new camera and lens. And quite rightly so, considering the money that I’ve spent on it.

Back at Pooh Corner this morning, Terry has started on Lieneke’s roof and I’ve been roped in to help. That’s going to be the plan for the next few weeks I suppose. And her roof is a right mess – far worse than mine was – and only patching a part of it is not going to be a long-term solution, for the more that you rip off the more damage that you find.

The chimney is leaning quite ominously too and I don’t like the look of it.

But it was hot up there on that roof today and my being stung by a wasp didn’t help matters much. 30-odd years since I was last stung by a wasp and now it’s twice in as many weeks.

And we’ve set a couple of records today. A total of 317 amp-hours on the two banks in the house will take some matching. And 44 degrees in the solar heat exchanger and 42.5 in the electric heater – those figures are impressive too. I’ve been thinking about the electric water heater – a 25-litre oil drum would do the job but an old milk churn with lid would be even better. I need to search the brocantes.

But at Clotilde’s this evening I did hear a story about a man who ran some cold water slowly onto his tin roof and took a shower underneath the downspout – and burnt himself, the water was so hot. And here I am, just having fitted about 150 sq m of metal roof on my barn. I’d love to try that out!

Sunday 27th June 2010 – I had a little fun this evening.

gorges de la sioule birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceI was up on my favourite photography spot – the birdwatching centre or centre ornithologique near St Gervais d’Auvergne – as night was falling, with the new Nikon D5000 camera and the tripod, taking some photos of the surrounding area.

You’ve heard me say on numerous occasions that it is one of the best views in France – away across the Gorge de la Sioule over to the Puy de Dome (on the extreme right) and you’ve seen plenty of photos taken from this spot before.

gorges de la sioule birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceBut every photographer has his favourite spot where he can take photos for comparing different light conditions and also (it has to be said) different cameras and lenses.

The result is that I’m reasonably impressed with what the Nikon managed to do under these conditions. That’s part of the Gorge de la Sioule down there and you can just about see the mist rising as the evening cools down.

st gervais d'auvergne gorges de la sioule birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceBut the couple of long-range photos I took after dark with the tripod on a long exposure didn’t turn out so well. They are far too blurred and that was a disappointment. Late at night a light comes on at the top of the Puy and I was hoping for a decent image.

I reckon that it is when I press the button on the camera that the tripod shakes and I need to overcome that. I’ll have to see if I can find a remote switch for the camera to operate it without touching the camera.

I was down at that end of the area because Liz and I were working on our radio programme today. We are discussing motoring for the next month and it’s amazing just how much you learn. You’ll all have to listen in as it is extremely interesting. And if I could remember the link I would post it.

While we were down there Terry was watching Ingerlund get thrashed by the Krauts. he isn’t impressed by Capello’s new defensive tactics. I did explain to Terry that it was what is known as “The Lego Defence”
“What’s that?” he asked
“It all comes apart in the box”.

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Friday 11th June 2010 – Liz rang me up at lunchtime …

… and we had a really good chat about a lot of things. But after a few minutes, she said “but that’s not what I want to talk to you about really. Someone wants to hire the scaffolding tonight so we were wondering that if you weren’t doing anything you could come round and help us dismantle it and put it on the trailer”.

And so what of I did have anything else to do? Hiring out the scaffolding involves the receipt of The Folding Stuff and we need as much of that as we can get.
“I’ll be there in half an hour!”

birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceOn my way to Liz and Terry’s I stopped off at my favourite photo spot, the bird-watching point near St Gervais d’Auvergne, and it goes without saying that there wasn’t a single one of any kind of bird that I would be interested in spotting.

The view over to the Puy de Dome and the Puy de Saucy was so obscured by clouds that it wasn’t really worth photographing, although I did notice that someone was setting fire to something in the distance.

It didn’t take us long to dismantle the scaffolding, especially as the client, who was clearly in a rush, came around and helped. And now that is out and earning some dosh and that can’t be bad.

Liz kindly fed me and we had another chat. I took advantage of the shower there and then it was home time.

And I have a pile of things to do this weekend. I’ll be rushed off my feet.

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Wednesday 6th January 2010 – I’ve been out and about today.

centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceTerry needed some hand with moving some timber and with fitting to his van the reversing sensors that I gave him a few weeks ago.

So delicately picking my way through the minus 3.5 degrees and the few inches of snow I set off. And I was thoroughly glad that I spent all of that money last week on new tyres for Caliburn. I now have two new road-going tyres on the back and two top-quality snow tyres on the front and you’ve absolutely no idea just how much better driving is in the snow and ice with this set-up. Money well spent!
centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome franceI stopped off at my usual spot by the birdwatching point to see what I could see, and there was this absolutely magnificent view of this tree on the skyline with the Puy-de-Dome in the background. I’m well-impressed with that.

At Terry’s we did the reversing sensors but it was far too cold and icy to go down to the stream bed and haul up this tree trunk. So Liz did us proud with food and we discussed financial matters – with several cunning plans worked out. And then back here on the snow tyres in the minus 8 degrees. What was weird is that Terry and Liz live about 30km from here and between their house and Pionsat I just saw one other vehicle moving, and that was some distance away. And that’s a fairly major road too. But in the lane between Pionsat and here – just 5 km – I encountered 3 cars.

pionsat auvergne puy de dome franceBack here we had had a good morning with clear skies but the afternoon clouded over. I managed about 80 amp-hours of electricity which is a reasonable amount I suppose. But I wish I could have a consistently sunny day for once.

In other news, I have seen in the mainstream news something for the FIRST TIME EVER – despite over 40 years of waiting. Yes, a mainstream news item has been published concerning Palestinian CHRISTIANS.

Despite what the Zionists try to tell you, not all of the Arabs that they are brutalising, starving and slaughtering are evil Muslems. A great many of them are Christians – victims of Zionist atrocities – but it serves no-one’s purpose and no-one’s agenda to admit it. Think of the outcry if it were ever to become common knowledge. And so it was with total astonishment this evening that I saw on the BBC news a reference to Palestinian Christians.

The Bible Belt of the USA – that “beaten, ignorant Bible-ridden white South” of Arthur Schlesingers’s The Politics of Upheaval – whose “Christianity” of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” bears more of a resemblance to Old Testament Judaism that it ever did to the “Love Thy Neighbour” of Jesus, has been long supporters of the Zionist atrocities in Occupied Palestine, and on the grounds that the Palestinians are nothing more that “ignorant brown-skinned sand n*gg*rs”. But how will these Southerners react now that even the BBC is slowly becoming totally fed up of Zionist apologia and slowly beginning to let slip one or two little home-truths on the subject? Have apoplexy, I suppose, assuming that they can find someone able to read the article to them.

Given the amount of Bible-bashing that goes on in the Southern USA and to which I refer elsewhere, someone did once ask why it was that Jesus was not born amongst them. Of course the reason for this is quite easy to explain. In the whole of the Southern USA they couldn’t find a virgin and three wise men.

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Sunday 20th September 2009 – IT WAS A LOVELY DRIVE …

… out to Briffons this afternoon. It took me about an hour or so to get there – Espinasse – Biollet – Pontaumur and then up into the foothills of the Mont Dore and the Puy de Sancy. Had the weather been any good it would probably have been fair to say that parts of the drive might have been spectacular, but in fact there was an almost constant drizzle and restricted visibility once I’d passed Pontaumur.

briffons perpezat hanging cloud mont dore puy de dome franceThere are some delightful settings for football grounds around here but I reckon that Briffons probably beats them all to date.

Even with the low rainclouds ( and I bet we are pretty well high up here) the view can be said to be spectacular, as I’m sure you must agree.

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire briffons perpezat matthieu malnar puy de dome france
It was Pionsat’s 2nd XI playing today, and Briffons are in Division 1 (one step higher up) of their pool so I was filled with some trepidation following the mauling last week at Pontaumur, and once more Matthieu in goal had to work hard to earn his corn, as you can see in the photo.

But I needn’t have worried. Jan, the first-choice centre-half, was back in the defence and Sebastien was playing in his habitual centre-forward role

fcpsh football club de foot pionsat st hilaire briffons perpezat puy de dome franceIt was amazing how much more solid the team looked with just those two changes (although there were a couple of other team changes too).

The teams were pretty evenly matched for most of the game and Pionsat ran out as winners thanks to a typical 2nd XI goal – hoof over the top of the defence and a quick forward running on, beating the offside trap. But they had to work hard for it and fully deserved the victory.

Tomorrow I’ll be back in the attic fitting the battens and insulation on part of the last wall. Then I have to work out the layout of the stairs and the door into the room. Poncing will have to wait for a couple of days.

Which reminds me – the French verb for “to wax skis” is FARTER. So when I’ve finished the attic I can go down to the ski slopes at Superbesse not too far from here, get a job as a ski repairer and spend the winter poncing and farting to my heart’s content.

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Friday 17th July 2009 – THERE WAS THIS REALLY IMPRESSIVE VIEW …

low cloud puy de dome france… of the Puy de Dome as a low cloud sailed quietly past. The Puy is actually 1465 metres so that gives you an indication of how low the cloud was, which also gives you an indication of the weather today.

We woke up at about 07:30 but the weather was far too bad to go out and go a-roofing. By 10:00 it had stopped raining so we set off to Pontaumur to buy the concrete. But despite taking our money they had no concrete in stock so I renegotiated the deal for some money back and 10 sacks of cement.

Terry and I then dragged the old Sankey trailer out from underneath the undergrowth and set off to the nearby quarry for half a ton of sand. The sand cost us 18 Euros and luckily there was about half a ton of gravel still in the trailer from a project from 2003 when I was taken ill and so for a sum much less than the 14 bags of concrete we have enough cement, sand and gravel for about 5 times as much. And it won’t be wasted either.

But that was as far as we got, for the driving rain came back. With the wet, the slippery conditions and the possibility of lightning we decided to call it a day and have the afternoon off. A sensible precaution, methinks.

The weather forecast this weekend is for “better weather”. It would have to be, as it couldn’t get very much worse.

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