Le Quatorze Juillet

In England, firemen don’t perhaps have the status they deserve.  In France, they are heros.  Fire engine models and toys are very popular.  On the National Day the 14^th July they are very much part of the proceedings.  In particular there are the Firemans’ Balls that are held up and down the country.  In small towns like Veaugues they are very much the centre of attention on the 14^th of July – these are the scenes from 14 July 2013 in Veaugues.  As with everything French, wine and food also plays a major part.   After the parade of the local fire engines, the mayor inspected the "troops", gave a little speech and then it was a glass of bubbly and a selection of French produce.   Later in the day was the "cheese dance" where the adults ate lots of cottage cheese whilst the children danced.   The firemans' ball was after the fireworks much later, too late for a working man like me!

Thanks to Jane for the fireworks pictures, I was comforting the dogs who were not impressed at all by the noise and flashes.

WHY IT TAKES 30 MINUTES TO BUY A CHICKEN

Don't you dare choose me!

I am old enough to remember the days before supermarkets, when Sainsbury was a deli store and when in the small shops you used to have to queue to get served and the whole experience was as much about social interaction as it was about shopping.  These were the days when we didn’t have a fridge and mum used to go shopping almost every day.   The shopkeepers often used to have a wicked sense of humour and I remember during bob-a-job week going in as a young cub to buy ice cream for someone and being asked if I wanted the ice cream hot or cold!   It foxed me for a while!

What many of us Brits love about France is that it is like going back in time in many respects.  Funnily enough what a lot of the French youngsters love about London is that it is so modern and always changing.   In England, supermarkets changed everything and even small shops nowadays tend to be reasonably impersonal.    En France they have the grand surfaces or big supermarkets but many of the small stores have remained the same.   Buy direct from the producer and it is another level again and this is why it can take 30 minutes to buy a chicken!

Outside the farmshop with our dogs

In Veaugues we are lucky enough to have a small poultry farmer who sells his poulets (chickens) and pintades (guinea fowl) direct to the locals. Now one thing that surprises us Brits about France is that they don’t eat nearly as much chicken as in the UK.  In the UK chicken has almost become the norm and is regarded as the healthy option, us rosbifs (“roast beefs”) eat hardly any beef any more.   The French eat far more beef,  and chicken is a special occasion meal and even in the supermarkets you don’t see chiller shelves full of factory-produced chickens.   I remember when it was like this in England and we had chicken perhaps just once a year at Easter.  In the nineteen fifties chicken was really expensive and a real luxury item; lamb, pork and beef were much more affordable.  I used to have an austerity cookbook dating back to that time and there were no chicken recipes at all in it.   Then along came Bernard Matthews……….

M .Joulain prepares our pintade

Anyway, back to current day Veaugues.  Having seen his sign we decided to ring  Monsieur Joulain and see if we could come along immediately and buy a chicken; the usual modern wish of instant gratification.   M. Joulain protested that as he didn’t know us, how could he possibly know what type of chicken we wanted; there are different types of chicken!!   Eventually, we persuaded him that we should come along and meet him and tell him our needs; ie a chicken to roast!

This we did and eventually a chicken was selected and given to us nicely hand wrapped.  Then came the next surprise; no payment was expected, the first purchase was free.  Meanwhile Monsieur Joulain had been practising his English on us and conversation had flowed for a considerable time.  Hence it can take at least 30 minutes to buy a chicken.

Our pintade complete with head

At home we found another surprise awaiting us, the chicken still had its head on! Definitely not what you would find in a supermarket.   It reminded me of when I was in China at the Beijing duck restaurant and a whole duck was served to us in the various courses and I do mean the whole duck – eventually the head was served as a special treat to the oldest person on the table – luckily I was quite young then.

Jane with M.Joulain

The next time we visited Monsieur Poulain, we had to pay of course,  and we chose to try one of his pintades, something relatively rare in the UK.  Again the transaction took over 30 minutes but really added to the joy of the day.  I got a chance to practise my French and Monsieur Joulain got a chance to practise his English.  Great old-fashioned service.  You pay for it as the poultry isn’t cheap but at least you know the chicken has had a healthy life and has not been reared in a Bernard Matthews type factory farm.  The chicken has more texture and more flavour, something I’m not sure that most Brits would appreciate!   Vive la difference, as us Brits might say.

It is certainly great fun living a different lifestyle.  We don't don't exactly live in a city in England either but going to a farm shop around where we live is not nearly such a fun experience.  In England everything is a rush.

A very Pop Larkin scene near Mr Joulain's farm

A RACE UP BETWEEN THE VINES

Although I have been to many international motor races in my time including World Championship Grand Prix and endurance races, I am not particularly fond of crowds and thus the smaller events are the ones I most favour.   Thus when we were in Veaugues earlier this month, I had no hesitation to go and watch the Hill Climb that winds up through the vineyards from Menetreol-sous-Sancerre towards the hill top town of Sancerre itself. It was the 40th running of the Course de Cote de Sancerre and it happened on Sunday 2nd June.  What a beautiful setting with all of the vineyards surrounding the course and with the hill town of Sancerre visible from most spectator positions. The length of the course is over 1,700 metre and the faster cars complete it in under 50 seconds whilst the slower cars struggle to get under1 minute 20 seconds. The hill climb is on public roads, which is a great tradition in France,  and on a normal day you can drive up it yourself - it is the D920 if you want to have a go.  About 120 cars took part.  Each car had three timed runs of which the fastest counts towards the final result. The winner was Serge Thomas in a Norma M20F but he was too fast for my camera!    But there were a great variety of other cars that I did manage to capture as shown below:

A Ligier JS49 sports racing car sweeps through the third corner 

Another sports car exiting the second corner

The vines were much in evidence up the whole course

The third corner again

Alain Francais in his beautiful Alpine A110

Jean-Benoit Bleyra applies opposite lock in his Citroen AX Sport

Fabien Dorange in his Alfa Romeo 75

One of the fast Simca Rallyes

The Alpine 310 powers through the vines

The backdrop is beautiful

Not all cars made it up the hill under their own steam

A Porsche heads up an avenue of beautiful trees

Manuel Santos in his Alpine A110 

Benoit Sabard harries his Peugeot 106 516 through a corner

Luis Tuero lifts a wheel in his Renault Clio Williams 

Rene-Herve Ruault in his Lotus Coupe

David Alexandre was twelfth in his BAM 111

Mickael Content in his Martini Mk 78

Third placed Gael Boisson in his Dallara 399

A Caterham Seven blasts up the hill

Even the French drive on the left sometimes!

A PRM FunBoost

One of the many sports cars

Jean-Pierre Picault in his Barquette JPS FCM

Another Martini speeds through the vines

Christian Martin in his Martini Mk81 just missed out on the top ten

Bruno Beyer races up the hill in his venerable March 803

An F2000 Group car

All the cars were breaking the speed limit!