BANK HOLIDAYS

Monday was a bank holiday in the UK and France.

It was another scorching day here, and whilst sitting in the Gard Manoir garden, my thoughts turned to what people would be doing back home.

All I could think of is burnt BBQ's cooked by half naked men with sunburn.

And the fine culinary delights..

 

But here in refined France I had to settle for these for my bank holiday treat.

All washed down with a cold Chablis.

I like living in France.

RUGBY CLUB BBQ

Sunday was a scorching hot afternoon, just ideal for the Rugby Club BBQ

Around 250 showed up for an excellent 4 course meal and of course much beer and wine.

There were the usual games of pallette and boules, and a tug of war

competition.

Another very fine day!

DOUBLE BBQ WEEKEND

Saturday night was Sue's 60th birthday and it looked like it was going to be a mighty fine day for a BBQ to celebrate.

80F all day...until 7pm when the heavens opened.

As usual Will was prepared with gazebo's, and coverings everywhere.

A Gloucester Old Spot pig was sacrificed for the event, and 40 people enjoyed a delicious free range pork meal.

All the sausages, pork burgers, and pork legs, were delicious.  

Will's self built beer hut was very popular, and the drinks flowed all night. 

So now we move on to today.

Matignon Rugby Club's annual end of season grill at the lake at St Potan.

200 are going.

So, should be another good one.

And the weather as I write looks good.   

 

OLD CHEESE

It's one of the kings of cheeses.

A 5 year old salted Gouda, bought back to us by our Russian friend Natasha after a visit to Holland.

Harder than Parmesan, very nutty, and delicious.

Use sparingly.

And best of all, Marie doesn't like it...It's all mine! 

STILL EARLY MORNING AFTER THE DARTS

As mentioned in the last post, I could hardly sleep after the darts and an early morning stroll down to the market was enjoyable.

The seafood looked outstanding.

As did the seasonal fruit and veg.

Then finally down to Lorient football stadium. 

Clean and tidy, and not a dodgy Chairman is sight.

Now why have I posted this.

Well, after the night of serious celebration, I could not sleep, so I popped out for an early morning walk around.

These burger joints are not very common in our backward area of France, so I popped in for a Coffee, Chicken McSnail, and a Mc Last in the 4-30 at Chepstow burger.

It made a change from cornflakes.

UNBELIEVABLE

Where do I start with this?

We were in a group of 5 teams. 7 sets, so first to 4 would get the points. We won our first 2 comfortably, but then got beaten 4-3 by Pau. An easy win in the last game saw us through the group stage.  

So, through to the last 16, which to be honest was our maximum expectation.

Vitre were beaten 4-0 in the last 16

There were 6 of us in the squad and we could only play 4 at a time so the problem now as captain was to keep everyone happy.

1/4 finals and a 4-1 win against Angers, last years winners. 

The Vitre lot were very friendly, and there is a fair chance we will play them in a pre season friendly next year.

I cracked and had to have a fag before the semis.

So it was Calais in the semi final.

I decide not to pick myself for the game and went with Seb, Andy, John, and Robert.

Whilst the game was on I turned round and there were hundreds watching from the gallery, cheering for us as the "small village"

Sadly we lost 4-1, and after a play off game we finished 3rd.

At this point the camera ran out of juice.

Just my luck. 

.

The celebration meal in the evening was outstanding in the fine city of Lorient.

Where is the cup you may ask..Well, it will be delivered this coming week along with a very profitable cheque for a fine days work.

I really don't know where this team goes from here. I can't imagine it getting any better than this.

The Ouest France newspaper are coming down for the presentation, so I will post a link on here later in the week.

3rd in a National Competition! I would never have dreamed it.

More to follow

St Potan have come 3rd in the whole of France.

Too emotional to carry on, Full photos later.

Will do the pics tomorrow.

BIG DARTS DAY NEARLY HERE

The big darts day is nearly here.

Tomorrow we travel down to Lanester, near Lorient, to prepare for our big day on Friday.

The Championship of France is by invitation only, and as we finished 3rd in the league, we are up and running.

A bit of 2009 luck would be handy when we reached the 1/4 finals of the French Cup.

A full squad of 6 are going, and our first match is 0930 on Friday.

POOL FINALS

Friday night the St Potan pool team were in the finals of the Brittany competition.

We were in the last 16 knockout, and knocked out we were, 7-3 in our match.

Fair to say tho' that the team that beat us, went on to win the competition.

This will probably be our last season with a pool team, as 3 of our members also play darts, so it's all getting a bit much fixture wise. 

FRANCE DARTS FINALS

A week today the darts team head off to Lorient which is our base for the France Darts Championships being held at nearby Lanester on 18th/19th.

The 64 top teams in France will battle it out in sixteen groups of four, with the top two of each group going through to the knockout stages.

Win or lose, we are looking forward to it, and if we play like we have been in practice I am confident of a last 16 place at least.    

WET WET WET

That is 10 successive days of rain now.

Yes, there is a bit of a drought on, and the garden needs it.

All I want is a dry day to cut the bloody lawn.

Of course, rain does not bother dogs as this mornings walk shows.

P.S. The grass is not this length in our garden.   

ANOTHER CURRY NIGHT

We held a curry night for 6 last night.

Bill, Sharon, John Roberts, & Mikhail came round to enjoy,

Sheek Keebab, Onion Bhajis,

Ceylon Chicken,, Burmese Rendang, Bombay Potatoes, and Garlic Naan.

Once again we forgot to take photos, but managed to grab a quick snapshot of this in the morning.

FRENCH ELECTIONS TOMORROW

Will it be Mr Hollande?

Or the lovely Mr Sarkozy?

Or our preferance General Aladeen.

BBQ.

14 of us went round to Robert's on Monday night for a fine BBQ, much to drink, and a very late night.

As you can see from below, it takes half a dozen men to light a BBQ.

Above is Robert and Nico (Owner of the village restaurant) with a selection of cream desserts.