4 Etoiles de Pau 2010

For the fourth year in succession I made my annual pilgrimage to the international 3 day event. This year I was only able to go to the dressage day on the Friday. I arrived in good time and parked my car in the usual place over the road from the event. It was so strange as there were so few people about, hard to believe that such a prestigious event was taking place nearby. The main road into Pau, which I had to cross, was extremely busy at that time of day but crossing it posed no problem as 2 gendarmes sprang into action as soon as they saw me and strode into the road to stop the traffic and let me cross. I did feel like giving a royal wave to everyone but managed to stop myself in time! Walking down the long drive to the main area I once again felt quite alone, hardly anyone else around. Once I got to the shopping area most of the stands were still closed but there were a few people around the dressage arena waiting for the first test to start. I watched the first few tests and then when there was a break I went and had a welcome cup of coffee and did some people watching, always a fascinating pastime at this event! I spent the rest of the day between the dressage arena and the practise area. I think that, of the two, I find the practise area more interesting as there are always several of the riders riding in there before their test. Lunch was a sandwich and a glass of wine and more people watching then I went back to the practise rings. At one point Willim Fox-Pitt walked past me and leant against the rails, only a few yards from me to watch on the big screen, Emily Baldwin doing her test. It was difficult to appear nonchalant at the proximity of such a great horseman but I did restrain myself and contented myself with sneaking glances at him from the corner of my eye! an hour r so later I found myself standing quite close to him again, this time he was geared up for his test and looking oh so smart. At the end of the day the Belgian rider Karin Donkers had the best score.
The event was won by the German rider, Andreas Dibowski with William Fox-Pitt taking second place and also holding on to the lead of the HSBC FEI Classics. The full results can be found on the following link.
http://www.event-pau.fr/
and many photos herehttp://picasaweb.google.com/drnmarsh951/Pau4EtoilesDressage2010#

Repas du troisieme age or old folks lunch!

We were invited to join in the 3rd age lunch this year, given by the commune and served in the village hall. The invitation said aperitifs at 12 noon and sit down at 12.30. From previous experience we know that nothing starts on time here but did think that by getting there at 12.30 we might not have to stand around for too long. When we arrived there were a lot of people there so we reckoned that we had timed it just right. Jean-Marc our neighbour was helping out with the bar so after saying hello to him we let him pour us an aperitif. Looking around the hall I did feel quite young! The venerable age of many of the people there seems to confirm the statement that people in SW France have a long life span. Several people came up and said hello to us, we still haven't got the hang or the confidence to do what we should do which is to go round the whole room and shake hands with everyone. Roland and Jeanne, our neighbours who used to produce Armagnac, arrived after we did and seemed to take forever going around and greeting everyone

By 1pm people were beginning to get seated and I asked Jeanne if we could sit with their little group as we didn't really know anyone else. She introduced us to a couple who live in the village and are from the Lille area.  Jeanne was the last to sit on our table and asked if we could move up one place as she didn''t want to be sitting next to Roland, her husband!! So I was next to Jeanne, then Nigel, then Roland and then the Lille couple. Nigel and Roland managed to have some conversation despite Nigel's basic knowledge of French and Roland's deafness. There were 3 very elderly ladies, well into their 80's, sitting opposite us and we learned that they had all been at school together until the age of 12. What a different life they have led, only at school until the age of 12 and never moving from the village. I suspect they have had very hard lives compared to mine.

Jeanne is my age and she told me that she was married at the age of 19 and that Roland is 11 years older than she is. I reckon that she too has had a hard life. Until their son Thierry took over the farm they grew vines and produced Armagnac as well as rearing capons. Jeanne still sells Armagnac at the weekly market in Grenade. When Thierry took over the farm he pulled out the vines and started producing beef cattle. Thierry is now about 40 and has never married so Jeanne and Roland aren't really retired as they need to help him out . I felt quite sad, talking to her, as I felt that she was not happy with her lot. Unlike many of the women in the village of her age she is vivacious and always dresses well. When I say that she dresses well I mean that she always looks up to date whereas many of the older ladies wear shapeless frocks and cardigans!

There was a trio of musicians, all three in their sixties, two accordionists and a guitarist and they were playing and singing until we were all seated and served with our first course. They had their meal and continued playing when coffee was served and until everyone left. Towards the end of the afternoon the mayor, Roland and another man from the village joined in with them as well.

The meal, as ever at village occasions, was substantial and there was a choice of red, rose and unusually white wine as well. We had soup followed by calves sweetbreads, duck (of course!!) salad and cheese, followed by a pear and chocolate dessert. We had never eaten calves sweetbreads before and Nigel was reluctant to try them but was persuaded to have a small portion. We were told that they were expensive and very good. I ate most of mine but can't say that I was over impressed with them and would certainly not select them from a menu if there was a choice.

After the pudding and before coffee was served I moved my chair down to the bottom of the table and had a chat with the couple from Lille (whose names I can't remember!)who were very pleasant and friendly. I got the feeling that they felt as much "foreigners" as we did being from the far North!! The mayor came round giving us all a drop of Armagnac to finish off the meal and we then said our goodbyes until the next time.

Vide Grenier in Castandet.

Most villages hold a vide grenier each year, they are a cross between a car boot sale and a jumble sale, and are held as a fund raising activity for the village. We usually go to one each week as it gives us an opportunity to see surrounding villages as well as the chance to look for bargains! They start at 8am - we are never there that early!- and continue until 5pm and quite often a cheap lunch is served which makes the whole day a social occasion as well as a commercial one.

This year we decided that we would have a table at the Castandet vide grenier and try and sell some of our valuable rubbish as well as supporting the village. In truth we had nothing of great note to sell and most of the stuff was in a box in the attic. We packed the car on Saturday evening and set off at 7.30am to get to the village hall and unpack before 8am. There were places available both in the village hall and outside in the car park but we had opted to be inside as a table was provided and of course in the case of rain we could protect our valuable wares! It didn't take us long to unpack the car and take our things in to the hall where Nigel starte to unpack the and I went to park the car.
When I got back to the hall Nigel had unpacked most of the items and the early birds who were hoping to find a valuable worm had started looking around. We made our first sale very quickly - a euros worth of books- and then we settled down for a long wait before our next sale. We were fascinated by the couple who had the next table to ours, he was a large man who was selling a plant based hangover remedy and some BBQ tongs. I remarked that we had seen him at a similar event the previous week so I suspect he sets up his stall each week. I hope that it isn't his full time job as his things weren't exactly flying off his stall! He demonstrated how good his BBQ tongs were by grabbing a sausage shaped piece of wood and  flipping it over. Quite how it would work if one wasn't so practised and was trying to manipulate a greasy sausage I am not sure. Many people must have had the same thoughts as we did as he didn't make many sales in fact, to our knowledge, he only made a couple of sales of the tongs and none of the hangover cure.

Our friend Helene had a couple of tables adjacent to ours and she was one of the last to arrive accommpanied of course by the dreaded Florian! Helene does several vide greniers over the season and has some quite nice stuff to sell so her stall looked much more impressive than ours did. Florian was quite well behaved for a start but, I suppose understandably, deteriorated as the day went on. He kept disappearing and Helene kept worrying about where he was and what he was doing. Later in the day the inevitable happened and he rushed in holding up his trouser leg to show us the cut on his leg. I felt like asking why he hadn't done it earlier, it would have saved us the suspense of waiting most of the day for it to happen! After Helene had rushed him off to bathe the leg he then went into miserable mode and curled up under the table sobbing and whining for quite some time.

The morning dragged by but we were quite happy watching the potential customers pass by with only a cursory glance at our rubbish before passing on to hear the unending spiel of the BBq tong man. He and his equally large partener had settled into conversation with another large couple at the opposite table thereby effectively blocking our way out. Each time one of the other of us wanted to move away we had to go through the routine of asking them to move and let us escape. We took turns at leaving our post and wandering around the other vendors to see if we could spot any bargains. At lunchtime Nigel went and joined the long queue for a sausage sandwich, the demand for which was high, as the sausage grillers were having a problem keeping up with the customers.

At 2pm more eager bargain hunters started arriving for the afternoon session. I was detemined to try and get rid of some of our stuff so I wrote a poster saying that everything on the stall was priced at 2euros, 1 euro or 50 cents. Despite this generous offer not a lot more was sold although we did get rid of a large table lamp, for 2 euros, which took up a lot of space in the attic. Nigel of course thought that I had sold it for far less than it's value but he had to admit that it had certainly seen better days. Nigel's attitude to selling is far different to when he is buying when he makes ridiculously low offers but he was soon to meet his nemesis! He had 3 old leather belts with attractive buckles which he had had for many years and didn't use any more. He had sold one in the morning and the other 2 were on sale for the princely sum of 2 euros each. In mid afternoon a young woman, early 30's, dark hair and flashing eyes, saw these belts and tried one on around her waist. It was obviously too big but she slid it down to fit around her hips and posed whilst gazing coquettishly at Nigel! Suddenly the hard sell attitude vanished and he was putty in her hands. They went through the "are you eenglish" routine and in a mixture of basic French and English went on to the bargaining phase. He soon reduced the price to 3 euros for the 2 belts and she then started the "looking for change" routine which went on for some time. She eventually managed to scrape together 2 euros 80 and, with a winning smile, said would that be enough and of course he said yes. Oh dear, a pretty girl, a bit of flirting and he was virtually giving them away!! Helene and I were in stitches watching the whole routine but she went away happy and Nigel was happy with the attention that she had bestowed upon him!

I believe that that was our last sale and as 5pm approached we packed up most of what we had unpacked in the morning and said our goodbyes to Helene and our neighbouring stall holders. It had been an entertaining day if not a profitable one. I think that in the end we made a profit of about 2 euros after we had paid 6euros for the privilige of being there plus the cost of the sausage sandwiches, coffee and wine.

Next week we shall be back to being prospective purchasers and Nigel will be  back in hard bargaining mode.

When Sue and Peter came to stay.

My friend Sue, who I have known since we started grammar school in 1954, and her husband Peter visited us for a week at the beginning of September. They live in a beautiful part of the UK in the Cheshire Peak District and I stayed with them for a couple of days last year. Although we don't see a lot of each other we have always kept in touch by phone, letter and now e mail. Whenever we meet up it is as if it has only been a few days since we last saw each other and there is always lots of chat and laughter.
They had visited us several years ago when we were at Carol and I was now keen to show them around this part of France.
 Theu flew out from Manchester to Bordeaux and caught the train down to Mont de Marsan where I met them on the Thursday evening. On Friday, after a lazy morning and lunch I took them up to the pretty little town of La Bastide d'Armagnac. It is a very old, picturesque little place and one of the highlights is a drink at one of the oldest bistros in France which is hidden away in one of the narrow little alleyways.
http://www.saint-justin.eu/saint-justin_b07.php
The bistro Tortore is run by Colette Tortore who is now 78 years old and has been there all her life. It was started by her grandfmother in 1885 and has been in the family ever since. Sadly there is no-one else in the family to continue the tradition as Colette has never married. Colette was very pleased to chat to us and to show us her albums of photos and newspaper cuttings.

Sue and I on the train to Marqueze.

On Saturday we all went (Nigel as well) to the museum of Landaise life.http://www.landes-tourisme.info/marqueze-ecomusee-de-la-grande-lande-1157-a.html  This park in the middle of the forest displays the life and traditions of the area. Access is by an old train from the village of Sabres a rather rickety ride of 10 minutes. There are a number of different old landaise houses which have been carefully dismantled and reassembled in the park and are furnished as they would have been over a century ago. It was easy to spend a lot of time wandering around and taking in all the history before we caught the train back to the station at Sabres where we then went into the pavilion where there is an extremely interesting permanent exhibition of life in les landes over the past couple of centuries.
On Sunday morning we all went to the vide grenier at the nearby village of le Vignau. There were a lot of stallholders both inside and outside and we all had a good time hunting for bargains. Back home for lunch and the Sue, Peter and I went to visit the chateau de Ravignan which is about 10 kms away
http://www.armagnac-ravignan.com/eng/presentation.html  There was only the 3 of us and one couple with a small child and our guide was very friendly and chatty. After the tour the others left and we were treated to a visit to the cellars, where hundreds of thousands of euros worth of Armagnac is stored, and then to a taste of the wonderful stuff!

After lunch in Eugenie.

On Monday we went into Grenade, I picked up my paper and we sat and had a coffee and watched the world go by before going on to Eugenie les Bains for lunch.
http://www.ville-eugenie-les-bains.fr/

In the gardens at Eugenie.

After lunch we walked around the gardens and gazed at the expensive and well known hotel, Les Pres d'Eugenie which is run by the celebrated chef Michel Guerard. We would have to win the lottery to stay or dine there! On the way back home we called in to have a look at the Rugby chapel in Larriviere, always a stop on my guided tours of the area!
The weather had been a bit too warm over the last few days but on Monday night we had some welcome rain which continued until lunchtime on Tuesday.  After a relaxing morning at home we went to have a look around Mont de Marsan and once again sit outside at the table of a cafe and have a drink and watch the world go by.
Wednesday dawned damp and cloudy but it wasn't a problem as we had planned to go over to Marciac, meet up with Kate and Peter and have lunch on La Peniche, the boat that is moored on the lake there. However, before we were able to leave we had a bit of a drama. We had noticed over a period of several days that we had one or two hornets, each day, crawling on the sitting room floor. Luckily they were quite dazed and easy to kill. We couldn't understand where they were getting in as the windows are double glazed and the ceiling is insulated. Peter happened to notice, on the Wednesday morning, that there were a lot of hornets flying around and going into the chimney. The chimney has a liner and it seemed that they were nesting between the liner and the chimney. The fire was set so Nigel lit it in an attempt to smoke them out. It wasn't wholly successful as several fell down on to the hearth and Nigel and Peter were kept busy swatting them. As the fire died down we left to go to Marciac in the hopes that the house wasn't full of hornets when we returned!
We arrived in Marciac in time for a quick look around the market before joining Kate and Peter at La Peniche where we had a good lunch with lots of chatting.When we arrived back home the hornets were still buzzing around the chimney and Nigel wanted to light the fire again but I thought that more serious measures were called for. I popped across the road to ask Alain what we should do. Apparently now the fire brigade doesn't generally deal with this sort of thing but he said that I should call them and stress that the hornets were in the house and that I am allergic to their stings. I came back home and called them and convinced them that it was a dire emergency so the controller said that she would send someone round. Two volunteer firemen, a male and a female, arrived in half an hour and took stock of the situation. The male half of the duo donned his protective suit and his partner zipped him into it. He then climbed up his ladder and spent quite some time squirting some noxious substance into the chimney as well as spraying any hornets that were trying to get back to their nest. Before he left he said that there was a possibility that they may return as he hadn't been able to get in the chimney to destroy the nest and that if they did return to call them again and they would come back. Thankfully we have seen no sign of them since.
Not quite the entertainment one wants to provide for one's guests!
Next day we were up and about early as Sue and Peter had to catch the 8am train to Bordeaux at the start of their journey back home.

Piano Recital.

On Sunday the 22 of August we went to a piano recital, given by a young Spanish pianist Carlos Apellaniz, at the Chateau de Lacquy.
http://www.armagnac-express.com/vsop.htm
We had never visited the chateau before so we were pleased to have the opportunity to see it.
The recital was advertised to start at 6pm prompt and despite the fact that we are used to things happening much later than advertised we decided that we should get there in good time. We arrived about 5.40 and there were quite a lot of people there already but we were able to get seats near the front. The recital was to take place in a marquee which had been erected on the lawn in front of the chateau.
True to form people were still arriving at 6pm but about a quarter of an hour later the comte and owner of the chateau gave a short introductory speech to introduce the pianist who then emerged from the chateau to bow and take his seat at the piano. All the pieces that he played were by Chopin. In the first half he played 2 Scherzos and a Ballade. In the second half he played Sonata no 35. The music was very pleasant although the accoustics were not good being as we were outside. It was amazing to see his hands flying over the keyboard producing such beautiful sounds and he played everything from memory.
As well as thoroughly enjoying the recital we were given, during the interval, a good opportunity to "people watch!" It was fascinating to see the different types of people there, I suspect there were more "posh" people there than we have seen in all our 3 years in les landes! Surprisingly, the comte himself looked quite unassuming and if we hadn't known it was he we wouldn't have suspected that he was indeed who he was.
After the recital we were invited to go to another marquee on the lawn to have a drink. Despite the fact that the chateau produces wine as well as a fine Armagnac the drinks on offer were orange juice, Perrier water and tonic water!

Weekend in Ariege.

We had 2 days back home after our trip to the Dordogne before we were packing up again! This time we were going  back to Ariege to stay with our Dutch friends, Martin and Mieke, who had invited us over for a party they were giving on the Thursday evening. We arrived early on the Wednesday evening and found that Martins brother and wife and another couples were already there,  with their caravans, on their way back to Holland after their holidays in Spain. Also there was Rafael from Barcelona and his Dutch wife all of whom we had met previously. As we were eating dinner on the terrace M and M’s daughter, Anna, and her husband Keri arrived also on their way back from Spaiin.
The party was to be held on Thursday evening and a pig had been killed for the festivities, Martin and some of the other men started a big fire in readiness for the pig to be roasted later in the day. I helped Mieke and the other ladies prepare the accompaniments for the meal, there was plenty to do as they were expecting about 30 guests!
Rafael had brought a whole leg of Serrano ham which he started to slice and we all helped ourselves to some delicious pieces of that! The butcher arrived in the afternoon and he and Martin set up the equipment for the pig roast and added the hot ashes  and soon the pig was turning on the spit. People started arriving from 4pm onwards and we set up trestle tables in the barn. Then followed a very pleasant evening with lots to eat and drink in a wonderful atmosphere of bonhomie. All the guests, apart from us and Rafael, were Dutch but thankfully most of them spoke very good English. We had met many of them before so it was good to see them all again.
We were up in good time, the next morning, to say goodbye to Anna and Keri who were leaving to continue their journey back to Holland. Then N and I went to Fossat to visit Ann and Mark, a couple of Australians, who are staying at Caoutelle the house which belongs to some English friends of ours. Back then to Landry  where we all spent a relatively quiet afternoon and evening after the previous days celebrations.
The 2 Dutch couples left very early on Saturday morning, well before any of us were out of bed. After breakfast Rafael and his wife left and N and I went down to Artigat and had lunch at l’Escale before going up to Carla Bayle. We had a look around the art exhibition there and then sat in the shade and had an ice cream  as it was very hot. We visited the gallery of Olivier Ledoux who does some fantastic wood carvings. http://www.olivier-ledoux.com/ and had a chat with him. He has recently completed an amazing sculpture on a new roundabout by the bread factory in le Fossat.http://www.lefossat.com/spip.php?article313 . On the way back we called in to see Mike and Jik and caught up with their news.
Back at M and M’s we were awaiting the arrival of some friends of theirs who they knew from their time in Nicaragua. They arrived in the early evening. They were a family of four, Rene who is Chileanwho is Dutch and their children Gana (16) and Isabelle (11). Denise works for an international aid agency and had met Rene when he came to Holland as a refugee . They have lived in Ecuador and Nicaragua and are now living in Amsterdam. They had been down to Spain for a couple of weeks, a sad holiday as Rene has cancer and it will probably be their last family holiday.
M and M had told them before they came that the 4 of us would be going to the fete de Bajou later in the evening so after chatting to them for a while we got our glad rags on and  left for Bajou. When we lived in Artigat the fete at Bajou was always our favourite and it seems that it is one of the most popular in the area as tickets have to be booked well in advance. It was good to see so many old friends there. Ruud and Kitty were there, we had not seen them since last year, Peter Paul and Mitzi who are now well settled and running a gite business were there, Mike and Jik and Corry and Hans were there as were Yves and Colette my old Scrabble friends. Mitzi had reserved places for a party of us and we took up 2 trestle tables. It seemed an age before the food arrived, everyone was getting really hungry but the wine helped with the waiting! It must have been close on midnight when we had finished eating and we all went outside to enjoy the dancing and the disco - young and old alike! It was very bizarre to be dancing in the shadow of the church in the small square presided over by a statue of the Virgin Mary!! What did she think?? There was a “confetti battle” where bags of confetti are thrown to the crowd and  the recipients of them rush around throwing confetti over everyone they can get close to. Nigel appreciated the music and was happy to dance the night away until we left at 2am. When we got back to M and M’s we shook out as much of the confetti as we could before going in the house and to bed.
We all slept late the next morning and breakfasted on the terrace. N and I spent the morning playing cards with Gana and Isabelle. They were extremely nice children and their command of Dutch, Spanish and English was impressive. We all lazed around in the afternoon before getting ready to go for a meal at the ferme auberge in Lezat. Mieke had booked a table for us all for 7pm but when we got there it appeared that there had been a breakdown in communications as they are only open on a Sunday lunchtime1 Plan B was to go to the ferme auberge in St Ybars where, luckily, they had room for us.
So, another festive weekend was over and we waved goodbye to Rene and family as they left for Amsterdam before we too left to return home.

TFF Fest.

and Rambo came too.

The France forum is a forum dedicated to expats who live in France and anyone with an interest in France which was started just over a year ago. It had been decided to have a gathering for members to meet "face to face" and get to know each other. It was to be held in the Dordogne, on the farm of Irene and Fabrice who we have known for some time, on the first weekend in August. We decided to camp and went up on the Thursday so that we could give irene and Fabrice a hand in getting ready for the weekend. We arrived about 5pm and after setting up the tent settled down to chat, on the terrace, over our evening meal. It was good to see Irene and Fabrice again and to meet the delicious Marco, an young Italian who was staying with them. The first night under canvas was OK but our bed left something to be desired from the comfort point of view and I was delighted, the next day, when Irene loaned us a mattress!
On Friday morning N set to work mowing grass and pruning back branches and brambles and I helped Irene with tidying up around the house and terrace.Fabrice got the keys for the village hall which we had hired for the weekend and we took some things down there in readiness for the weekend. There were 3 arrivals in the afternoon one who was  camping and a couple in their camper van. Later in the afternoon Irene and I went into her neighbouring village to go to the butcher and then met up with a friend of hers who invited us back to her place for a drink where we met up with another friend. A pleasant interlude.

Fabrice enjoying a pastis.

Meanwhile back at the farm the aperitif hour seemed to have started. One guest who was due about 7.30 was bringing lots of food so we decided to abandon any thoughts of cooking and wait for his arrival. Luckily he arrived, somewhat later than 7.30, and had made a large and tasty tartiflette which soon disappeared. That was followed by his home made far Breton (a yummy Breton type of cake with prunes).
What with the luxury of the borrowed mattress and the evenings food and wine intake a very comfortable night was spent in our tent.

Breakfast time.

Irene taking photo of me taking photo of her.

After breakfasting al fresco N went to see what odd jobs he could do and I took myself down to the village hall to prepare some dishes for the evening.Back to the farm to find several more people had arrived and their offerings were soon on the table and we got down to the serious business of eating and chatting. After lunch I sneaked off to the tent for a lie down so that I would be fresh as a daisy for the evening's celebrations! When I emerged from my siesta several more people had arrived and everyone was sitting around chatting and getting to know each other before dispersing and getting ready for the evening.
A very pleasant evening was had by one and all. Lots of eating, drinking, chatting and dancing.
Another al fresco breakfast on Sunday morning and several people left for home whilst the rest of us prepared for yet another day of eating, drinking and chatting. Lunch was organised and set out in the village hall and the afternoons rain and thunder didn't dampen any ones spirits. Everyone helped with the clearing up so the village hall was left as we had found it and then most people took their leave. There was just N and I left along with one more couple and of course Irene and Fabrice. No one had any energy left and none of us needed any more food so we retired to the tent well before 9pm.
We were away next morning leaving irene and Fabrice with some well deserved peace and quiet!
A good weekend which left us with many memories.