Danny

Danny an occasional visitor to the bar passed away last week. He was 38.
RIP

The Election

The Presidential Election in France is this Sunday with the second round in two weeks time. It is said that in the first round the french vote with their hearts and in the second round with their wallets.
I, being an etranger and not allowed to vote.

In every village there are the statutory 10 boards in place for each party to attach their quickly defaced posters.

Election cards have been sent to all voters. ( A note on this, the mayor's secretary posts her letters in the postbox on the front of the bar. In this she posted J's election card, which was collected, sent to the area sorting office, put in a postman's van and delivered back to where it was posted from!!)

As one of our regulars put it  "left or right---------------

---------it's all bollocks!"



So the choice is Sarkosy if Snow White will release him for another term in office

or Hollande

I can't believe that the french will vote for Hollande, they still haven't forgiven Germany for running their country in the 40's

French Life: Postcodes

In the UK postcodes are very specific. Our last house in Lower Stondon had a postcode that covered  40 houses, but in France it is not quite as easy.
We live in 86400, the postcode based around Civray. It is well over 100 sq kms and is 20km x 17kms at its peak. There are 11 towns and villages in 86400 and approx 9000 people.
This as you can imagine makes life a little difficult for posties and other delivery drivers.

But their headaches don't end there. There are the hamlets. (hameau) A hamlet  is a group of dwellings in rural areas , generally too small to be considered a village , and with no church . The basic element is very often a farm .(wiki.fr)


Our village of Champniers, population of 350 is made up of the main village and 21 hamlets. These range from two or three houses to maybe 25. They have no road names and normally no house names or numbers. Instead they use the generic address Lieu dit.   Lieu-dit (plural: lieux-dits) (literally said-location) is a French toponymic term for a small geographical area bearing a traditional name. The name usually refers to some characteristic of the place, its former use, a past event, etc. (wiki.fr)
So if a Jean Smeeth lived in  Somewhere a hamlet of Champniers, the address would be Lieu dit Somewhere,  86400 Champniers.   Good luck to the DHL man I say!!!  Where do they start?  


But postcodes are important as they identify the department of the town or village. France has many duplicated place names and the postcode will identify which department or county they are in. There are two Champniers approx 100kms apart. There is us in 86400 and also a suburb of Angouleme postcode 16430 

We have had a number of people turn up here, looking for the airport, hotels or the out of town shopping centre that the larger Champniers is known for.

Surprisingly, they don't always take their mistake in good heart normally blaming the Sat Nat rather than the person who programmed it.

When Bonnie Tyler sang about being Lost In France perhaps she was heading for Saint Savour. 

As can be seen below there are 12 places of that name plus another 3 that are very similar

But it's not all bad. French road signs are normally excellent and will help you find your destination

French Life Renovation

The villages of our part of France are full of old quaint houses and barns for sale as "renovation projects". This is mainly due to the demise of the villages as farms became more reliant on machinery than on people. One giant tractor can do in a day what 50 years ago would have needed a team of people.
Young people move out to the towns, the elderly die and houses become empty. The inheritance laws mean the property normally has multiple owners and all must agree before it can be put on the market. Whilst this takes place the houses fall into disrepair and move from "needs updating" to "needing renovation".
And this of course is just what the Brits like. Over here you can buy a barn with more land than you will ever need for €50-€60k. Houses are available for half of this, ( the one below is currently for sale for €20,000

But they need major surgery and in most cases the people who are buying have at best a little knowledge of first aid.
A move to France especially for retirement is an opportunity to change your life and renovation certainly changes your life!
One lady customer of the bar summed it up perfectly " In work I changed from a typewriter to a word processor to a computer, now in retirement I have changed to a cement mixer"
But the allure is easy to understand. In the UK we have small houses for big money. In our area you can buy a house with 5 or 6 bedrooms, 2 or 3 bathrooms, authentic fireplaces, beams etc  with a barn for a garden shed and perhaps an acre or two for the price of a 2 up 2 down in the South East.
The size of the plot has little impact on the price of the house so the Brits buy big.
We hear stories of pensioners living in mansions wrapped up in layers of jumpers as the house whilst big and no doubt beautifully finished is just too big to heat. They pray for the spring to warm the house but fear the growth in the gardens that are so big they can't deal with them.

And it's not only wrecks that get renovated. Fully habitable houses get the works as well. French houses often have GRENIERS, large roof spaces or attics.

Greniers seem to excite the Brits. They can be converted into more bedrooms, more bathrooms for "when the family come"  ( I think they mean the time when all kids, grandchildren, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins all happen to be passing)

I was talking to a guy whose job in the UK was loft conversions. He said that people converted because they needed extra space normally for a growing family and either didn't want to or couldn't afford to move. In France this is not the driving force, it is simply because "it's there"

You have to admire the renovators, they will not make fortunes selling on, they work day in day out in all weathers to get their house as they want it. They have to learn new trades and figure out French electrics, French plumbing and fosses. They become disciples of the god Bricomarche, but that's for another time.

I must finish now, I have a chicken house to convert into a luxury gite today.

Good to be back

We are back in Champniers. Our  holiday to the other side of the world to see son number 1 married is over and we are back in our routine. We will be open 12 hours a day six days a week until we next take a break, most probably in Jan 2013
The ice and snow we left has gone and the days are much more spring like, coldish nights but lovely clear days and warm if you can get in the sun. The trees outside have been pollarded during our break and the terrace will soon be ready for eating outside
We have survived a second winter. We have again managed to avoid a day with no customers, albeit only just on a couple of occasions !!

We reopened last Monday with the return of the Fish and Chip van after their winter break. Nothing like starting with a bang, the jet lag had to be forgotten as the car park filled with the local expats renewing their love of cod and chips with sarsons vinegar.

I also have a couple of updates to previous posts to report.

• Despite me emailing my blog to the owner of the Wanganui Italian, he has failed to respond, He is no doubt too busy selling parmeasan
• Red Wine man was in the bar earlier in the week and again went to the urinal. There were a number of people in the bar who had read the blog and knew the problem and  as he left the room vocal der der der der ( the sound of a siren!!) sounded and we held our breath in anticipation. We hadn't needed too, once more the lower urinal worked its magic and the floor remained dry
• I mentioned that Christmas was simple here, However one simple thing they lack is knowing when to take the decorations down, Just about every village still has a couple of santas still climbing ropes!
• The new MFI is apparently going the same way as the old one. Consultants unpaid and good people dismissed...what a shame

A little cheese please

We are on holiday in New Zealand and have just had the most appalling "service" in a restaurant that I had to air my views.
Eating out in NZ is not cheap and so we decided to take advantage of an offer that

Al Ponte Ristorante Italiano

was running for a Wednesday Evening. Pizza or pasta plus a glass of house wine for $20 ( €15 £13) The restaurant is in Wanganui

The restaurant wasnt busy and we ordered and the food arrived. Now the normal thing in an Italian is for the waiter to arrive with a pepper pop the size of his/ her arm and to offer black pepper and of course the essential parmesan cheese.
Neither were offered so we called the waitress back and asked for pepper and cheese. They arrived a couple of minutes later and to be fair enhanced a tasty meal.

However when it was time to leave, we asked for the bill and expected $40. The bill delivered was $42 which included a $2 supplement for parmesan!!!
I was shocked to see a supplement for condiments and after having paid decided that would have a word with the owner who was by the till.
I explained that it is usual for Italian restaurants to offer the full range of condiments with meals and that I thought that he was taking advantage by charging extra. He shrugged and said it was "expensive" and that was why they charged.

I was lost for words and left disgusted.
I did a quick google check and he hasnt run the restaurant for long, reviews are mixed but my review/ advice is simple. "Dont take the piss out of your customers or you wont have any to take the piss out of."
Even in the picture on the net he is standing at the door looking for the next customer to fleece!!

Weather

I know everyone has weather but I feel an update on the last 10 days is required. The winter was hardly noticeable until the end of January and then it hit like a slap in the face.
The temperature fell although the days were bright and then last Sunday, we woke to snow.
Snow is lovely, on Christmas cards, on mountains and perhaps even here for a limited time but as with the UK we don't know what to do with the stuff.

About 10 inches fell in the village and nearly a week later it is just about still all here. The temperature has averaged about minus 8 at night and a balmy minus 2 during the day. The sun has melted it very slightly only for the night to turn it back to ice.
The villages and hamlets seem to have to look after themselves with the gritting and clearing only on the larger roads. As such we had a couple of local farmers out with tractors clearing the main nroad through the village but nothing else

The bar is warmish but I think we must be keeping the village awake as the gurgling sound of diesel rushing into the boiler is like that of a weir or a small waterfall.
The customer toilets have frozen up on a couple of occasions but fortunately we have managed to keep the seat warm. I am not sure our insurance company would be thankful of a personal injury claim as as a backside is removed from a frozen seat leaving  a circle of skin behind.

As always planning is important  and as they say "the best laid plans of mice and men"  ( R Burns 1786)
This was the week that Seb from Anglo Windows was fitting  new doors in the large room.
These  2 set of doors are approx 4m wide by 2.5m high and were rotten to the point  that they let wind and cold in. However a little cold blowing through small holes in the doors was nothing compared with Seb ripping out the whole thing to let the siberian weather in directly.
They are now in and looking good and in future times will keep the room warmer.

Business wise, the term slow would be a bit of an exaggeration.  We have been open every day, the benefit of living on the premises and have been very pleased that as we can report that we still haven't had a day where nobody came in.
We have had to cancel our quiz this week as the roads in the evenings are difficult to say the least but spring will soon be here and the cold of the last few days will become a distant memory.

and for the next couple of weeks---------