Rural Life

Winter approaches

It's been another of those weeks where the weather could take centre stage, with rain, wind, snow and today, bizarrely warm temperatures.  The 18ºC we see today is a blip caused by a weird weather pattern, and amusing after the snow that fell on Thursday to the horror of cats, chickens and us!

The Douceur Angevine meant that the snow here quickly disappeared during Thursday morning, which was good as we were heading to Paris for a 24 hour trip, but further north and east it kept going and Paris in driving snow is different, but a bit uncomfortable.

Once in Paris and off the metro, we learned that our "smart" phones and Google maps don't like snow and what should have been a 2 minute walk to our hotel took 15, as we were taken from the metro in a sort of spiral.  Dumping our case and things not needed for the rest of the day, like a decent camera, we headed back out into the blizzard to find the Musée d'Orsay and the rest of the gang for a much needed hot chocolate.  We had occasional stops to admire buildings and views that were transfigured by driving snow flakes.

If it is before Christmas and it is snowing, clearly the right thing to do is go to a Christmas Market and the big one at the Jardins des Tuileries had opened.  It therefore seemed churlish not to go along and partake of the Christmas spirit and some welcome vin chaud before a turn or three on the big wheel.  As we don't like crowds, it was probably the best time to go, despite the snow, as a nice, dry evening would bring out the hoards I'm sure.  We were amused at how little French we heard while we were there!

Once we had done the fun of the fair, we headed south to find dinner - sadly we didn't go far enough and had an average and expensive meal near the Beaux Arts.  Still the place was able to cope with 7 of us, each with different food and drink needs, and more inclined for chatting and laughter than haute cuisine.  Walking through to the river, I did take the compulsory Eifel Tower shot!

Then it was time to head in different directions to respective hotels and we strolled up into the St Germain des Près district to find a café for a nightcap.  We found the Deux Megots - famed for its illustrious clientele such as Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and the like, and us!  St Germain is also famous for jazz, and Thursday night is jazz night, so we settled in for inspired music from an instrumental trio, expensive drinks, and the most amazing floor show of people watching.  That is what Paris nightlife is about!  

The following morning and the storm had gone, as had much of the snow, and Paris is much prettier in the sun.  We wandered around the district, finding another couple of amazing cafés, one for breakfast, and one for a restorative cup of hot chocolate - the sort of hot chocolate that is a large spoon of quality chocolate spread, with a bit of scalding hot milk added so that the spread melts.  If you let it go too cool, it then resolidifies!  We also found the Palais de Luxemburg or the French Senat.

And so we are home again, after living the high life for 24 hours.  And it is good to be home.  There was a Christmas Market here too today - no snow, no fairground rides, lots of French being spoken and rather than some tacky baubles and overpriced foods, local craftspeople were showing off their wares.  There were felted gloves, repurposed wood and furniture, home woven textiles, an animal psychologist, producers of seeds, and of course food stalls.  We succumbed to spice sachets for vin chaud, tomato ketchup and smoked chilli paste before heading home for lunch.

I had thought I wouldn't bother with Christmas cake this year, but I have been ranted at from Australia (and not even a family member too) about lack of respect for tradition rather severely, so I had better go and look at my store cupboard and see what I need to buy in addition for cake making on Wednesday afternoon.  I know it is leaving it a bit late, but on the other hand, the Christmas pudding has been maturing for well over a year now, so these things balance out.  That's my excuse anyway!

Have a good week!

 

Unwelcome Autumn visitors

Late autumn often brings nasty surprises - tax bills for example - and we have had a number this week.  The last, but most impactful for me is a virulent head cold, which is making every task seem much larger than it really is and more painful too.  It will go in time - taking seven days if I use treatments, and a week if I let it run its course - but I am on day 3, normally the worst, and feeling sorry for myself.

Yesterday (so day 2 of nasal misery) I came face to face with another nasty surprise, an over wintering House Slug.  Not a normal slug: in its resting mode it was a good four inches (9cm) long and half an inch (one and a bit cm) wide, so clearly a flesh eating House Slug.  It was resting on the side of the pot that holds my tiny mango seedling, grown from a pip of a fruit given to us by our new neighbour, and it is the first time I've managed to get one to germinate.  The seedling was living quite happily in the garden until it got attacked by a slug or snail, so I put it indoors to be guarded by the Country Cats.  We had a discussion about how they were slacking, but they paid no attention.  I evicted the slug and hope it was found by a questing fox or buzzard.

We have had two nights with a slight frost this week, enough to further chill down the house after an October that hit the record books for being one of the two dullest (i.e. lack of sun) on record.  It was a relief on Monday to see a strange yellow glow in the sky, but it didn't last long.  

But in amongst all this gloom, there are some truly French things that remind me why we live here. 

There was a note in our post box a couple of weeks ago - "come along to my garage on Sunday morning for a wine tasting (there will also be nibbles)".  A neighbour has a chum with a vinyard over the border near Chinon, and once a year, they lay on a tasting of bottled wines and wines "en vrac", i.e. buy a canister and bottle it yourself.  We weren't much taken with the bottled offerings, but the "en vrac" was rather splendid, so we put in an order.  The word on the street was that the wine would arrive on Saturday evening.  So yesterday evening, along with a bunch of others, we strolled down the road with our wheelbarrow and brought back our 20 litres of finest Chinon red.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that I am going to take my festering head cold away from my freezing cold office and down to the warm, where I will help bottle 20 litres of red wine, which seems a very sensible way of spending a November evening!

Have a good week!

 

Quiet times

In the end we had 13 consecutive days without a glimpse of the sun, just dull, foggy, dankness.  On Friday, the sun finally made an appearance for three hours, one and a half of which I was in an office and for the rest I failed to bring out my phone and take a picture as proof.  And now the greyness is back for a few more days - how nice!

I did threaten to bring in a trail camera, as I thought the batteries might be running out.  I did that yesterday, and discovered that the batteries gave out about 3 weeks ago - my bad!  Actually there wasn't much activity recorded in the three weeks it was working.  It was placed in the Orchard, with the hope of catching boar family antics, but while there was one night time video with a couple of snuffling sounds, there was not a hint of boar.  The camera was by something we call Badger Road, and sure enough, there were numerous shots of a badger passing through at speed, so most weren't much good.  This is one of the best.

There were lots of pictures of us passing by the camera (well as many "lots" as you can get when there were only 160 files in total), which have all been removed, leaving just 49 files with anything at all, including a few of our cats.  There was a nice image of a deer, with an accompanying video I've not had a chance to load onto YouTube - for another day!

There was also a nice one of a couple of jays, again with an interesting video to follow.

Finally, there was a fine shot of the fox, showing off his magnificent bushy tail!

Other wildlife fun this week has been observing a few Asian hornets in the zone.  They are mainly workers at the end of their life, fulfilling a desire for sugary things - rotting apples and ivy nectar in the main.  A good frost and they will die off, but we will be vigilant from February, keeping an eye out for the next batch of queens to trap and destroy.  European hornets are natural, the Asian ones are non-native and causing havoc among the insect population as they seek out protein from May to August to feed the colony.

An important discovery for us yesterday was that our favourite café in town has reopened.  About a month ago I guess, I spotted that it was closed with curtains drawn, and after waiting a couple of weeks in case it was just holidays, I reluctantly decided it was gone - another blight on the year.  But yesterday, the curtains were gone, there was a new painting on the plate glass window and when we went in, the coffee was still the best in town.  Good luck to the new owners!

And now I must turn my attention back to a slightly poorly puss cat.  Poirot, the doyenne of our group, has an eye infection, which means anti-inflammatory drops four times a day and anti-biotic paste in the eye twice a day.  Fortunately she is very food oriented, with a passion for Dreamies and for cheese or salmon flavoured creamy gloop.  She is not resisting eye drops or paste as she knows that she will get a copious and tasty treat straight afterwards.  It is not so easy with cats that don't like treats!

Have a good week!

 

Storm Kirk and other local events

OK, last weekend I promised more wildlife videos, and maybe I will include a couple at the end, but this week has been quite a busy one, and for a number of reasons.

Last week I wrote this blog early, before dashing off to the photo competition exhibition, hoping I had at least one of my photos printed and therefore in the top 30.  Well, my hopes were dashed, but to be fair to those that were printed, there were only 2 that I would have said weren't worth printing.  One was out of focus, and perhaps I am old fashioned, but I don't think that is good photography.  The other one looked to me more like an advert for Legal and General (other financial services companies are available but have different advertising and logos) than an entry in a provincial photography competition, and in my view would have been barred on that basis in a similar competition in the UK.  It won the adult section.

Of the two printed ones I liked the best, one got a prize for the popular vote done over the two days of the exhibition, and is shown here the furthest left, modelled by a member of the Society running the competition, the next one along won the popular vote, probably as it had a bird in it, the other two were the winners in the Junior section.  Well done all!

The next big excitement of the week was Storm Kirk.  He didn't bring much wind, but he brought a shed-load of rain with him.  It started raining before dawn on Wednesday and carried on with varying levels of intensity until just after 6pm.  Overall we had 59mm of rain or 2 3/8 inches - however you count it, it was a lot!  For the main rain gauge in our garden by the house, we had to empty it twice during the day, taking readings each time.  At 10am when I went to feed the chickens it was like this!

Fortunately around us there is enough of a gradient to ensure that house, garden and cellars don't flood, and that was the case for most around here, although some low roads became impassable as water came off the fields, and the Couasnon broke its banks.  But the main flooding was in low lying fields.  Others were not so lucky in other parts of France and I feel for them.  Occasionally however field banks were not up to the task and ceded with the weight of water, particularly if the field above had been harvested or ploughed recently so the soil was compacted.  This slip was near our country retreat.

The ponds are now nicely full and since Kirk did his worst, the weather has improved and blue sky has been seen!

The other excitement during the week was round two of the Challenge Communale in boule de forte.  My team had won our first round match, so on Thursday evening we were pitted against the team from one of the boule de forte clubs, the Esperance, and weren't totally hopeful.  I was instantly depressed when I revealed my antique boules, which were denounced as disgusting.  However it turned out that the Esperance team were unavailable to play the semi-final on Saturday, so forfeited the game when they were leading 8 - 2.  Once that was sorted, they told me the product I needed to get to make my boules beautiful and shiny once again, so I sort of forgave them.

Saturday morning, 10am, I was back at the boule de fort club with my "disgusting" boules for the semi-final against another boule de forte society, la Paix.  Despite hangovers and lack of sleep on both sides (not me, obviously), once we got going, the game was quickly lost by us 10 - 1, so I didn't have to worry about the final.  To be fair, we would have forfeited if we had won as one of our team couldn't be there for the final.  Anyway, by 11am, hair of the dog was being taken by those that needed it, and I was drinking a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc, knowing that I wouldn't have to play again for another year!

The only ones of these boules that are ours are the red ones!

As I mentioned, it rained all day on Wednesday, so one thing I could do to pass the time was to load up a few more wildlife videos on YouTube so I can share them here (you can also find my YouTube channel and subscribe or follow to see more of what is there).  I found another amusing woodpecker video - I am very fond of the Woodies!

There is a fair amount of mouse or rat activity down by the ponds - that's fair, as it's a wild place and they are wild animals.  I have no issues with them living as nature intended.

In the same way, I am fascinated to watch "our" fox as he goes about his business.  He is in the wild, away from domestic gardens and chicken runs, fending for himself, and not relying on dustbins either.  I've no idea what he is eating!

 

 

I have looked to see if there are nests or fungus or fruit around there, but I can't spot anything.  If he is eating slugs or snails, good luck to him, but I would be a bit less happy if it was frogs and toads.  Whatever, it is nature doing its thing.

Next week you can see coypu, plus I'm going to bring in another camera which has been at a point where I used to see hares and deer, so hope to have news of them.  I fear there will be a lot of John and I strimming however!

Have a good week!

 

Drama! Games and ducks

We are past the vernal equinox: the gazebo roof is dry, down and packed away for next year, when I hope it will be out for longer than two months!  As ever it will need some running repairs to see it through the season but I think the Velcro has another year left in it, while the actual fabric is holding up nicely.  Ok the "outside" is faded, but we sit under it so still have the glory of its bright colours. 

With the cover down, the gazebo just has its strawberry hanging baskets, its weather station and its fairy lights, which I shall leave out a bit longer, as they bring delight when I put the chickens away at night.  Soon there won't be enough daylight to charge the battery and then they will come in.

 The arrival of autumn proper and the longer evenings means it is time for boules de fort - a traditional local game not played in more than a handful of departments, but Anjou is definitely a key place.  Le Vieil Baugé is blessed with four still operating boule pistes - there were 7, but the other three are no longer in use.  Every autumn there is the Communal Challenge, where all the clubs and societies, the village municipal workers, and any other identifiable group are invited to submit up to two teams to defend the honour of their group. 

The Comité des Fêtes has always tried to come up with two teams, as was the case this year.  Normally team membership is decided on having one good team and then a bunch of no-hopers.  This year membership was decided on who was available on which evening for the first round.  That got me into the "first" team with people who know how to play - a bit of a shock!

Even more of a shock for me was that we got points!

In fact, at the end of a three and a half hour game - I kid you not - we won 10 to 7 against the Society for the Preservation of Vieil Baugé Heritage!  That means I am playing again on Thursday this week, but against one of the boule de fort societies, so it is likely to be a pasting.

So back to the world of trail cameras.  Spoiler alert - it is a bitter sweet story.

There are a pair of mallards that live in the zone - he is a bit flighty, but she is a gentle soul.  Last year I actually saw her with a couple of ducklings in the fish pond, before the coypu had managed to make it a poorly drained swamp.  So it was rather nice to see her passing through with a little ball of fluff.

 

A couple of days later and she passed with two little fluff balls!

 

Then I saw her with five!  O what joy!

 

Except, two days later, there was just one duckling left.

 

But three weeks later, that ball of fluff had fledged quite nicely, and did stay with Mum until the end of July, when presumably she went off to find her own pond.

 

I don't know what happened to the other ducklings - there are many options and it is a hard world out there for small balls of fluff.  If they all survived, we would disappear under all the mallards however.  One of the culprits could be this chap - yes, pine marten can also be spotted in daylight!

 

Anyway, next week I turn my video attention to those relatively charmless creatures, coypu.  Something to look forward to?  

This afternoon is the exhibition of the annual photography competition run by the Society for the Preservation of the Heritage of Vieil Baugé (who got beaten by the Comité des Fêtes at boules de fort - ha!), with the prize giving at 5pm.  You submit your photos (maximum of 2) by email, the best 30 get printed and exhibited, and there are winners and prizes.  I hope one of my entries got printed, that for me would be the win.  You'll find out next week! 

Have a good one!

Making the most of the good days

2024 has not been a classic year on many fronts, not least the weather.  Often the autumns here are truly blissful, warm or hot days, cooler evenings, sunny with the odd day of gales.  Sometimes we aren't actually that keen on the prolongation of summer, but this year, with perhaps two weeks of summer in total, more than a week of nice autumn would be good.  Alas it is not to be, so the rare days of idyllic autumn have to be savoured.  Yesterday was one such day - crisp, sunny, inspiring!  The Saturday morning market in Baugé was quite classic, with yummy local products, the dulcet tones of Yann Mas warbling in the background and bright sun, with the Chateau watching over us!

Today was the annual antiques fair at Durtal, some 12 kilometres to the north of us.  Since Covid and Brexit, it is smaller, with fewer traders and fewer English voices to be heard as you go around the stalls.  Actually the size now suits us better, as say 10 years ago, it was just too big.  But today there were very few punters out and about as well.  Okay so we were there between 1pm and 2pm, but even so it seemed a bit sparse.  The quality and the range of stuff was impressive this time so we enjoyed our 3km walk around from where we parked the car, but the weather was not propitious and by the time we got to the car, it was raining.  Durtal Chateau loomed over our arrival and departure in a gloomy fashion, given the weather conditions.

With two nice days in the week, we got done as much as we could by way of gardening, and in between I did useful things.  For a start I stewed a couple of kilos of windfall apples from the garden which are now in the freezer waiting for me to make apple crumble in due course.  I then batch cooked a load of cristophines so I have some ready to be a gratin when the need arises. 

I also brought in a trail camera that had been in place in a secluded area for the past 3 months to see what had been going on.  I was actually a bit grateful for poor weather, as there was so much going on, and I had time to enjoy the footage rather than feel guilty about it. 

To give an idea of what has been going on, here are some highlights:

The tree by the camera, which has been shown to be a really good scratching post for boar, is also a favourite scavenging point for the Great Spotted Woodpeckers.  This is a rather nice short of one giving the tree a once over.

While there is the well known phrase "breed like rabbits", I tend more to the phrase "breed like wild boar", as they can produce two litters a year and litters are big and there are just so many around, but on the other hand, baby boar are so cute!

 

While they aren't my favourite animals by a long chalk, young coypu aren't as unpleasant to look at as their parents, and the family that live in the zone seem to have had 4 babies this year.  This little fellow is about a third the size of its parents.

I adore pine martens, and for a few weeks they seemed to spend a lot of time playing and searching for food around the camera location.  I've decided to share a number of videos of them this time, as later blogs will be more about the fox, the duck story and those wretched coypu.

At first there was just one pine marten, but then another, smaller one joined it.  I've no idea if they are a couple or whether it is parent and adolescent, but I love them and am always rather excited to see a photo or a short video of them.

So, first just one:

 

Then two of them:

 

 

The trail camera is back in place again, but I still have over 200 more files to go through and see what is there in detail.  The badgers go through there, as do deer occasionally, and I still hope to see the water rail again one of these days.  All three cameras are now deployed and it is the time when all the animals we share the area with are looking to put on winter stores to help them through the cold season.  I wish them luck as it looks like poor pickings this year and I refuse to provide feed - nature must take its course.

That doesn't apply to the blue tits and great tits that eat the pine processionary caterpillars of course - they are encouraged to congregate in the zone to then take the evil invaders out when they appear!

The forecast for the week isn't great, but I hope there will be some fine days to take advantage of out in the gardens and woodlands.  Have a good week!

 

A week that ends in a feast!

Last Saturday's storm is being claimed as a natural catastrophe as numerous buildings were damaged, though fortunately not ours.  I was in a shop this morning that had been affected.  It is all very well having a foot of insulation in the roof, but when it gets wet, it becomes very heavy and brings down an awful lot of stuff with it!  Not pretty and not good for the shop keeper! 

If you track down WIRED you will find an article about the increasing cost of lightening to buildings and insurance across the world, using the marvellous example of Mutton's Mill in the Norfolk Broads, which has had lightening conductors fitted to all four sails to prevent significant damage in a storm (perhaps try googling Farrell of the Broads Authority to find the story).

[Mutton's Mill, photo credit, Andrew Farrell]

Since the storm, temperatures have got steadily colder, although there are nice sunny days.  Rebus has spotted that the best autumn billet is on top of the beer fridge, as there is no heating on anywhere else and his fur coat is quite thin!

This cold autumnal weather means good sunsets in general, and also nice evenings to stand out and watch bats flitting around, hoovering up all the flies and other winged nasties that come out after dark.  We have at least two types that zoom around our house and garden, and actually the area is well known for its significant bat colonies, with protected caves where they overwinter.

Today (Saturday - I am writing this in advance - see below for why) was the annual Societé de la Paix Mechoui or animal roast, but in practice it is always a pig roast.  Festivities start from midday with people turning up for the aperitif and to admire lunch cooking.

Then everyone gets herded onto two long tables for more aperitifs, starters, the main event of spit roast pork with beans and ratatouille, rounding off the meal with cheese and apple tart.  We generally get home at about 6pm after coffee.  It is a wonderful way to meet people, to share village life and gossip and to feel part of something.  Every year is a bit different, even if the menu doesn't change, and we wouldn't miss it for the world.

Tomorrow I head for England, to see chums and family, and possibly even Mutton's Mill, so next week's story will be very different.  Have a good week!

 

Summer ends with a splash!

Friday evening's pub session was grey, cool (I was wearing a sweatshirt, for goodness sake), and distinctly humid.  Saturday morning we woke to a thunderstorm and heavy rain - some 20mm before 11am.  But as so often with summer storms, but midday, the sun was out and temperatures rocketed and we were able to sit out for aperos in the garden and say how lovely it all was.  So at 3:30am, we were unimpressed to be woken with a shock by loud thunder nearly overhead and positively biblical rain, which carried on for a good hour.

I am always surprised after such a violent sounding night, how in the morning, you have to look really hard to find the evidence of the cataclysm that seemed to be going on during the hours of darkness.  Yes, the rain gauge was pretty full, and the one at The Garden was nearly overflowing, and driving to The Garden, there were odd banks of sand by some of the fields, but nothing particularly broken, just a lot more water in the ponds.

It is sad that summer ends so abruptly, not least as we are still in Comice season, and Genneteil were doing the honours this year for the Noyant Villages area.  Still by the time they got to the procession of villages (no fancy floats this year from the Noyant area), the sun was doing its best to shine on them.  I do feel that this year's procession was a demonstration of cruelty to Renault 4s and as I used to drive one, I felt a lot of sympathy for this poor car, pulling a trailer that was too well loaded for the weight of the car.

For an event where the theme was Rock and Retro, I also felt that the non-marching band weren't quite in the swing of the theme by playing Lady Gaga's Poker Face.  But perhaps it is the highlight of their repertoire.

Autumn jobs are coming to the forefront of our thinking.  The Meadow needs to be fully mown and the side paths need to be cleared so that I can get into the little woodland at the end and finally see what is down there.  The Orchard is too overgrown and needs to be sorted out before the walnuts start to fall - not least as walnuts are our rent to the landlady.  So, lots to do, and possibly too much for one man. 

So I rummaged in my moth filled wallet and invested in a strimmer/brushcutter that I can use.  My elbow has ceased to support frequent use of a pullcord for starting a petrol engine, so I have gone for a battery model and used it for the first time yesterday.  The battery lasted longer than I did, which bodes well for later in the autumn.  Me in safety gear, harness and carrying said strimmer is not a good look, but better safe than sorry!

Last Sunday, in a last hurrah to summer, we attended a jazz manouche concert at our local pub - Les Epines de Mymi Rose.  I've wanted to catch one of her concerts for a while, so was delighted to spend a warm summer evening, sitting with a glass of wine. listening to an excellent performance.

One of the delights of autumn here are vivid sunsets, so this from Wednesday night may well be the first of many.  There is much that is autumnal around at the moment, with the giant orange jelly slugs, ripe fruit falling and a certain feel to the air.  I am very fond of early autumn, but not so much this year, as we never seem to have had much of a summer.  Perhaps a week or so in August.

I did mention giant orange jelly slugs - they are numerous and finding life just too, too wonderful at the moment.  Wandering around the One Acre Wood I nearly stopped slug sex but standing on two, but managed to sidestep them just in time.  Fascinating and disgusting at the same time!

Have a good week!

 

Looking back at the Comice last weekend

Last week's blog was a teaser about the float I have been working with others from the village for last week's Comice.  The Saturday was wet, so I was glad that it was still in the hangar where we store it, and Sunday dawned fair but cool for the drive to Vaulandry and for the procession itself.  I wasn't with it when it headed off, so I didn't see the roof flapping, as while it was fine at walking pace, the more sprightly 20kmph on the open road, compounded by a gap where the door panel would go, was too much for it.  There was a stop to strap it all together and a message to me to bring staples and means of fixing - like I wasn't going to bring that sort of stuff anyway!

This photo shows as many of the contributors to the float as we could track down once the procession was done!

I found the float at about midday and spent a happy hour adding all the bits that wouldn't travel well, getting the roof secure and putting on the door panel.  Then I set up the cauldron and fire, placed the furniture and all was ready. 

The staging area for the floats is always a nice place to be.  People putting the final touches together, getting dressed up, having lunch and preparing for the afternoon. 

As ever, the procession was late setting off, and took its time too, and being with our float, I didn't capture all of the others well, and totally missed the performance by one lot, while being subjected to the same inane song about Little Red Riding Hood (the float behind ours) nearly 50 times!

The theme of the Comice was the Call of the Forest, and all floats were linked to that, some more closely than others.  Next year the Comice will be at Fougeré, so they were ahead  of us, with their take on the magic of the forest and a giant druid.

After us was Pontigné, Little Red Riding Hood, that blasted music and a Wolf that made a few small children cry and behaved generally very badly - but only when he had his wolf's mask on.

Other aspects of the forest included Echimiré and their dolmen, le Guedenieu and their dominial forest, Cuon looking at the seasons on one tree, and St Martin d'Arcé had an Ent.  Vaulandry had a float showing woodland crafts, while Cheviré le Rouge went all out and depicted the Call of the Bois de Boulogne (Paris) complete with police van, gendarmes, pimp and some really dodgy prostitutes.

We distributed about 4 kilos of sweets while walking with our float, mostly to children, but volunteers, first aid teams and local mayors were very grateful for a sweetie too.  In case you haven't worked it out, ours was Hansel and Gretel, the Witch and the Gingerbread House in the forest.

To give you an idea of what a procession of floats looks like, here we are, going around the exhibition of agricultural machinery and services!

Every Comice has to have outdoor catering at some stage.  Last year we had something like 20 whole pigs spit roasting over firepits.  This year the Sunday night feast was steak, but you could still have a lovely big bonfire in order to have enough glowing embers for cooking 1,200 steaks.

We didn't stay for the late night entertainment but we did stop and enjoy a local band entertaining the masses, with a slightly weird mix of accordion, tuba, voice and guitar.  It was rather good and we bought the CD, and one of these days I will listen to it too! 

So that was the Comice 2024 and we have a bit of a rest now before starting work in January on the float for 2025, when it will be the 150th Comice of Baugé en Anjou!

Monday we were back down to earth with a bump, with a funeral, the weather turned about 3 times in the week, and today is beautiful but distinctly autumnal, which is unfair as summer only seems to have started about three weeks ago!  However there is live music at the village pub tonight, so I must get on with making supper so we can eat before we go out.  I leave you with a rather fine photo of a small wasp having a go at pollinating the first of the cristophine flowers for this year.

Have a good week!

 

 

A hint of what is to come!

By the time this gets published, our village float for the Comice at Vaulandry will be over at Vaulandry and I will be doing the final touches to it.  There are giant boiled sweets to be added along the sides, the door panel of the witch's gingerbread house to fix and the full glory of the bamboo trees to open out.  I will also likely have to reattach a number of flowers, before setting up the witch's cauldron and chair.  It's all go!

The full story of the parade of decorated floats may well not be published until next weekend.