July

July

July is the festive month in Mollans and so our street party was followed by the 14th of July commemoration of the storming of the Bastille. There was a band in front of Bar du Pont but I didn't bother to go as I was eating with friends earlier and felt too lazy.

Hot on the heels of that the Tour de France went along the village by-pass. As I've mentioned before, the Tour is not really a spectator sport on the ground as it's all over in the 20 or so seconds it takes the cyclists to pass. However, it being so close to the village I didn't have to find a place to stand three hours beforehand so I went along. A lot of people had got in position in time for the « caravan », when sponsors pass by and thow freebies at the crowd, about 2 hours before the cyclists arrive. There appears to have been a somewhat unseemly scramble for free caps, newspapers and other trinkets which didn't interest me. Many then left the roadside to return when the cyclists were due. I got in position, about an hour before « the event » and decided I'd put on full regalia as there was the prospect of an English winner: Union Jack T-shirt and black bowler hat got an outing.

The week before, my daughter Natalie and her boyfriend Andy arrived for a few days. It was good to see them both in high spirits. Andy decided to attempt to cycle up Mont Ventoux but made it to only about half-way up before his legs gave out. It's not a challenge to be taken on lightly and he obviously lacked enough practice. Anyway, he didn't seem downhearted and, when he returned, I took him and Natalie on a short wine tour so they had a good selection of the local wines to take back to the UK with them. Waiting for the Tour, I bought an official goody bag from a passing Tour van and have sent it off to them in the post. It could be the inspiration for another attempt.

While doing our wine tour we stopped for lunch in the village of Gigondas, which I hadn't visited before although I've been to various vineyards in the area around. It's very small and the centre is occupied by restaurants and wine cellars. It made me wonder what it would be like in winter. We ate lunch with an inexpensive carafe of the restaurant's house wine. For a house wine, it was very good. I guess they don't make inferior wine in Gigondas; it wouldn't be worth anyone's while. But it might be worth my while looking for wine there that is just outside the officially classified area; there mighy be some bargains to be had.

The weather since the beginning of the month has been summer arriving with a vengeance: hot sunny days with temperatures from the high 20s into the 30s and with storms brewing up in the evenings every few days. I have twice invited people to eat thinking we could hear the fountain on the terrace tinkling in the background only for its sound to be drowned out by a downpour.

And the tourists are here in abundance, many of them posing in front of my house to take photos. I feel quite flattered by that, particularly one evening when I was nursing a calvados on my balcony and one shouted up: « Monsieur, votre maison est magnifique ».

French

It seem the French are officially softening their stance on the positioning of the language. Rather than trying, albeit forlornly, to insist it should be the major language in the world, the French have decided simply to accept that it is just one of many important languages. This change of stance coincides with a proposal from Academia that some courses at French universities should be taught in English. Horror of horrors! It hasn't stopped the inexorable incursion of English words into French. Friend Steve was recently amused to find a notice displayed above PCs in an electronics store exhorting customers to « boostez votre business »; at least « votre » was French. That gave me another couple of words to add to le chat (not a cat, pronounced as in English), le show, le talk, le best of, le test (and the verb tester), etc.