Another Good Evening

The Barbecue

Near neighbours Alain and Margaine had a “méchoui” this evening to which I was invited and which was very enjoyable. “Méchoui” doesn't really translate except as a barbecue but it is specifically a barbecue of a whole animal, in this case a sheep. The invitees were all residents of the rue du Faubourg or other friends of Alain and Margaine. In brief, it was a very convivial occasion but three things struck me in particular.

First was the roasting of the sheep. Alain and Margaine have done the same thing before and had hired the same man to cook the sheep, with his own machine for doing this and it is the machine that is remarkable, a kind of Heath Robinson arrangement. It consists of a an electric motor attached to a bicycle attached in turn to a spit. The motor turns a bicycle wheel and the gearing of the bicycle controls the rate at which the spit, and thus the sheep, turns over the fire. I don't think Heath Robinson ever designed anything like this but I'm sure he would have been proud of it of he had.

The second thing I noticed was the effect of a glitch in the lighting. We were all in Alain and Margaine's garden, lit by a fairy lights and a few candles on tables: a very low level of lighting, just enough by which to find your glass and plate. I remember at one point looking up at the sky, seeing nothing, and thinking that the weather prediction for the next day (stormy) was probably correct. There appeared to be total cloud cover. However, some time later the electricity supply was cut momentarily and, as if by magic, stars appeared all over the sky. What surprised me was that the minimal illumination that there had been was enough to mask what was in the sky. I hadn't realised that even such a low level of light pollution could affect the view of the heavens in that way.

The final point concerned Alain and Margaine's grand-daughter, whose name escapes me. At a guess, she's about seven years old. The challenge for any parent in such a situation is what to do with a child of that age in a gathering of old fogies, apart from sitting her in front of a TV with a DVD or whatever. I think her parents must have told her that she was to help and had given her a pencil torch, of which she appeared to be immensely proud. She spent the evening very self-importantly going round the assembled crowd, shining the torch on everyone and asking if they had everything they needed or whether she could fetch something. She was a star and I would bet that she had a whale of a time, far more enjoyable than being sat in front of a television.

Provencal Marketing

In the Bar du Pont a few nights ago I noticed that none of the booklets on the history of the village (for which I had done the English translation) were on display, in the height of the tourist season. So I said to Daniel, who was there with me, “They haven't got any of the history booklets, you need to give them some more”. Daniel replied: “Yes they have, I know they have; they're just not on display”. So who is going to ask to buy a booklet they don't know exists? And whose job is it to see that more are sold and that, therefore, they are on display....................?