Tag Archives: volvic

Friday 3rd September 2010 – In a change to the advertised programme ….

abandoned railway station les ancizes st georges de mons puy de dome france…. I had a day off today. Totally unplanned but somehow things just seem to work out that way. But first, just have a look at this picture. And what do you make of it? You might need to enlarge it first.

The giveaway clues are in between the two rails in centre pic and also in the top left corner.

What has happened is that at some time or other some kind of railway conveyance has come off the rails at the points just here and ridden along the sleepers for a long way. And no-one has bothered to repair the damage.

abandoned railway station les ancizes st georges de mons puy de dome franceWhere I am in fact is at the old Les Ancizes-St Georges de Mons railway station, where I have been for a prowl around this evening. This is on the abandoned railway line between Lapeyrouse and Volvic – the one that crosses over the Viaduc des Fades and which was closed in dramatic fashion a couple of years ago when they “suddenly discovered” that the viaduct was unsafe. But you know me and my conspiracy theories – I reckon that the closure was planned for years and the lack of maintenance along the line merely proves it. And not replacing these clearly-badly-damaged sleepers just adds more fuel to the fire.

So how come I had a day off when it wasn’t planned?

This morning I went to the doctor’s to have my football medical signed off – if I want to play I need a certificate. As it happened, it cost me nothing as all my details of the medical I had for my referee’s test were on file.

So that was good.

Then I decided that seeing as I was in St Eloy I would do my shopping. and LIDL was good too.

I needed some more identity photos so I went to Carrefour where I planned to finish my shopping. But no photo booth!
“We don’t have one” they said.
“So where do people go for their identity photos?”
“The professional photographer” she said – and watched me splutter.
“Anyway” she added “he’s closed until 15:00”
Sod this for a game of soldiers – a 50-mile round trip where I drove to the Intermarche at Commentry – I know that they have one. Mind you, I half-expected it to be closed for lunch or the machine out of order but no – it worked, and that must be a first.

They aren’t have having their money’s worth out of me, running around to collect all this paperwork.

narrow gauge abandoned railway station ligne economique tacot marcillat en combraille allier franceOn the way back and passing through Marcillat en Combraille I went to look at a building that I noticed when I was with Liz the other evening. Now is this a former railway station or is it a former railway station? You can even see the platform.

In fact what we here was the terminus of the Ligne Economique, – the narrow-gauge railway that ran between Marcillat en Combraille and Commentry.

narrow gauge abandoned railway station ligne economique tacot marcillat en combraille allier franceCommentry is a steel-making town and there was a huge lime furnace just a mile or so away from here, so it’s no surprise that there was a railway line between the two towns. The station building here is in a direct line with the old lime furnaces, but modern building has obscured whatever track there might have been in between the two.

The narrow gauge track was ploughed up in 1930 when they built the standard gauge line over its track bed, so when the main line service was suspended in 1939, Marcillat en Combraille lost its passenger service completely, even though the rest of the tacot system staggered on into the 1950s

So while I was here in Marcillat en Combraille I went to the local Mairie and the secretary agreed to talk to the people who know, to see what help might be given for my proposed research

At Pionsat I dropped off my forms at the Football Club, only to find that I can’t find the receipt for the referee’s stuff, and I’ll need that if I want the club to pay it. I remember seeing it floating around the van so I picked it up to put somewhere safe. That says it all really.

So after a solar shower I went to St George for my HGV medical, and here’s another doctor who tells me that there is nothing dropping off quite yet. Mind you, he had me doing some funny things like standing on one leg with my eyes closed and all of that. And as I’m after a change of licence and an International licence he gave me my file back and told me to take it myself to Clermont Ferrand on Monday.

abandoned railway station les ancizes st georges de mons puy de dome franceOn the way back I went for a prowl around the deserted and abandoned railway station at Les Ancizes and took a pile of photos, a couple of of which you have seen above. In his book First and Last Loves” John Betjeman wrote that “Nothing is more empty than a deserted fairground”. But that was because in his day there weren’t any deserted railway stations. He’d change his tune if he were alive today.

And after coffee at Liz and Terry’s I came home just in time for tea at 21:00. And now you see what I mean. Tomorrow I shall have to work to catch up.

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Tuesday 13th July 2010 – Some people have all the luck

rosemary gorges de la sioule pouzol puy de dome franceTerry had a job to do this morning and he needed a hand, so seeing as I owe him God knows how many days’ work I went along to help.

And where we ended up was at a house right on the edge of the Gorges de la Sioule – the cleft in the Combrailles that runs from South-West to North-East.

The view is certainly spectacular from here, that’s for sure and I wouldn’t mind a little field right up there at the back to build my log cabin.

rainwater harvesting home made rainwater filter les guis virlet puy de dome franceAnd back home I started work on part one of the patent water filter system (and I would have done part two too but Terry forgot the puzzolane). Part one consists of a length of 40mm downspout, a reduction plate from 40mm to 100mm, a length of 100mm pipe, another reduction plate back to 40mm, a section from an old stainless steel mesh kitchen strainer and another length of 40mm pipe into the water butts. This first filter takes the place of the sump (the stones and the like sink to the bottom of the 100mm pipe) and the mesh filter inside the water butt.

verandah lean to rainwater harvesting home made rainwater filter les guis virlet puy de dome franceYou can see what I mean in the photo just here. Filter n°1 is the one on the right-hand side. The mesh is to the left of the filter so anything that I don’t want to drop into the tank will stay in the section of 100mm pipe – the grey stuff.

To the left of filter n°1 is another grey section of 100mm pipe. That will be filter n°2. It’s constructed in the same way as filter n°1 except that it will be filled with puzzolane and there will be stainless steel mesh at either end. The purpose of that will be to to keep the puzzolane in the section of 100mm pipe and that will be the water filter.

I’m eventually going to make up two sections of these so that I can change them and clean them. Cleaning by the way will be quite easy – you just put a pressure hose to blow backwards and that will move all of the debris out.

Of course the idea of using puzzolane is not new. The Romans were the first recorded users of puzzolane for filtration purposes (they also used it as a base for Roman concrete) but nature makes quite good use of it too – Volvic water from just down the road from here uses natural puzzolane seams to naturally filter the water that rises up from the water table. That’s ground water of course – and I’m using rain water so I bet mine will be cleaner than theirs.

Tonight I went into Pionsat for the annual fireworks display. And that was nothing much to write home about although it is nice to go out. But it did remind me of Guy Fawkes’ Night 1980 when I was a taxi driver in Crewe. There was a company in Crewe at that time called “Dial A Car” and they had two vehicles, a Vauxhall Victor Transcontinental Estate that was driven by one driver, and he had only one speed and that was “flat out everywhere”. The other car was an absolutely ancient and derelict Ford Zephyr. That night around Crewe these two cars became affectionately known as “Dial A Rocket” and “Dial A Banger”.

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Friday 9th July 2010 – As I have said before ….

tractor trailer hay bales rolo montcocu virlet puy de dome france… if you are the kind of person who is always in a hurry or rushing around for appointments and the like then you don’t want to be living around here.

Not with leviathans like this roaming around the lanes round here anyway.

I encountered these two beasts on my way back from Commentry. The other side of Ronnet it was, and it wasn’t until we reached the Abbey of Bellaigues that they took the high road and I took the low road. About 6 miles of 25kph with nowhere to pass them. Ahhh well!

This morning I was awoken at 06:04 by a storm – howling winds and all that kind of thing. I was half-expecting torrential rain but when I finally crawled out of my stinking pit (09:40 – I was having a lie-in after my efforts on the roof) there wan’t a trace of anything.I surely can’t have dreamt it all?

So a couple of hours catching up on the computer and then off to Commentry for shopping. And nothing really interesting at all. But even more interesting – I’m trying to set up my water filters and can I elephants find any puzzolane. I asked inter alia at the local builders’ merchants and he had to look up in his catalogue before telling me that he didn’t have any. In case you are wondering what puzzolane is, it’s a certain type of volcanic lava – lightweight, porous and made of carbon and it’s a superb natural water filter.

In the Puy de Dome there are over 80 dormant volcanoes all of which have produced puzzolane, and not for nothing is this region littered with commercialised natural springs – Volvic being the prime example but there are many others. All the ground water is filtered through the natural puzzolane layers. So why can’t I get hold of any?

Back at Pooh Corner, having unloaded Caliburn, I made a desultory start on tidying up. But the weather clouded over and it looked like rain so grabbing hold of a few offcuts and odds-and-ends I’ve rigged up a kind of downspout system for one of my spare 203-litre water butts to catch the rain that might fall on the barn roof.

And badger me if, when I came in and read my messages, that Krys hadn’t written to me to suggest that I think about a way of collecting the rainwater that falls on the roof. Great Minds or Fools, Ms Stephenson?

And now it’s 00:30 – 7 hours after I fixed this downspout – and it’s rumbling away with thunder and flashing away with lightning and not a drop of rain has fallen. All my plants and I could do with a heavy downpour, especially through the night. I can’t wait to see the water cascade off the barn roof and into the water butt.

And another solar shower this evening. That’s 6 consecutive days. I was never this clean when I lived in my apartment in Brussels!

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