Tag Archives: les guis

Monday 19th April 2010 – I BET THAT YOU ARE …

.. all wondering what happened to Monday’s blog entry when you looked last night.

The answer to that is that at the time that I would normally be on the internet, I was asleep in the back of Caliburn in a layby somewhere between Troyes and Chalons-sur-Marne.

Some kind of emergency has declared itself in Brussels. There are a couple of things that needed to be done here and so I was obliged to hit the road and head north.

Something that rather disrupted my day as you might expect. I had all kinds of plans for things that I was going to do.

But it was a good job that on Friday I had emptied out Caliburn and given him a good clean-up. It was a simple matter then to check the oil and water and sling a pile of stuff into the back.

And with a flask of coffee, a pile of butties and the usual stuff to nibble, I hit the road and that was that.

Sunday 18th April 2010 – A record day today.

60.6 degrees in the heat exchanger – the hottest since 21st August. 44.3 degrees in the verandah – the highest since 8th September. The 15 litres of water in the black bucket with the pane of glass on top – that reached 36 degrees,hot enough to shower with. 22.3 degrees up here in the attic (it’s still 21.3 degrees in here now!). You can see what kind of a day we have had.

birdwatching centre ornithologique st gervais d'auvergne puy de sancy puy de dome franceBut if you peer carefully through the volcanic ash (or click on the image to see a full-size pic) you can make out the Puy de Sancy in the distance. 1886 metres (or about 6000 feet of it) and it’s still heavily-laden with snow. So summer hasn’t quite a-cumen in yet.

I’m in my favourite spot at the viewpoint near St Gervais d’Auvergne on the way to see the not-very-patient and to drop off some scaffolding tubes. And also to pick up some football boots that he won for me on eBay, which was very nice of him and much appreciated.

And had I had the football boots with me earlier I would even have had a game of football because something happened today that has never ever happened before and probably won’t ever happen again. Pionsat’s much-maligned 3rd XI arrived at Neuf-Eglise with not only a full complement, but also 3 substitutes and another player who didn’t make the team but came along to watch the match with his boots “just in case”, making 15 in all – and the opposition could only put out 5 players! How about that?

Now if a team cannot field a minimum of 8 players it forfeits the match, loses a point and has to pay a fine equivalent to the travelling expenses of the opposition etc etc. And believe me, there are some teams that enforce this rule to the letter. But other clubs are much more friendly about it and so it was decided that
1) everyone would pretend that the match took place with an effective complement for each team (and there was a frantic hunting around for medical certificates and official identity cards so as to make the team sheet look correct)
2) Pionsat were credited with the score that they would have had had they won the match by forfeit
3) Pionsat’s 3 substitutes plus the spectator and also a volunteer from the starting 11 were loaned to the 5 players from Neuf-Eglise so that they would have sufficient players to start the match.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire neuf eglise puy de dome football ligue de foot franceAnd as I said, had I had my boots with me I would have got a game as well, which would have been quite nice. I didn’t think until afterwards that I should have volunteered to referee the match now that I’m qualified.

We ended up having a nice leisurely friendly match of 10-a-side, which Pionsat ended up by winning 3-1. I wish more matches could be played in such a friendly atmosphere as this – especially when Pionsat’s 3rd XI can win them.

Saturday 17th April 2010 – We had another footfest tonight.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire pontaumur puy de dome ligue football league franceWe started off at 18:30 with Pionsat’s 2nd XI playing Pontamur. They lost 3-1 but that is something of a triumph as earlier in the season Pontaumur gave them a good spanking.

And the result was something of a travesty. Pontaumur had no more than about 5 shots on target whereas Pionsat spent the whole match peppering the Pontaumur goal – with the woodwork and the Pontaumur goalkeeper working overtime, as in this photo where the keeper pushes a header from Christophe round the post.

After that, the 1st XI played Miremont, and they won 4-1. That was something of a disappointment as in the away fixture, while I was watching the match at Pontaumur, Pionsat won by an astonishing 12-1.

There was quite a big crowd too – the fine weather bringing out the supporter in their … er …. pairs. It really was a beautiful day though – the temperature in the heat exchanger reached 51.5 degrees and the 15 litres of water reached 32 degrees – almost hot enough to shower with.

I went down to the Post Office at 11:40 to post a letter, only to find that it closes at 11:30 on Saturday. And so off to St Eloy for whooping where I spent next to nothing – a record €0:00 in LIDL. I planned to look in on this new megashop that’s just opened but would you believe it – it closes between 12:00 and 14:00 ON A SATURDAY for lunch. Some people just don’t want any custom.

This afternoon I went for an hour or two and socialised with my new neighbours. Now that makes a change – me socialising. And that was the sum total of my day.

But at the football Max was there. He’s the secretary of the club as well as being captain of the 3rd XI.
He asked me “does your mate Terry fancy a game of football on Sunday? we’re short-handed.”
“Shorthanded on Sunday?” I queried. “That’s nothing. Terry has been short-handed for almost a week!”

Friday 16th April 2010 – I must be off my head.

I bet you have been wondering what I’ve been doing going to Clermont Ferrand every Friday evening and what is the real reason behind my sudden quest for fitness. The truth is that a couple of months ago I saw a course advertised on a website and being a keen follower of further education and broadening my sphere of knowledge, I decided that I would talk my way onto it.

And sure enough I did, and I’ve been on this course for six weeks and I am now, would you believe it, a fully-qualified French football referee. I reckoned that seeing as I have more than a passing interest in football and I go to as many local matches as I can, I would take something of a more active role in the sport. If I were really honest about it I’m in no state to actually play and so refereeing would be a suitable role. And it’s also an unusual qualification to have, isn’t it?

Many people had to study hard and take this examination, but not me of course. My route to the top was somewhat easier –
1) They enquired if my parents were married at the time of my birth
and on hearing that the answer was no —
2) They gave me an eyesight test
which I promptly failed …
and so I was passed straight through and didn’t have to sit this 2-hour exam consisting of 44 video extracts of matches and asked several questions on each extract.

Today I did some work up here until about 12:30 and then I started to tidy up in the garden now that work has finished there. This afternoon I had a good go at tidying Caliburn and I have the cab quite clean and tidy.

But I still can’t find my mobile phone and I’ve no idea where it is that I have left it.

Thursday 15th April 2010 – Tonight’s image …

ford cortina mark 5 gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome france… is another aerial shot, and you can see what I have been doing today. I’ve lengthened the path down in front of the raised beds and filled the base with rubble. And then I’ve filled in the path between the new large bed and the two other beds just below it.

I’ve also done the path between the megacloche and the raised bed in front of it. Those two paths have been made of rubble with a layer of slate on top.

The piles of rubble on the ground floor inside the house are getting smaller and smaller and that is real progress. In certain places you can even see the floor now!

But I’m well-impressed with all of this. I started at the beginning of March so it’s all taken a mere six weeks to accomplish. It’s hard to believe that back in early March it was all looking like this.

Moving the chassis of the Citroen 2CV I found another adder. And again I moved my hand before it could react. Grahame thinks that they must be slow worms, but certainly not. I listened closely to it and it was definitely going “two plus two equals four – three plus three equals six”.

And that reminds me “groan” … ed of the mother who rang up the school to speak to her son’s teacher.
“What kind of maths is this that you are teaching little Johnny? He’s been sitting here last night saying things like ‘two plus two; the sonofabitch is four – three plus three; the sonofabitch is six’ et cetera”
“Well, I don’t know where he’s learning words like that” replied the teacher “but I’ve been trying to get him to say ‘the sum of which is …'”.

Wednesday 14th April 2010 – I’ve finished all of the beds in the garden

raised bed gardening les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see the last one just here on the right of the image.I can’t go any further for to the right are some fruit trees, behind me is the scrap Ford Transit van and to the left of the raised beds are the old Ford Cortina and the diesel w123 Mercedes 240D. And once we get round to next winter I can think about moving all of the vehicles elsewhere.

But 9 raised beds is enough for now, what with the megacloche as well – you may remember that last year it was just 8 raised beds.

There’s a caravan window across the megacloche for the moment. My tray of radishes and my container of carrots are underneath it hardening off ready to be planted. I needed the space in the greenhouse for the April sowing of seed, which I also did today. But nothing much seems to be germinating and that’s pretty disappointing. I’m sure it didn’t take this long last year.

15 of us at football training tonight. We started off with a few laps around the pitch and then had a game of quick-passing football. After that it was a heading match and then we finished off with a 7-a-side game. There was a new player there tonight – someone who I hadn’t seen before. A big guy, bald and a little on the senior side and called Christophe, which is bound to complicate things as there are already more Christophes than you can shake a stick at.

It reminds me of the old days with the Cheese Hall pub in Crewe. If you wanted a labourer or two to help on a job you would stick your head through the door and shout “Paddy”. You’d be trampled to death in the stampede.

But I digress.

There’a a goalkeeping crisis in the club right now – just one fit keeper for all three teams … “I bet he’s busy then” – ed … and this Christophe is someone who somebody else knows who retired from playing a few years ago but he’s been enticed out of retirement to keep goal for the 2nd XI for the next few weeks while Francois, Michael and Philippe recover from their injuries.

But this training lark – I’m miles off being match-fit and at my age I doubt if realistically I can get back into the right kind of fitness. But there is hope for me yet. If Tomi Morgan can crack it in the Welsh Premier League at his age then I can do it in the 14th level of the French pyramid at two and a half years more.

The proof of the pudding will be when I wake up tomorrow morning and see how the bones feel. I did notice that I was running much more freely tonight, and that’s a good sign.

Tuesday 13th April 2010 – Just for a change …

… I woke up early this morning. So after breakfast I came back up here and carried on with my website updating for a couple of hours until it was work time.

gardening raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceOnce I had done a couple of hours of that it was downstairs and working on this extra bed again. It’s finished now thank heavens for it wasn’t half a backbreaking task. I reckon I uprooted 12 trees and pulled up about a mile of root segments.

I also pulled up a load of exciting bits and pieces of which the most interesting was part of the brake mechanism for a racing bicycle. I wonder what that was doing there

And while I was at it I started to locate amongst all of the undergrowth the original fruit trees that I planted in 1999. So far, one apple tree and one pear tree and they are both budding.

The new bed will be about 3mx1m and just the job for sowing a load of spuds for this year. The earlies are not far off being ready and they will churn up this new bed quite nicely. But germination of seeds  in the greehouse is soooooooooooooooo sloooooooooooooow. Not very much has germinated so I reckon I need to sow another load.

And you know how they say that if something is too good to be true then it usually is? Well I have something simmering away on the back boiler that sounds a bit like that and I am waiting to see what the catch is.

Monday 12th April 2010 – Well, we are all going to be famous now.

We were all filmed at our Anglo-French Conversation Group this evening – but there’s no need to get excited. It was just one guy with the camera and the microphone and that was that – all very low key. He asked me about 6 questions and then proceeded to film the attendees and ask them a couple of questions.

I was all on my own to do the organising though as Christiane had to work and Liz was busy rescuing Terry from the hospital where she had taken him yesterday. He had had a fight with his chopsaw and finished second.

home made cloche les guis virlet puy de dome franceToday I finished my megacloche and if I had have had time to photograph it I would have regaled you all with a photo yesterday. But anyway, here it is today. It’s 1m20 tall, 1m20 deep and 1m60 wide. The front slopes at 45 degrees and so is a veritable sun trap.

Or it will be when I put some glass in it. I don’t have enough old caravan windows to finish it but Simon reckons he has some old windows lying around and I can go and liberate them in due course.

Once I finished that I started moving the old pile of gravel that I had left when I was taken ill in 2003 and also digging over another raised bed. I know – I said that I wouldn’t dig any more but I have to fight my way in to where the fruit trees start, and there is a strip of about 3.5m x 1m looks so inviting for a bed of potatoes if I can get all the ground alder out.

Being on my own this evening I told Bill about Terry’s little contretemps and asked him to explain it to everyone, which he duly did.
“Not his whole finger? asked Mark incredulously.
“No” replied Bill. “The one next to it”.

Sunday 11th April 2010 – What a good weekend …

… for the footy.

Last night, Pionsat’s 3rd XI lost 6-1 to Manzat. Not very impressive you might think but Manzat are top of the league by a country mile and beat one of the other teams in the division 14-1 the other day, and they have recorded several wins where they have scored in double figures. 6-1 is a good result.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire st gervais d'auvergne puy de dome ligue football league franceAt 13:00 the 1st XI travelled down the road to take on hated local rivals St Gervais d’Auvergne and defeated them comfortably 2-0 and that in itself is astonishing (here is Nico scoring the team’s – and his – first of the two).

Even more surprising is that they played the latter part of the match with just 10 men. but even so they never really looked in any serious danger

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire charensat puy de dome ligue football league franceThat match finished at 14:45 and just 15kms away the 2nd XI were playing against Charensat – kickoff 15:00 so I had a hectic drive through the lanes.

Now there’s a goalkeeping crisis again at Pionsat as they currently have two keepers out injured and Philippe had been called out of retirement to keep goal for the 2nd XI. But he hadn’t turned up and with no other volunteer Christophe was “persuaded” to go between the posts.

fcpsh fc pionsat st hilaire charensat puy de dome ligue football league franceNow he’s the first to admit that he’s no keeper and he let in two goals that maybe some other keeper might have kept out. But he made up for that by having excellent positional sense, excellent timing, quick reactions and a good deal of bravery.

He can be quite pleased with what he accomplished today especially as up at the other end Pionsat scored three times to win the match! Well done Christophe!

After that I went round to see Liz and Terry but they were out. Simon was there doing some plastering so we had a good chat and then I came home. I was sorry to have missed them as I had had need of Liz, in her role as the “Auvergne Snake Murderer”, this morning. Moving a pile of damp and rotting wood I put my hand about half an inch away from a viper. Luckily my reactions were quicker than his!

Saturday 10th April 2010 – It’s Saturday again.

Where did the week go? I’m organising Monday night’s meeting of the Anglo French Group and it seems like only yesterday that it was last Monday night.

And so why do I need to organise the meeting? Well, we are all going to be famous. French TV has heard about our radio show and is coming to interview us on Monday early evening. They also want to have a nosey at the Anglo-French Group and have a chat with them.

Well well well!

So today seeing as there was only one footy match this evening – at 20:00 – it was “shopping in Commentry”, and I had quite a good day. Apart from the usual stuff they had good quality spades on sale in ALDI (I have a garden fork and a shovel of this brand) so I bought one to replace the spade that was broken. I’ve been using the Deputy Spade for the last few days but it’s nothing like as good.

I was also doorstepped on the carpark of the ALDI by someone who wanted to talk about solar panels. A man who has lived 20 years in France and can’t speak French! I asked him if he was planning to learn and he said that he couldn’t be bothered. It really beggars belief – all these Brits that moan like hell about foreigners who come to the UK and won’t speak English and insist on native-language help in British Government offices. They ought to come over here and look at some of the Brits – they won’t moan about them, I bet. Yes, there are even plans to have English-language assistance in some of the French town halls.

Not that I’m all that bothered about it but it’s the people who need the English language help over here that are the ones that moan about the foreigners needing native language assistance back in the UK. The irony goes totally over their head.

While I’m in “rant mode” – remember the other day that I was talking about dealing with some people by the employment of a pickaxe handle? Well, it just so happened that at the Bricomarche they had some pickaxe handles on sale and seeing as I didn’t have one in Caliburn I treated myself. Now let someone argue with me. Never mind the baseball bat – I’m not into globalisation and a good old pickaxe handle as used by generations of British tea leaves will be just fine.

Glorious hot day too, and nice and warm in the swimming baths at Neris but no swimming races or swimming galas. I was quite disappointed. But I wasn’t feeling down – there wasn’t any need to seeing as we didn’t have the pleasure of their company.

Friday 9th April 2010 – This morning …

… there was a thick hanging stationary cloud over the mountain (as predicted last night) – the first one for ages. It was grey and drizzly so after breakfast I came up here and carried on with updating the footy website.

Once the cloud lifted a little (and I mean a little) I went outside to start on the megacloche. This involved rooting around in the barn for the wood and this led on to searching through the old clothes and rescuing a few that are too good to chuck in the bin. Once that was all out of the way and I’d found the wood I cut it all to shape ready for after lunch.

So now the base has been made and laid in position, I’ve built the two sides, and I’ve got the wood ready to make the back so with a bit of luck it will be ready on Monday. It’s 1m60 wide by 1m15 deep by 1m20 high at the back and 15 cms at the front – so it will be a veritable sun-trap (assuming that we get more sun). Fenestration for the moment will be by somoe of the old caravan windows that are lying around here – a useful quarry of all kinds of spare parts is an old caravan.

The trip to Clermont Ferrand and back was uneventful but we finished early so coming through Pionsat I noticed that the floodlights were on at the ground. They are training, maybe. I hope so as they need some good results this weekend and all three matches are derbies against hated local rivals where considerable bragging rights are at stake.

In other news, there is to be a meeting shortly of nuclear powers and a motion has been tabled to quiz the Zionists about their possession of nuclear weapons. As a result, the leader of the Zionists has pulled out and instead is sending a minion who will doubtless reply “I know nothing”.

Although the Zionists refuse to comment, it is a rather open secret that they possess nuclear armaments – they had a secret arrangement with another pariah state – White South Africa – back in the 1960s and 1970s where nuclear technology leaked from the USA by Zionist and White Supremacist nuclear scientists, with the covert agreement of the USA Government, was put to use by those two groups. In the 1970s Jimmy Carter estimated that the Zionists had about 150 nuclear weapons. How many they have now is of course anyone’s guess.

Mordechai Vanunu, a Zionist “scientist”, was imprisoned for many years for trying to leak to sympathetic newspapers details of the Zionist nuclear arsenal, and the terms of his release forbid him to talk to any foreigners or any journalists and every time one of them hovers around his place of abode Vanunu is whisked off back to prison. Yet despite the furore about Aung San Sun Kyi in Burma (whose father as we all know was the person who “invited the Japanese liberators” into Burma in 1942 and co-operated (at least in the early stages) in the wholesale massacre of tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Burmese civilians, many of whom were women and children), no-one ever tries to rally round Vanunu.

There are just four states in the entire world who have refused to sign up to the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty – Pakistan and India (who would wipe each other off the face of the earth in the twinkling of an eye given half a chance and never mind the consequences), North Korea (which has an American nuclear arsenal right on its doorstep) and …. errrrr …. the Zionists if I break my usual convention and accord them – for the purposes of this discussion and no other – some kind of de-facto statehood.

So if the Zionists have nuclear weapons and refuse to be called to account over them, would someone mind explaining to me what exactly is the issue that the west has about Iran and North Korea having them?

Nothing but rank hypocrisy.

If the Septics were to come to some kind of realism and tell the Iranians that they can have nuclear weapons as long as they point them at Tel Aviv, it might knock some sense into the Zionists. But as if that will ever happen!

Thursday 8th April 2010 – It was quite interesting …

local history meeting la cellette pionsat puy de dome france… this discussion about the history of the area. Going back to Pre-Roman times and up to the 1950s. There was quite a good turnout too, as you can see.

It’s not quite the same as when I used to sit in on the open lectures at the University Libre de Bruxelles but you have to admit that for an isolated rural area like this they are putting up an excellent show, so chapeau to them!

The questions were quite interesting. The organiser – him on the stage – asked the audience what they knew about pre-Roman Celtic and Liz and Bill put their hands over my mouth to stop me saying “don’t they play in the Scottish Second Division?”

Yes, Bill and Liz were there, as were Mark, Tom and his wife, and a German lady who I know but whose name I have forgotten and which I will remember as soon as I press “send” … "Heidi" – ed. Quite a good turnout from the Anglo-French group in fact, but then again Marianne did ask me if I would send the invitation on to anyone whom I thought might be interested.

A few of us went over the road to the village bar for a coffee and a chat about a few issues involving the group and all in all it was quite productive. And while we were in there Gilles drove past. Now he’s someone I haven’t seen for ages so when they threw us out of the bar I wandered up there to say hi. Liesbeth was there cooking his tea for him and I was invited to stay but my diet (you probably know that I’m a vegan and don’t drink alcohol) prevented it.

Nothing got done in the garden but then again it’s nice to have a day off occasionally and do exciting cerebral things.

And tonight the cold weather has returned and there’s a hanging cloud on the mountain. I wish the weather would make up its mind! 

 

Wednesday 7th April 2010 – Think of a phrase that contains …

… the words “booze-up” and “brewery” – and we aren’t talking about the Open University Students’ Association either!

Yes, I thought that incompetence at its most stunning inefficiency could only be reached in the hands of that august body but I am fast changing my opinion. I have been reliably informed by one of my “moles on various committees” that this week’s radio programme was the one for the 1st week of March – the radio station appears to have thrown the wrong version onto the cutting room floor and gone with the one we discarded which is now 5 weeks out of date.

And that isn’t all either. I’ve been given a task to undertake by the footy club which requires them to send in a form. So I’ve been waiting 3 weeks and it’s not made it there yet. I obtained a duplicate and I rang up the President of the club about completing it – the deadline is Friday – but I got the answerphone so I left a message.

No callback by the time I went to training, so never mind – I’ll see the President’s son down at the ground. But down at the ground there were just 4 of us, and we were locked out of the stadium. It appears that the trainer has given the players the night off so that they can watch the footy on the box.

Unbelievable, isn’t it? Last Wednesday they were rained off; last Friday was someone’s birthday; today there’s something better on the box. And all the teams are struggling right now and need a change of fortune. Fitness is a big issue with the teams – watch them drop off the pace in the last 15 minutes – but the trainer cancels the training session. Stand by for a right spannering on Saturday and Sunday.

I did a couple of laps around the field and then came home. The President eventually rang me back at 21:00 and I explained the situation. “I’ll ring up the secretary right now and call you straight back”. It’s now 02:30 and guess what?

But it’s not all doom and gloom. You remember my action photo from the footy 10 days ago? Well the local rag has published it. It might only be La Montagne but it’s still nice to see my name in lights and it’s another addition to the portfolio. And Claude came back from his holiday in the Midi so we had coffee on the terrasse. We could do that because there was a moment when the rain stopped. After me crowing about the good weather yesterday it p155ed down for most of the day. But in between the showers I dug out a few more treestumps.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be starting to build the new megacloche. The afternoon will be spent at a talk on the history of the area of La Cellette. Marianne wants me to meet the organiser.

And 02:30 in the morning? This 3D program has taken hold of me. My two characters have now made it to the beach with a herd of wild rhinocerous hot on their heels. I shall be scanning the world-wide web tomorrow evening to see if I can find a freeware boat otherwise my little animation will come to a premature end.

Tuesday 6th April 2010 – I think …

… that Spring might actually have made it.

Yes, a glorious hot day, but of course we have had these before. What actually did the business though was that the temperature in the heat exchanger got up to over 50 degrees – the first time since as long ago as 8th September, would you believe – and in the 15 litres of water underneath the caravan window we had 32 degrees – easily and by far away the highest temperature since I installed a permanent thermometer a few weeks ago.

Yes, Spring might be here but this morning wasn’t. That’ll teach me to mess around with this 3D animation program until it’s starting to get light outside. The boulangere woke me up – at 11:30!

raised beds les guis virlet puy de dome franceBut as I said it was a beautiful day, and I took full advantage by planting the lettuce that I bought on Saturday. They’ve gone into a bit of a raised bed that isn’t covered off by a sheet of corrugated iron.

They don’t half look insipid when they are transplanted though and a really good watering didn’t seem to improve matters. They’ll probably need a day or two or three to revigorate.

And after lunch I started to dig out where I’ll be putting the megacloche. And that was none-too-easy as the whole area is honeycombed with tree roots. Of course I forgot to buy a handle for my pickaxe and unfortunately I broke my really good spade, leaving me with just a cheap one. I’ll have to scout around for a new one and it’ll have to be good. Cheap ones don’t last long round here.

I was interrupted by this TV presenter woman who wanted a chat. It seems that she’s serious about talking to us. Our fame must be spreading!

And would you believe it – it’s started to rain now!

Monday 5th April 2010 – Blimmin’ ‘eck!

I’ve just noticed the time – 03:44! Yes, that’ll teach me. But I’ve made a couple of important discoveries with this 3D animation program and suddenly my attempted animations have come on in leaps and bounds. So I managed to get myself carried away.

I can see that I’m going to have to be careful with what I do with this program, otherwise my spare time will simply evaporate.

So with it being another jour ferie today I did just about badger all again. Coffee in bed, read a book, checked on the garden, worked on the website, wrapped a birthday present for Bill, prepared some entertainment for the Anglo-French group – yes, badger all as you can see.

At the group this evening we had quite a few newcomers – an American couple who have bought a holiday home here; my new Dutch neighbours; two French guys that Antoine knew. And with the welcome return from hibernation of Clotilde and the presence of Heidi back temporarily from Germany we were quite numerous. And wasn’t that a nice change?

But not so good news is that the new owners of the Queue de Milan, being much more businesslike than the previous, have now decided that they want to charge us €30 for use of the room. Well, fair enough – it’s their room and they can do what they like with it. But then on the other hand it’s our bodies and we are quite free to take them elsewhere.

We shall have a little sit-down this week and plan our next move. It’s a pity that there isn’t a club room at the footy ground. But there are plenty of other options – it’s a case of seeing what’s available. Marianne, who is the President of the Amis du Chateau de Pionsat, might even have a little room there that we can use.