The Blog gets Blogged

When we opened the bar we were suprised to learn that a book had been recently published which was partially set here. The book was Toute Allure, the second book documenting the trials and tribulations of the author, Karen, and here new life in France.
By a quirk of fate, we had met Karen at the Earls Court France show a few months before we left the UK and had purchased a copy of her first book, Tout Sweet, and had it signed and dedicated to our friend Pat.
The book details Karen's line dancing times in the bar and some anecdotes about life in the bar under the previous owner.
Karen is now once again a regular for the Friday morning line dancing (cancelled today as people want to watch a couple getting married somewhere) as well as the Monday evening fish and chips.
Karen has a very well read blog www.toutsweet.net and has written about the bar on it. ( nice things thankfully!!)
She also mentions this blog so as in the title of the post, the blog has been blogged

An awkward conversation

We have a regular old french gent who it transpires has a little problem. It is either that he cant reach the urinal or he cant get his bits out quick enough once he has decided he needs relief
Either way the puddles after his visits are not very pleasant to deal with nor hygenic.
J has promised that she will have a word when he next comes in but my concern is that he will arrive when I am here by myself and whilst my french is getting a little better, it is not up to having a conversation of this kind
Voulez vous pisser dans le urinals sil vouz plait is not going to get the message across.
However help is at hand, two weeks ago we attended an Entente meeting in Civray in which the basic steps of drawing were explained by local artist Angela Berry.
Using my new found skills, I have come up with this



Hopefully it will get the message across!!

He's been watching too many ads!!

We have just introduced wifi into the bar as a service to our customers. Most people are grateful and use it for half an hour or so whilst having a drink. All except one, a French gent who has modelled himself on the Paul Whitehouse character in the Aviva (?) ad.
Yesterday he was here for nearly three hours and spent the princly sum of €1.20. He had his laptop plugged in to our electricity, asked for assistance with a DVD and even asked if it could be played on our tele. J decided after 3 hours that enough was enough and suggested to him politely that we were a business and that one petite cafe in 3 hours was not a fair exchange. Monsieur got the hump and said but he was the customer and he felt it was ok. J told him that he would be better served in an internet cafe rather than our bar. I don't think he will be back and if he is he better be thirstier!

The New Table

We decided that our terrace could do with a large communal table. Buying was easy, putting together a little bit more difficult. Our neighbours Anne and Erl came over to have lunch and with Anne reading the instructions ( it's a female thing!!!) and Erl and I building we eventually got it up and stable

MG and OMG

Last night we had the local MG Owners club meet at the bar for fish and chips. The car park became a temporary MG showroom. The evening was busy with the bar full of people either eating or waiting for their meals.
Whilst walking through the kitchen I noticed a strange smell, checked that I hadn't left nothing turned on and thought no more of it. We found out what it was ten minutes later when "OMG" ( sorry I know its tacky language) the power went off in the whole building. The smell in the kitchen was one of burning coming from a cupboard which houses the main electrical imput into the cafe.
we had about 60 people in the bar, the fish and chip van had 25-30 orders still to fulfil and no power. We asked for hush and then called "Is there and electrician in the house?". Kevin stepped forward, came and had a look and diagnosed major surgery. The input box had grossly overheated and it was likely that major damage had been done. OMG!! J got on the phone to the local electrical suppliers emergency line, and then distributed candles around the tables. It doesn't get dark here until about 8.30 so we were able to trade on and hope.
Soregies, the electrical company were superb. They had an emergency engineer here within 45 minutes and he had changed the input fuse and power was back on a further half hour later.
Whilst it was a stressful couple of hours, on reflection it could have been a lot worse. Had we been cooking we would have been stuck, had it been during the quiz we would have had to cancel the evening. As it was we managed to carry on trading and just couldn't cook desserts or make coffees

Crime wave

We have suffered our first crime in the bar. Today I caught the 12 year old son of a frequent French visitor stealing sweets from the display on the bar. He is of the habit of standing very close to the sweets when he is in with his dad and we have thought for a while we are feeding his habit so to speak.
Silly boy didn't realise that there is a two way mirror behind the bar, as he slipped the bar of Toblerone into his sleeve.
I followed him outside and found the bar in his father's car.

The kid is now banned and was last seen running away as his father drove off. Let's hope dad was cross because he stole and not because he was caught.

( I should add the person in the picture is not person involved nor do we sell bars quite that big)