From National Anthems To Flowers

La Marseillaise Et Al

At the last pizza evening I had an opportunity to ask friend Dominique privately why he had refused to stand for the singing of the Marseillaise at the July 14^th celebration. He said it was because he couldn't abide the words and I had to agree that singing about slicing people up is not (fortunately) everybody's idea of a good way to start a celebration. That's the problem with national anthems; if they are not actually barbaric they are crudely nationalistic in a way that that most open-minded people have come to regard as at least distasteful. The answer, I suggested to Dominique (he didn't know) lay in the Spanish national anthem; it has no words at all. I have only one regret in this suggestion. The words of the English national anthem have been changed by the national football team's supporters to be “God save our team” and the team has not infrequently been in need of such divine intervention. If we drop the words we'll have to find another way.

Wine Festival

I went to the wine festival in the village this week really just because I had nothing better to do. There are a couple of producers within the village that produce reasonable wine but nothing that I would go out of the way for. The last time I went, about three years ago, there were only about six vineyards represented but this year I was initially pleased to see that there were 15 present. I particularly wanted to find a good white wine as there are numerous local sources of good rosé and good red wine can be had if you know where to look. I think the problem with white wine here is finding a blend from what grows well in the area. That reduces to Ugni, Grenache, Clairette, Viognier and, at a pinch, Chardonnay. The problem seems to be that Viognier doesn't seem to blend well with other grape varieties (the best Viogniers I've had have been just that) and the local Chardonnay doesn't produce as well as it does in other regions. The result is blends that tend to be characterless. Apart from Viognier, my taste is for white wines based on Sauvignon Blanc (primarily, or Chablis or Reisling) which are rarely or never grown here. In fact I think that most white wines work best with an (almost) pure single grape variety; indeed, that seems to be the case with most French white wines of repute.

Anyway, I didn't find any white wine to please my palate, so that was a slight if not unexpected disappointment. One of my favourite local vineyards (Rieu Frais, in nearby St Jalle) wasn't represented but two other vineyards I like for their red and rosé wines, Puy du Maupas and Roche Buissière were, and I found a very decent Gigondas from a source I didn't previously know, the Mas Des Collines.

Anyway, the wine festival was quite a jolly affair, with a band at one end of the Haute Terre and the smell of barbecued sausages at the other, and the opportunity to greet friends and acquaintances again in between. So I was glad I went.

Flowers

Passers-by continue to stop and take photos of my house, which is gratifying, although I think my floral display this year is disappointing. The hanging baskets have been a total failure and I have had unusual problems with several other plants. The jasmine is still blooming prolifically over my balcony and the cotyledons are doing their bit but I'm having a bit of a rethink. I'm not sure if the problems I'm having are a result of the exceptional weather or the compost or plants I'm using but I need, somehow, to change what I am doing. From the road, red shows up well on the balcony but I refuse to give in to the scarlet geranium syndrome (in the worst possible taste, according to Oscar Wilde and, anyway, I don't like them); but geraniums are reliable here so maybe I'll use deeper red or white varieties. I think I need John Innes No 3 compost but you can't get it here so I've decided to make some myself, using good local compost and some clay that friends Steve and Jo have said I can take from their garden. I've noticed that the compost that can be bought locally tends to reduce to dust after a couple of years and thus no longer retains water. I suspect also that drainage may be a play a part so I may introduce some grit into my own compost. Then it's a question of choosing the right plants. I'll experiment and see what I get next year. That's the way with gardening, I think; continual evolution.