… now that he’s empty. This morning I went up to the Place d’Armes and carried on emptying him of everything that was in there.
I’m not sure exactly how I managed to put some of the boxes into Caliburn, but I had a struggle to get them out and for three of them, I had to divide the load in half before I could move them up into the apartment.
But it’s all done now, Caliburn is empty and the apartment is full. It’s amazing just how much stuff was in there, and with all of that Caliburn was only half-full too.
And that’s not all of it that was in there either because there’s stuff in the bedroom and in the bathroom too.
What remains now is the difficult bit – to go off to IKEA and buy some furniture. I’ve seen what I want and so for the next week or two I’ll be selling my body around the streets of Granville.
I was awake early this morning – like 05:00 early. and couldn’t go back to sleep again. And so I was more than ready for breakfast. Afterwards I headed into Granville to do some shopping.
While I was driving down the hill, I noticed a place that gives music lessons, so I stopped there to see if anyone wanted a bass guitarist. I wasn’t surprised to receive a negative answer but at least I’m making myself known around the community and that’s the point.
There’s a football match this evening too – US Granville’s Ist XI at home to Vendée Fontenay Foot in the Championnat France Amateur and tickets were on sale in the Leclerc. I may as well go along and see what they are up to.
At lunchtime I stopped work and went with my butties to sit in the wind on top of the cliffs overlooking the bay.
I was disturbed by a loud-hailer out to sea and it turned out to be a cruise boat thing with loads of tourists being given a guided tour of the bay. Giving a guided tour to half of the Department as well judging by the volume of the boat’s PA system.
Mind you, he didn’t hang about long and disappeared back to where he came from on the other side of the headland. Which was just as well, because he was getting on my nerves and I hope that this isn’t a regular thing.
I carried on with the unloading and then crashed out for half an hour. and finished off the day by sitting quietly and reading a book. I reckon that I had deserved it.
The crowd at the football tonight was a bit dismal – just 560 people. and they missed an exciting match. US Granville went 1-0 up after about 10 minutes, and that after their keeper had pulled off two or three stunning saves (I’m quite impressed with this US Granville keeper).
But the goal was one of those that I have been predicting for years, as regular readers of this rubbish will remember. A back-pass to the keeper and instead of the keeper belting it upfield or out into touch, he hangs on to it and tries to be clever, with a couple of Granville forwards closing down on him. When he finally does decide to clear it, he miskicks and the ball hits a Granville forward in the stomach and bounces back into the net. And serve him right too.
The second goal that US Granville scored was a peach, and a candidate for “goal of the month” in any league you like. A ball won in the air by the big Granville centre forward who plays it out to the right winger (who was having a good game). He fizzes a cross along the ground right into the penalty area and a most audacious step-over from the centre-forward wrong-foots the entire Vendée Fontenay Foot defence. The left-winger running in from the far side has the simplest of tasks to side-foot the ball into the empty net.
So 2-0 up at half-time and going at a canter. I remember musing to myself “still 45 minutes to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory” – and how I was to come to regret those words.
As seems to be the usual procedure these days in French football, US Granville were so far ahead that they imagined that they had the game won already, and in the second half they had switched right off and Vendée Fontenay Foot were pushing forward.
A free kick about 25 yards out to Vendée Fontenay Foot and a magnificent curling shot around the wall found the net right by the near post. And about a minute later, a goalmouth scramble in the US Granville penalty area saw a foot prod the ball into the net through a crowd of players.
panic stations after that and Vendée Fontenay Foot could easily have scored a third – and a fourth – and would have done with some better luck too. But US Granville hung on and almost scored a winner themselves in the dying minutes. Nevertheless, I bet that they were glad that the final whistle went when it did.
As for the football, this is CFA – Championnat France Amateur, part-time players playing what is about Conference North or Conference South equivalent. And I do have to say that the standard is pretty good for all that. The US Granville keeper and their centre-half could easily slot into a League 2 side in the UK and I would sign the keeper in a heartbeat. He reads the game well, is a good shot-stopper and has good distribution skills.
On the way home I found a pizza van, and I still have some vegan cheese left. So that was tea organised. It was a good pizza too and the guy was quite garrulous.
So now it’s bed-time. My last night here and I can’t say that I’m too sorry. It was the cheapest place in Normandy and you can’t win a coconut every time.
