My French

I was sitting outside the bar the other morning when a lady came over and started talking, in French. She asked about the bar and I tried to explain that we had been here for a year and that previously the bar had been closed for three years. She seemed to understand and then asked about "Anne". Anne was the previous occupant of the bar who left in unfortunate circumstances after her husband died.
I told the lady that "Desole Anne et mort" . The lady seemed very shocked by the news and went off to find her sister in law and tell her, I thought it a bit of an over reaction considering the lady had left Champniers 3 years ago but who am I to say.
About a quarter of an hour later a local gent, Daniel, arrived to join the ladies for lunch. They sat down and whispered for a couple of minutes. I went over to the table with the menu ( Jeanne was away at the airport dropping the kids off) and Daniel looked at me in a very strange way and said " jeanne - mort? "
Non Non I said, Anne et mort, the vieux commercant, Jeanne est a la areoport

The look of relief was instant. Jeanne was ok. I am glad we got it sorted so quickly. We had seen Daniel on Sunday evening and he must have been shocked that not only had Jeanne died so quickly but that the bar was still open and I was outside reading a book as if nothing had happened.

I am sure that the lady said "Anne" and not "Jeanne" but who knows. I think in future I will stick to desole je ne parle pas francais

Brocante

I wrote last year about the importance to the village associations of the annual brocante. This is the village boot fair, meal and fireworks that happens in Champniers on the second Sunday in August. The expectation is that the weather will be favourable.
This year was a disaster. Despite warm and dry weather last week and hot and dry weather forecast for this week, the Sunday in the middle was forecast as rain all day.
We had hoped that this was a forecast in the Michael Fish tradition but it wasn't and rain it did.
The brocante, about 80 stalls last year had about 10 this year. The stalls themselves, manned by people sitting in steamed up cars and vans were covered over to protect the stock so nobody could see what was for sale anyway ( about as much use as a stripper with their clothes on)
As there were few stalls, although plenty of visitors came, they didn't stay around to drink and eat at the association funding buvette.
At the bar we had a busy day. After being overrun on brocante day last year, we elected to pass the catering over to our caterer partner and she roasted a whole pig in the courtyard and then sold Hog Roast with salads and dessert whilst we sold the drinks to go with it. This had been fairly widely advertised and despite the weather all of the pig was sold between 1pm and 4pm.

After the downpours and thunder of the afternoon, thankfully the weather cleared late in the afternoon and the evening events of moules frites followed by fireworks were able to go ahead. About 200 people ate the moules in the school yard and this at least gave the associations some income so their day wasn't a complete washout.

Again a village of only 350 people put on a superb firework display

We hope next year the weather supports the hard work done by the team and they get their financial rewards.

We had help over the last week from two sons, James and Greg and a friend Craig. Thank you guys for your help, we hope you enjoyed yourselves as well

French Life The Sans Permis

For those of you who live or have travelled in France, you will know the Sans Permis. The name translates as Without Permit and is a type of mini car that can be driven by anyone over the age of 16 with no licence. This includes those people that have had a licence and lost it by drink driving, dangerous driving etc. ( Drivers born after 1988 have to have 3 hours instruction but no test)
These cars are small, slow and unbelievably annoying if you happen to be driving behind one. They also seem about as safe as walking down the middle of the road in the dark dressed all in black




The only advantage they seem to have is that they are so small you can park them almost anywhere, if that is, you can drive fast enough to get "anywhere"


The cars are mainly made by 3 manufactures, Aixam, Ligier and Microcar. They are all two seaters, can only weigh 300lbs, have a maximum speed of 28mph (45kms) and an engine of 5.6 hp.
They are kitted out as proper cars and can be fitted with alloys, cd plyers, electric windows and of course go faster stripes. They have names such as GTO, sport and RS.
The cars range in price from €9990 to €14990 which is unbelievable considering a Renault Twingo can be yours for €6990. They also make san permis vans and pick ups
You can hire one of these cars, providing you haven't got far to go for only €29.90 a day.
We had a call last week booking 3 for lunch. A san permis drew up and one man got out leaving the driver to go back and collect the 3rd person from their house 3 miles away. It took 25 minutes before they were all here! When they left the same happened with one of the party waiting over half an hour to be collected

Me, I'd rather walk

Visiteurs

In the past week we have had people from the following places in the bar

Russia
England
Germany
France
Latvia
Jersey
Belgium
Holland
Scotland
Wales
Guernsey

we had 0.01% of the population of Lichenstein ( hello Helmut, Shirley and Nina)

and a suprise visit from Barry the Brit who found his way here on the way to the south of France ( see post August 10)

One Year

Today is the 31st July 2011. We opened this day last year.
It has been a wonderful year as we have learned our new trade and met new people.

By far the most important is the fact that if you have the desire you will succeed. I have sat in many meetings where motivation, change and attitude were discussed repeatedly. The task was always to lead others. It works to a degree but needs inspirational leaders, but it works much better if the desire comes from the person themselves. Desire to succeed makes things work. Belief in yourself and in our case our business is the key. Don't worry about what you can't change, just make sure that what you can do you do well. If you make a mistake, learn from it and move on and don't ever forget that the customer is your income.


We had a small party on Thursday with our neighbours, some close friends and the key players in the community. The mayor asked to speak and very kindly thanked us for taking the risk to come to Champniers and for bringing life back to the village.

We hope as we enter year two that we can continue to make a difference

Flies

I blogged last year about the flies. I will say no more except that this year they are worse. I hate them with a vengeance!!!
I know they can't be helped and they are everywhere but I can't see what purpose they serve. Why do we have flies?
We have even resorted this year to the ghastly sticky tapes that are seen everywhere in France hanging from ceilings, covered with dead flies, like the inside of a garibaldi biscuit.
We have placed Red Tops outside and they are harvesting flies in their hundreds, but you have to be very careful to not get downwind of them

But we have a new weapon. I have just taken receipt of a fly screen, made for us by CIC screens in Isleworth. Whilst I have sat and typed this, no fly has landed on my nose, my ear or balanced along the top of the laptop. I haven't even had to stop to pick up the smiley face swatter.
It looks like we may finally be fighting back
Let battle begin!

The Blog goes worldwide

I started the blog back in May last year as a way of communicating with friends and family in one go, rather than write the same stuff on numerous emails. People said they liked to read it and so I carried on. I realise that some of the postings are of more interest to some than others ( or should that be mildly less boring than others).
I also realise that I started writing about French life because it was new to me and so different and that I haven't added to this for a while as perhaps I am becoming more used to the peculiarities of life here.

The blog is also my diary, a written record of what we did and when.
In the year we have had almost 6000 hits, (not bad as the kids have all forgotten the address) and this grows daily. Karen Wheeler the local author whose second book features some events that took place in the bar, linked the blog to hers toutsweet.net whilst writing a blog about fish and chips.
We also receive hits from a blog http://alohahawaii-toula.blogspot.com/ which is a blog described as The story of Toula and Big Boy's excellent adventure as they plan their move from California to Hawaii.
I have no idea why they read the blog about a small bar in a very small village but I hope they enjoy it.
I even had an email from Australia asking if we will be showing the cricket next year. Yes we will and England are going to win again!!

However the thing that really bought the blog and it's impact home to us was when a couple walked into the bar a few days ago and said they were staying 100 miles away and just had to drive up and see the bar that they read about. It was a little spooky and if I acted oddly Rebecca, I apologise. They ordered cheeseburger and chips with the comment "if your chip fryer is now repaired"

So the blog will continue but I will be a little more cautious as to what I put on it now I know that I don't know who is reading it.
To the readers, I hope you can live with the boring bits and stick with us. Thank you for taking time to keep coming back and if you are in Champniers do drop in.