Allez les Girondins

For a birthday treat, I went to my first French League game with my mate John who was over on his holidays ( Tina would have come, but she thought it would be a good boys outing and that if John went instead, she wouldn't have to watch and talk football all day with me).

Girondins Bordeaux were at home to Nice on the Sunday after my birthday, ( the French FA refused to move it to coincide) . I brought and printed the tickets on-line 10 days before the match, all for the princely some of €16 each. Not a bad price to see the current French champions, compared with £24 to watch Saints play Brentford, or £50 to see Arsenal give the skates a good hiding.

The game was a 5 o'clock kick-off, but we decided to get down to Bordeaux in time for lunch. We had a very civilized pre-match tapas, and had plenty of time for a few beers before kick-off. We stopped of for a couple in a bar that was owned by La Tupina, one of the top restaurants in the world according to surveys. While we were in there, a old boy came in with his dog, ordered a glass of wine, pointed at a large piece of left over steak on a plate, and asked if he could have it for the dog. We thought they might just put it in a napkin for him, but the chef promptly chopped it all into bite sized pieces, and served to the dog on a plate. Can't imagine Gordon Ramsey doing the same.

We set of for the ground an hour before kick-off, which should have been plenty of time, as the ground is about a mile out of the city centre. It is in quiet a nice residential area, no Kingsland estate or Dickensian Fratton slums, and there was a decent bar right within 100 metres of the turnstile which was heaving, so it is not just the British who like a bit of lubrication before the footie.

The turnstiles weren't very well sign posted, so we ended up going to the wrong end at first and then marching all the way back to where we started in 30 degree heat. We then got passed from queue to queue as our E-Tickets wouldn't work on the bar code readers until finally we were referred to a steward, who sent us round to the only side of the Stade that we hadn't walked round yet to where the special E-Ticket turnstile was located. All of which meant that we didn't get to our seats until 5 minutes after the kick-off.

As you can see, Nice didn't bring much of a crew with them, not surprising as Nice is 800 km away from Bordeaux, but there were probably more than the Skates took to Bolton last year. The main home support, with all of the flags, banners and fireworks, was at the other end. Our end was a mixture of all ages, with a group of about fifty nippers gathered around a bloke with a megaphone, stood right behind the goal. With no roof, and the full sun on us, it must have been nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit in there, like watching a match, sat in a sauna.

Onto the game itself.

The first half was quite even, with Bordeaux attacking the home end. Both teams played to fee, and defenders all tried to play there way out of trouble, so much so that the first an only corner of the match didn't arrive until the 78th minute.

Nice's main threat was their number 7 Remy, who was very mobile, good at taking on his defender, and had a decent cross as well. I doubt if he would be interested in swapping the South of France for Southampton though. The crosses were often wasted, as Nice seemed to be playing with just two wide plays up front, so there were never enough bodies in the box to get on the

Bordeaux's played two at the back, with wing-backs pushing up all the time. Diarra, the

ex-Liverpool player, was the anchor man in the midfield, which allowed Jussie and Gourcuff to play the attacking roles. Jussie scored the first goal, in the 42nd minute with a bullet header, from some good overlapping on the left.

At half -time, John and I headed for the shade, under the stand. I checked out the catering. There were no pies, but you could get chicken and chips, and the only beer was Amstal Libre with no alcohol, but in that heat it tasted great, better than the Carlsberg at St Mary's.

The second half was a lot more one sided, with Gourcuff running the show with the sort of touch, power and movement that has seen him called the new Zidane. He was on loan from Milan last year, and this season he has signed for €15 million. Why Milan let him go at the same time as selling Kaka, god only knows. He scored two very similar goals, shooting home from either side of the box after good one touch passing moves.

Diarra netted the fourth with a firm header ( coup de tranche) from a free kick with 15 minutes left, and we thought we might be in for a cricket score, but the game eased off a little, not surprising really as it was so hot.

So it finished 4.o to Bordeaux. It was a great atmosphere throughout the match. We didn't understand most of the songs, but they had borrowed an Italian favourite 'Niceois, Niceois, va fan...... ' which we got the drift off. After every goal, you all have to chant 'buteur' when the announcer reads out the name of the scorer, and at the end of the game, they all sang 'Merci Bordeaux' with typical French politeness.

It was a long day out as it is a 2 and a half hour trip each way, but it was well worth it. The football was of a much higher standard than the West Ham v Spurs match that we had watched beforehand, but it did lack the tension of watching Saints, a bit like a nicotine patch instead of full tar St Mary's.

Green fingers

We have joined the growing trend for self sufficiency be growing a bit more of our own food this year, something of a challenge as I don't like much veg in the first place.



We dug a new vegetable patch, where we used to have the bonfire, and set to work filling it with natures goodies. It took a bit of work to clear it, as it was full of charcoal and bits of metal from old doors that we had burnt, but it does seem to have left us with decent soil.


We planted spring onions, aubergines, tomatoes, broccoli, courgettes and squash.




We also planted some more broccoli and some red onions in our old veg patch, and put some potatoes in an old dustbin full of compost.


The broccoli in the old bed all got eaten by something, and no amount of slug pellets or traps would stop it. The red onions started well, but started to go sideways, and then stop growing all together, so they have had do be dug up and dried, to try again next year, and the spuds were nice, but we only got enough for a couple of meals. We think that the old patch is too much in the shade, and so next year we will just use it for courgettes ans squashes, which seem to grow anywhere.


The new bed is a different story. The spring onions were great, and the broccoli heads have been huge, although they all matured at the same time ( we planted F1 broccoli which apparently is not some new motor racing offshoot but is in fact a hybrid grown to be picked at the same time).
The aubergines are looking good, and we have had so many tomatoes for the last month that I am in danger of hitting my five a day target on a regular basis, as opposed to my normal 5 a week.





The colours and flavours have been much better than anything you could buy at a supermarket, so we will definitely be planting even more next year.

On the landscaping front, dad cleared back the old conifers, which were still dying, and showing no signs of forming an orderly hedge.





While I was getting round to chopping down the stumps, they made a great hunting stool for Henry.

Pool Finished Shock

After only 3 years we have finally been able to finish the terrace around the swimming pool. More slacking I hear you say, but nay, nay and thrice nay. There were sound geological reasons for leaving the end for another year, as we had to allow the ground to settle after we put in the extra drainage last year.



Bob and Sue gave us some help digging out the ground, and putting the gravel footings down. Bob and I also fitted a pipe loop from the filter to the edge of the patio, so that we didn't have to dig everything up again if we ever decide to get some heating for the pool. Bob was very helpful with this, as he sells pumps for a living. Sue also sells pumps for a living, and she helped us by interrupting Bob in the middle of a tricky bit, to show him a plant that she had just potted( the plant does look nice though).

















It was then time for Tina to get her favorite toy, the cement mixer out so we could build the
concrete base.



We had some fun and games laying the slabs, as the patio on one side of the pool was longer than the other. Bob thought it would be best to lay the outer edges first and then fit a line of slabs to get the ends to meet up.







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As you can see in the photo, we tried to do this, but when we got half way across it became clear that the slabs were going to miss by about 5cm. It is very difficult to build things from two different ends. They managed it with the Channel Tunnel, and that big viaduct near Montpelier was within 1 mm. Our gap was a bit worse than that, so we had to lift some slabs up and cut 2 of them short so it all fitted.



Now it is all grouted and finished, it all looks good.

We even bought ourselves a labour saving roller for our pool cover, to make things easier in our old age.

We've been busy

As the title suggests, we have been quite busy over the last few months, as the visitor season gets into full swing. So far we have had both sets of parents, Tina's sister, Tina's old boss, my Auntie Sue and her boyfriend Bob and some old friends Sue and Richard along with their kids.

All of this has been very nice, but it does tend to interrupt the building work.

We have boarded up all of the walls for the new bedroom and bathroom, so that we will be able to attach cupboards and bathroom fittings etc. According to some American websites, this is also good protection against earthquakes, not likely in France I know, but it is reassuring to think that if the village is ever flattened by an earthquake, our bedroom wall will be the only thing left standing!

The chipboard was all put up at the same time that all the windows in the City were being boarded up for the G20 summit in London. It gave us a bit of extra security in case some protesters thought, mistakenly, that I got a pay off like Fred Goodwyn's and decided to come after me.

We've put up plasterboard on one side of the walls, but we have to leave the other side of the walls open for the moment, until we can get all the wiring and plumbing in.

With the outside wall framed and lined, it was time for the trickier task of building the main bedroom wall. As it was so tall ( 4.5 metres in the middle ) it had to be built out of timber, pine chevrons that are slightly bigger than a UK 2 by 4.

All the dry lining examples in my D.I.Y book are for standard height ceilings, like you'd find in a 2 bed semi, but we had height . sloping ceilings and large ceiling joists to navigate.

Luckily for us our friend peter volunteered to help us out, as he is quite handy with a saw, but he is more used to making furniture than building walls. This gave us someone to bounce ideas off of, when we were trying to work out how we could fit each section. Crucially, he could saw straighter than me, and make rebate joints as well.

Tina and I had a lot of fun manoeuvring it into position as it was long and heavy, and kept getting stuck on different joists and bits of ceiling. It took a lot of effort, with plumb lines and lasers, to ensure that the wall was straight and hopefully vertical as well.

It looks OK at the moment, but we the test will come when we try to hang a picture on it.

Onwards and Upwards

We have now started to build our new bedroom, before we finish the ceiling off, as building wisdom is to build your walls first, before you try to join the ceiling to them.

First up is the outside wall. We opted for the lafarge metal railing system, as it is quicker and cheaper than the UK method of building wooden stud work.

We didn't need any scaffolding this time, as we were only going up 4 metres, so we could just use ladders. The railings are joined together by crimping them with a specially designed tool. It is very quick, but hard work if have a girly handshake like I do.

The insulation is a by product of the NASA space program, and it turns out that something that stops Astronauts from cooking is also good for keeping your bedroom warm. It does also look a bit like a set from the old sci-fi series "Blakes 7" although it is a lot more sturdy.

It only took a few days to build the whole wall. The trickiest bit was fixing brackets on the wall, halfway up the railings, as the railings can twang a bit, if you use long lengths, and a twangy wall is no good to no-one ( apart from Blakes 7 that is).

More Death Defying Stunts

Not content with making the extractor fan duct disappear, as if by magic, our next trick involved feats of daring unseen since Blondel walked across Niagara Falls.


Not really, but it did involve working up a very tall scaffold.






We had a load of insulated plasterboard left over from last years work that had started to bend a bit, so the best way to straighten it out seemed to be screwing onto the ceiling. That's all well and good, but to get to the ceiling it meant that I had to build the scaffold really high.





To get to the highest bit, the scaffold had to go right to the edge of the landing, leaving me staring at a 6 metre drop.





When it came to the front part of the barn, we had to put the scaffold up yet another layer, making it extra wobbly. Extra care had to be taken when any Queens of the Stone Age or Undertones was played on the radio, in case I pogo-ed my way to an early grave.

Luckily, this was all done a couple of months ago, before Saints went into administration, or else the local pompieres (fire brigade) might been needed to talk me down from the edge. It is comforting to know that apparently it is not Rupert Lowe's fault, according to ......... uhm Rupert Lowe . Perhaps now that he has a bit more time on his hands he can pop round to Fred Goodwins house, and they can swap notes .

Hello again readers

Yes I know that this hasn't been updated for months, but I do have a good excuse, as our PC broke down, so I had no Internet for a couple of weeks while we waited for a part to arrive.

I'm not saying that I use the PC too much, but using Teletext instead just wasn't the same, a bit like methadone ( for any smack-heads out there).

Anyway, we have been busy working again, and have finally finished the kitchen, making the ducting disappear.

We had to sort through the last of our stack of old wood from the barn, a clean it all up and treat it which to a while, as it was all covered in whitewash and 50 years of farm waste.

But after a couple of weeks work, hey presto ........

... it's vanished .

As if by magic !

Cabin Fever

We have been snowed in for almost 24 hours now. The snow fell on Monday night, and we managed to get out on Tuesday for a bit of shopping, but since then we haven't left the house.

The road's are frozen, the bins haven't been collected, and the post lady has abandoned us. Today our post was delivered by the mayor. Can't imagine Boris Johnson doing that, but if he did, I would move to London and buy a mad dog just to chase him.

We had about 3 inches of snow in all, and this morning it was minus 10 C at 9:30 am.

Niemi has been out for a look around, but not for too long but Henri loves it. He is out hunting all the time, and runs in and out of the cat-flap like he is on speed. He has caught a couple of birds, the first of which he ate, but we did manage to rescue the festive Robin.

Festival time

We've just returned from England and we have had a few complaints, all justified, that the blog has not been updated in a while.



A lot of this is due to the fact that Saints have been so bad this year that I can't type and listen to the commentary at the same time, or if I did it might read something like this "Tina and I have just finished GET SOMEONE ON THE NEAR POST FOR F SAKE" .



Anyway, I will start with an account of our Summer Holiday this year.



We have both been fans of Radiohead for a while, but had never had the chance to see them live as tickets in the UK were almost impossible to get hold of, given the anorak wearing reputation of their fans. With the new album out, we new that they would be touring, and kept an anxious eye on the web to see if they would come to France. We hoped that they might come to Angouleme, as it was a fairly Eco friendly Festival, but the closest that they came to us was Arras, up near the Belgian border. We looked into hotels near the site, no tents for us, and found that special trains had been laid on from Lille for only €5 return. My brother and Tina's sister were also able to come over for the weekend, on a ridiculously cheap Eurostar deal.



As Lille was such a long way from our house, we stopped for a night in the Champagne area to break the journey. We had a nice hotel, in a small village outside Epernay, but is must have been the only village in the region without it's own Champagne house, so we couldn't nip out for a tasting, although they did have a good choice of Champagnes in the hotel bar.



The next day we took the scenic route through the spectacular hills and vineyards of the Champagne, some of which were so steep that they would be mountains in the UK.

We arrived in Lille around lunchtime, parked up at a Park and Ride at the edge of the city and caught the metro into the centre, none of that city driving for us country folk. We had a good hotel, in the historic centre of Lille, close to lots of bars, shops and restaurants. Tina and I had a couple of hours to find our way around before Terry and Helen arrived, and we found one quiet street that was full of all sorts of bistro's and restaurants.

That evening, the four of us went for a few drinks before we headed of for something to eat. The quiet street had changed completely. The pavements were now covered in tables, and there were tow trucks hauling cars away so that more tables could be set up in the road. The bistro that we had our eye was overflowing by 7:30 but we managed to get into another one for some typical Flemish cuisine, beouf carbonade etc. The food was great, not expensive and that atmosphere in the street was so busy. I can't think of many countries where they shut down a road every evening just to eat.



The next morning, we had time for a bit of sight seeing, before getting the train to Arras. Lille is very Flemish in it's architecture, as you can see in the picture above, with cobbled streets and grand squares and is definitely worth a weekend trip.

The 'Main Square Festival' as the name suggests is in the main square of Arras. It is good spot for an urban festival, as the square is long and slopping, so that you can see the stage from anywhere. All around the square were galleried walkways with bars and cafes that had set up counter serving food and drink. The only beer on offer was Heineken ( much better than Carling in the UK) but we couldn't see any wine for sale anywhere. In the end I asked at one of the bars, and they went inside and got Tina a nice glass of rose for €2.50. As the evening wore on, the measures got bigger and she was getting a full half pint! We could see lots of people thinking, where did she get that from, which just goes to show, if you don't ask you don't get.

Anyone that lived on the square seemed to have have security bracelets on, so that they could sit in their windows and watch the bands for free. Not so good the night before when Mika was the headline act.

On the minus side, there weren't nearly enough loos, and no hedges for us blokes. Also, all the alleyways around were guarded by bouncers, so you couldn't nip off for a wee. In the end, all of the men were weeing on the walls of the toilet block leaving a river of wee flowing past the portaloos. Added to that, everyone seemed to get hungry at the same time, and so we ended up in a long panicky queue for burgers for about an hour, only to find out that our favorite bar was still serving merguez baguettes late into the night.

Onto the music.

The first band up were New York indie kids Vampire Weekend followed by Wombats, from Liverpool, as you can probably tell from the lead singers perm.



Wombats were very lively, and the drummer had taken the effort to learn some French so that he could engage the crowd, only to run out of steam mid sentence "Bonjour, nous sommes Wombats et nous sommes de Liverpool. Le prochaine, er , ah .... oh bollocks". Tina and I enjoyed both bands, but I think they found a Radiohead audience hard to warm up.

A French ,The Do's, were next up, and they were OK, better than most stuff on French radio, then it was on to the main acts.

We hadn't really heard of Sigur Ros before we booked the tickets. They're from Iceland, and are a bit unique musically, a four piece but with a string and brass section as well. You might know the music from BBC's Blue Planet series. They started their set of quietly but then, like a lot of their songs, the sound builds up into a crescendo. We were all just stood there with our mouths open, what an incredible sound/row.

We couldn't understand a word of it, as it was all in Icelandic, and some of it was in a language the lead singer has made up, but it was brilliant.

The link has a recording on someones phone, that gives you a bit of an idea, but it is much better with your own ears.


http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qCD4P8A7JS8

When Radiohead came onstage the crowd suddenly seemed to get taller, and we had to move further back to be able to see.






They had an amazing light show, with these long tubes full of little lights that seemed to move in time to the music. A few of those tubes would look great in our barn, if they have finished with them now.

They did a full 2 hour set, with the whole of In Rainbows and lots of old favorites, but not Creep (sorry Helen).

The link below has a high quality video of one of the songs, from the French TV.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h0bhQaPU08U


At 12:00 it was a mad dash back to the train station to get the indie-kid special back to Lille and a well earned rest.

It was a long trip back home for all of us the next day, but we all agreed that it had been worth it, to see such a great chin rubbing double bill.