Hubble Bubble Puddle Trouble

He's been and done it again. The piddler on the floor. We saw him go to the toilets but weren't quick enough to get to him. He returned and whispered to J that all was ok but he lied!!
The next customer reported a yellow pool

Any advice would be gratefully accepted. We don't want to ban him but are fed up of cleaning the floor

Simple Christmas

I believe I commented last year how Christmas here is more simple, less hyped and certainly less sophisticated. Villages are decorated with simple sprigs of conifer, trees and a few lights, not a copy of Picadilly Circus.
Some houses have decorations but it is certainly the minority and not the majority. The standard decoration is a rope light or two and a santa climbing a rope or a ladder.
The shops are festive but nowhere is decorated before 1st December, what a pleasant change from crackers being in stores in August!!
Christmas Day here is of course a bank holiday but as it is Sunday the banks are closed anyway. Bank Holidays do not get held over here so it's Sunday and then back to work on Monday 26th ( just like MFI days)

The photos show the village being decorated by the children. The tree has been up a week, but today is the decoration day and parents will bring their children to the village square to help out.

Xmas Bazaar

It's nearly Christmas according to the calendar although nature isnt so sure. We still have flies annoying us, leaves on the trees and temperatures that enable you to sit outside during sunny periods.
Anyway, yesterday we hosted a Christmas bazaar / brik a brac. We were approached by Lynne and Chris to use the back room to sell toys, which is their hobby. The idea once discussed was enlarged and Lynne agreed that she would organise a bazaar, and get other people involved, and advertise it, in exchange for the use of the room.
She was as good as her word and we had stalls selling clothes, toys, christmas decorations, sweets, cakes, general rubbish, homespun alpaca goods, bookcases etc etc.
She also organised a raffle to take place for the very worthy cause of Help 4 Heroes.
Stallholders were a 50/50 mix of French and English and were very keen, arriving before 7am to set up, for a start time of 10.
Trade was brisk, with most stalls reporting good interest and reasonable sales, and the raffle did ok as well, albeit it is difficult to see tickets for a British charity to the French, with €165 being raised

For us, it was good to see a buzz around the place with a very good mix of French and British.

we also had one very unexpected visitor as can be seen below.

My French part 2

I am sorry to report that my french let me down again the other day. I had gone to the hairdressers for a trim and had hoped that either the mother or daughter who work in the salon would remember how I have it.
Unfortunately the daughter was off and the mother was busy painting some white haired lady a rather fetching shade of maroon, so I got the lady who speaks no english.
I knew the word for thinning but that was about it. So I pointed at the ad next to the chair at the suave looking frenchman and said "comme ca" like that. "Tondeuse" came the reply, which I knew was clippers. "Oui" I said, "trois,s'il vous plait"
As the clippers made their first cut, I knew I was in the merde. Either she didnt understand trois and thought I said un or number 3 on french clippers is a hell of a lot shorter than in the UK.
But what can you say when the first thrust is complete. " oh, I've changed my mind, please stick it back" or " thanks that will do, I fancy a reverse mohican" (not that i could have said either or not in a language she understood?)
I said nothing, sat still while my hair made piles on the floor and then smiled paid my €10 and left to rush across the road to the supermarket to buy a bobble hat

Website

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www.champniersbar.fr

French Life Toussaint

Toussaint is the french for All Saints. The date is the first of November and it is a bank holiday.

Whereas in the UK we are obsessed with the previous night, Halloween, fortunately the hype and doorway robbery of trick or treat, give us some money or we'll flour and water your windows, has not reached Champniers in a big way. We did have two small girls who arrived at fish and chip night dressed as ghouls who were regally treated by other customers to sweets and a few cents but that was it, thankfully.

To the French Toussaint, which is a Catholic commemoration of all saints is amalgamated with the Festival of the Departed, originally celebrated on the 2nd November.
This is a time when people visit their departed family and leave candles and chrysanthemums on graves making the cemetries a mass of colour.
Stores are full of chrysanths for a couple of weeks beforehand and huge quantities are sold to be placed on 1st November.

A word of warning One of our clients thinking how nice the flowers were, bought one for a french couple who had invited him to dinner. He got the same reaction as if he had taken a bouquet made into the words MUM or NAN to an english lady

the moral of the story, take a bottle of wine, it's safer!

That's what friends are for

On Monday we were asked by a customer if we knew of any local accommodation. It appears they were working on a renovation and the electrician had turned up from England. He was a "friend" of the owner and had driven down from the UK as a favour.
The favour was returned by being told he could stay in the house being rewired. He duly arrived after a 10 hour journey armed with his sleeping bag to find that the house had no windows, no toilet and no kitchen.
Fortunately we keep business cards of all sorts of businesses in the area and were able to find him a room for the 10 days he is due to be here.
I would imagine he will be spending the time thinking how he can best thank his friend for the experience.