Blogs from Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe - page 46

It was a few days ago that we first saw the posters - 'XVIieme Rallye des Poilus', accompanied by a watercolour picture of several turn-of-the-20th-century cars and elegantly attired Edwardian ladies and gentlemen. It was all to take place at la Bastide sur l'Hers , the village just along from us, at 8.30 or so yesterday morning, so we grabbed chocolatines from the bakers, and cut along to the bar at la Bastide for our breakfast coffee and to see the action. Well over 30 ancient vehicles were being polished & cosseted into action by their owners, and pored over by the Oldest Inhabitants (the male ones, anyway), who could probably remember similar vehicles from their youth. Gradually the cars trundled off in a cavalcade- they were visiting several communities, Laroque first, throughout the day, and ... read more

When we found out that percnoptere means vulture, a morning near Tarascon being introduced to them by a local vulture-watcher seemed too exciting to resist. Luckily, he was a young professional who works for Nature Midi-Pyrenees, and in no way related to Bill Oddie. As ever, wonderful scenery, lush and green at this stage in the spring: though we saw the vultures wheeling and circling some 2000 metres above us rather than close at hand, we had powerful binoculars to help. There were other treats - a red-backed shrike sitting quietly for as long as we wanted to enjoy watching him high in a tree; several lizards, one of them large and bright turquoisy green. At the end, we had to have lunch in the car park. As ever, French style, someone had bought wine to ... read more

.....'nuff said... read more

When Dave and Gill came to spend the week with us, this is what we did........ read more

March 9th, Election Day has arrived. For us the elections have been an education. We’ve seen all the things we would have expected. Plenty of reportage about all the ‘listes’ presenting themselves for election, evenings spent stuffing propaganda through people’s doors, public meetings (attended, apparently, exclusively by The Faithful. Not a heckler in sight) and posters for all the groups of candidates. Delivering leaflets was in itself an experience. Walking down an English street delivering usually involves nothing more complex than the odd hard-to-open garden gate, and the excitement of whether the letter box will be at waist level or lower down (and is there a yapping dog behind intent on gnawing your fingers?). Here it’s rather more difficult. Letter box in door, or post box? If letter box, will it be set in the front ... read more