Yes, it is Comice time again - that season when the preparations by the Comites des Fetes of the local villages are displayed for all to see. This year it was the turn of Vaulandry to host the event and this meant that the Comice movement went back to its roots, as the whole event goes back to the agrarian Marquis of Turbilly, who wanted to improve the quality of farm outputs on his land, and thought that competition might be the answer (we are talking 18th century here).
The theme for the weekend was Agriculture in Days Gone By, and it was also one of the hottest weekends of the year, so we were pleased to find that part of the Comice area was in a poplar plantation and therefore shaded. The Saturday was as ever devoted to the serious ploughing matches in the morning and in the afternoon to the Inter-village games. This year the Games were done in two parts - a song/choreography following the theme of the Comice and a Fil Rouge or obstacle course. Prizes were distributed on the basis of the times in the obstacle course.
Vieil Bauge did Old MacDonald as its song this year, but translated into French for the comfort of the audience. Jim McKomisky of the local band Out of Time played guitar and sang (cow), and the other singers were Valentin Devanne (chicken), Antonin Morrisset (dog), Perine Pele (duck) and yours truly (sheep), with John sitting in for Old Mac himself.
Then the obstacle course team took over - the process was that a child (Valentin Devanne in our case) did a sack race effort in a slalom through cones to where a man (Pauline Morrisset - don't ask) picked him up and carried him back down the slalom course to the waiting woman (Florian Morrisset, who may never live it down), who pushed the child back up the slalom in a wheelbarrow, before all three had to fight their way through a rope maze and get over the finish line, against the clock.
Our amazing, if unconventional, team bashed the previous winning time by a whole 6 seconds and therefore won the day, and Vieil Bauge were the proud winners of a really nasty cup.
It is a bit sad that it was only young Pauline Morrisset who was prepared to heft little Valentin over her shoulder for that part of the race, but all the chaps around from Vieil Bauge got a sudden rash of bad backs - too much time spent at the beer tent perhaps? Still, if she hadn't stepped up, I don't think we would have won - they were through that rope maze like greased lightening, so well done all.
Day Two and the Mayoral ploughing match and procession of floats will follow.
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