Summer News

News Summery

Friends Nick and Marigold came to stay but only for one night as I had to depart the following day for Chorges. Anyway, they seem to have enjoyed their short stay, said they felt really relaxed and had a good night's sleep despite or because of being serenaded by the Mollans' frog's choir over in the river, backing a nightingale soloist. Now that the hot weather has arrived the frogs' choir is a nightly event, although the nightingale doesn't always appear.

The regional boules chamionships at Chorges were fun, even if our teams didn't do that well. A downpour on the first afternoon caused a bit of pile-up of games to be played the following day so there wasn't any time to explore the area but the alpine scenery around the venue was magnificent enough.

At Roberto's house-warming a few weeks' ago I tasted a red wine that impressed me a lot. It had some grape variety in it that was unusual for this area, possibly Cabernet Franc I think. Anyway, it was made by Denis Tardieu in nearby Villedieu so I went looking for it. I found the vineyard some way up a very rough track but there was nobody there. I found a local cooperative, asked there and was pointed to an adjacent house. The occupant told me he had none of Denis Tardieu's wine and that Tardieu didn't have a shop which sold it; it might be best to phone him, he said. I found Tardieu's website which has a phone number that is for work purposes only and an email contact link that doesn't work. So I think I've found the classic Provencal wine-maker; makes very good wine but can't be bothered with selling it.

World Cup

Being a football-aholic I've been glued to the television most evenings and, for once, it has been an unfailing pleasure. I've been particularly impressed by the unfancied teams, such as the USA, Australia and Iran, playing consistently good football even while spending most of their matches on the defensive. It's a welcome change from the dour, unconstructive defence seen from similar teams at many previous tournaments. There are usually one or two teams that do much better than expected (e.g. Costa Rica) and one or two unexpected defeats but nothing like the current world champions', Spain, drubbing at the hands of the Dutch. Italy's defeat by Costa Rice can be put down to the Italians' habit of drawing or losing matches they don't desperately need to win whilst winning the ones they do. Another good aspect is that no obvious favourite to win the tournament has emerged: Argentina and Brazil may be the bookies' favourites but neither has particularly impressed and Holland, Germany or France could still do it.

Probably the less said about England's performances the better. This was a World Cup at which everyone agreed little could be expected of the England team, it was too young and inexperienced; and little is what we got. At least we might have expected a few positive moments to keep as treasured memories but the only outstanding memories are of defensive blunders. Hodgson wasn't anybody's first choice as England Manager except the FA's, who can generally be relied upon to make at best uninspired and at worst downright stupid decisions. However, he is a reasonably good manager with a deserved reputation for putting together well-structured and organised teams from the talent at his disposal. Sadly, even that didn't show here.

Feu De La St Jean

The 24^th was the official start of summer, a bit late as I have commented before, but that's Provence for you. Tell people that there's going to be a knees-up on the 21^st and they will come on the 24^th. There was no food available in the square in front of the Bar du Pont this year but a marching band arrived as advertised around 9.45; a lot of drums plus some brass: a tuba a saxophone and a trumpet. They marched through to the other side of the bridge and then I went to see the fire lit on a dry part of the river bed below the bridge. There was a long delay and I suggested to the people around me that the matches had been forgotten, which got a laugh. I added: “or maybe they are just waiting for Jeanne d'Arc to arrive” which caused some sharp intakes of breath; the French will never forgive us for burning Jeanne d'Arc.

When the fire was finally going the band came back into the square and played again. Not many people danced but the moppets did, three of them aged about 4-6, all energy if a bit short on coordination. I love to see them dance, totally unselfconscious and uninhibited. There was also a dog that was clearly bemused by the nusic and dancing and seemed unsure whether to join in or bite someone. It made a pass at both but was on a short lead so achieved neither.