Christmas Fayre

Or "Fête de Noël" here in France.
This weekend the amusements in the square started up. All jolly good fun, and rather like going back in time for us. It was even cold (but not wet) to add to the atmosphere.
There is a merry-go-round (the same one as is usually here) for the children, and a new event, the toboggan slide. Actually they are large and rather heavy rings that the children themselves have to drag to the top of the slope. They have also added some mats on the route to slow the descent somewhat. It appeared to be popular!

Welcome, we sell sweet things!

So too was the candy-floss, especially as the portions appeared huge. We plumped for the hot mulled wine after first buying local honey at another hut. We were rather attracted by the welcome sign that read "Come in we're OPEN".  And one of the ladies did speak English. Apparently we were their first customer. Not surprising with the welcome sign being as it was.
And then the French decorate the event. This time with polar bears, arctic foxes, penguins and seals in a snowy scene. All lit up when we returned later after dark, and the merry-go-round added mist, very effective.
Further up the road the city 'gate' was lit up. It is on a roundabout but still worth decorating. Here are the snaps:

The slide (before it was open)

The alpine side of the slide.

Merry-go-round at night Arctic Theme Polar theme! Merry-go-misty, also reflected in the foreground water The town gate, in pink

Sunday afternoon.
The afternoon was remarkable because we went to the advertised gospel choir in Chalons. By experience we knew this would probably be in English; and it was. Also by experience we knew that, despite no advertised price, we might need to find an entrance fee; we didn't.
It was free, and very good. The soloists had superb voices and there was a wide range of music. The leader also explained the origins of the music and the meaning of the gospel. And they were there to chat to us afterwards with biscuits, bibles and big smiles.
In fact the event was so popular that it quickly overflowed the meeting room. The choir decided to put on a second event straight after the first on for all those who could not get in first time. We just squeezed in to the first event, but it was standing room only at the back for Terry and June got a seat only because children were asked to sit on their parent's laps.
No photos, but great memories!

Fire in the Wood

Ok, this is a little old, but we did visit Chalons en Champagne in December 2011 to see the notable Christmas fair. There were some nice things on offer, at the usual "not knocked down at all" French prices. But one man was demonstrating French Canadian woodsman/tracker skills.

A woodsman's hut

He set up a hut opposite the marie and lit his fire- a most remarkable method.
Take a look at the photo below. Then imagine starting by cutting the log with a chain saw cross-wise from the top. The fire is lit in the centre and burns inside!

A warm feeling inside

It was a very welcome warm moment on a chilly day!

Vitry Lights

Not quite the Northern Lights, but pretty just the same, and much more dependable.
I did think they had come on a couple of days ago. Early morning, I was opening the shutters and saw the lights on. Later June looked out to see them and despite the night still being dark, there they were, off. And off all that night at the end of the day too. I imagine I must have spotted the test turn on!
So today, Friday 2nd Dec, they turned on properly and I took some photos. Here are a couple of shots. There are more on the link. Photo Album of Christmas Lights:

Colmar

Colmar is south of Strasbourg and we went there for somewhere to go. The old town was something of a picture as you can see below.
Colmar was preparing for Christmas. Market stalls and rides were being set up everywhere, but since this was November still, it was all yet to open.
Pictures (and sometimes captions) speak for themselves.

The huge church - The patterned roof is typical

The river runs noisily below the street level

Decorated stalls are everywhere

The Little Venice area

A ski and sled log cabin - appears to be created new for the season.

The self-named "Romantic" restaurant

Setting up. This ride is a reindeer monorail....

Old and beautiful house and roof

This last shot was when it was almost dark, but it had to be tried. It really was this colour.
We will be back.

Travel Home

Or not to travel home - if the rail strikers had their way!
Clare chose Tuesday 8th November to go back to England by rail. Strike day as it happened and her train was cancelled. It looked to be running when we checked Monday 7th, but on the day it did not run.
But we did!
First we checked trains from Reims. They had to arrive in Paris in time for Clare's Eurostar connection. There was one, in 50 minutes. But Reims is 80 minutes away by car.
The train went via Épernay, 70 minutes away, but from Épernay the train departed 30 minutes later. We jumped in the car. We drove, without speeding, toward Épernay, keeping an eye on the destination time on the GPS. The time was good, so when the GPS took us via a short-cut we kept to it.
We parked with 10 minutes to spare- time to get the ticket printed. I queued (in case the machine refused the reference; it was the wrong station after all!), and Clare accessed the automatic ticket machine. It worked, the machine printed the ticket so we abandoned the queue for the singe assistant on duty, and found the platform.
And so Clare caught her train to Paris to arrive at Gare de l'Est with 25 minutes to walk the 10 minutes to Gare du Nord. Would she make it? She arrived in Paris at about the same time we arrived back by car. This time the GPS decided to take us the slow country route. Glad it didn't do that earlier! Since she was probably busy before the train left I sent a text only after the departure time.

A photo from Clare's visit - nothing to do with the dash for home!

Later I received the reply. "Took the wrong turn out of the station and missed my train. Because of the strike, they put me on the next one at no extra charge." Just an hour later back in England, that's all.
The fall back plan to go the next day saw 50% of trains also cancelled, so better this way I think.

Messy Handle

The "Société Choral de Châlons" put on a show this evening. Handle's Messiah - but pronounced "'Andle, le messy" because the French can't be bothered with the H. Jolly good it was. And it was in English without a French accent.

Assembled Performers.

The venu was the very large church in the town centre. Not the cathedral mind, the 'Notre Dame' church near the market place. This was our first visit inside, a 3 story stone shell with stained glass windows.
It was cold.
And it didn't warm up with the singing either. Despite the fact that this was excellent. Those near us kept their body warmth to themselves in large coats- and we did the same!
I rather suspected there would be a significant echo. There certainly was with the microphone announcements. But the orchestra and singers were not electronically enhanced and the sound was clear and crisp at all times. At the interval we stood up to de-numb our rear ends and to move the blood around a bit. Our chairs were the small wooden affairs you often find in French churches, and clearly not intended to be sat on for several hours at a time.
One respite occurred in the second half, when we all stood up for the Hallelujah Chorus. This was their encore at the end too. We stood and sang, clad to be moving and out of those hard little seats!
More pictures, for what they are worth:

Standing for the Hallelujah.

Interval warm up time.

The market square at night.
Church just visible in the background.

Thirsty Paris

With the lack of rain this summer, it is not a surprise that there are still many water warnings in the area. Our nearby lake, some 90 million cubic meters of it, was showing signs of shortage. The lake feeds Paris, and stops the Seine running dry (bad for tourists, boats, and drains), or at other times, from over-flowing (bad for tourists, boats, and drains).

Dry land!

On our last visit, the water was exceptionally low. This picture is of the lake bed several meters down. The black things are old tree stumps once cut before the valley (and 3 villages) was flooded and now exposed again with the soil eerily eroded away from their roots.
The fishermen still go out. They just have to pull the boats further. However, the sailing boats from our nearest port have all gone as the water is too shallow to support them any more. We can suppose only that it will all recover over winter.
There are some portions of the lake that are kept with high water. These are for the water sports areas and are protected by mini damns and gates. We also saw pumps being used to top one up. The rest, 4 meters or so from the original level, has been drunk by Paris.

Not a good year for Champagne

Or so we suppose. That is, if the grape harvest is anything to go by.

Grapes left to rot on the vine.

As you can see for yourself, these 'Mumm' grapes have been left to rot. We saw some that had never ripened. The locals tell us there was not enough rain, and when you grow grapes on chalk slopes, rain is what you need.
But what do I know? Perhaps there will be less champagne, but what there is is excellent? Or perhaps we had just better forget this year, except to mix it with "parfum" as an aperitif. There needs to be some champagne for this purpose!
The other photos on this page are from out visit to Verzeney where there is an inexplicable lighthouse on a hill, miles from any water. And a windmill now owned by Mumm Champagne, from which the Americans viewed the battle lines in the second world war. Certainly there are good views, panoramic and very hard to capture on film.

Lighthouse on dry land.

Mumm Windmill. VIPs only!

Butterflies were abundant on this pleasant October day.

Notice the green grapes on the black grape vine in the last photo.....

Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse

Well what can I add?
It was a time when the sun shone in onto the laptop and it was clearly the best place to be!
And we went out for a while.
Visitors beware! The cat is more destructive than a child- and shows no remorse!

About time for an update- about time to celebrate

Actually the celebration was the church opposite celebrating the recovery of Strasbourg back into French hands. It all happened a while ago now, and June and I are unsure why the church at Vitry were celebrating the event. However, June was told this is the first time they have done so, so it must have been about time they did.
And they did it in style too! The first we knew of it, even though it is on our doorstep, was a restriction in parking, driving down our road, and for walking in the square- at least the corner nearest us. When we walked round the tents at lunchtime there were the horses. Flags too, were newly flying round about.

Horsemanship

Since I had to return to work, June stayed and enjoyed the sunshine. A lady stopped by with enough English at her command to explain a little of what was happening. The Mayor arrived with other dignitaries (presumably), and a pageant and play commenced. It was clear to June that the play was meant to be funny as it involved a woman being drunk and scratching her rear end. Greater humour than this was lost in the language difficulties, but the horsemen were colourful. The photo is from June's phone camera, with the sun on the viewer, and with no possibility of framing the image. So if it looks a little hazy to you, remember June could not see the image at all!
By the time I got home, most of the evidence was gone, except for the horse deposits in the square. And today it is raining and much colder than we have been used to. So this is just a reminder of warmer days.

A ps About the train tickets

Last blog I reported that we had the printed internet train ticket but could not be sure how to get the real ones. True to form, the station where it may have been possible (the website was not clear, some stations can, others can't) was closed. Encouraged by a French lady co-traveller, we borded the train knowing that they would sort it out on-board.
They did sort it out. They even told me the station was closed because of illness. That's what happens when you employ only 1 person.... So what happened with the ticket? I had to buy another one! Interestingly it was cheaper than the one I bought on-line, but that could have been his error as we were well down the line by the time we bought the ticket.
Then at Paris we had to redeem the cost of the 2nd ticket. This involved queing for ages and another transaction that looked very similar to "paying yet again"; but I was assured it wasn't. "Can I buy an Metro ticket here?" I asked. No, it's the same station but a different company. Where have I heard that before?

These documents are not important

Now Credit Agricole bank in France consists (I think) of 4 regional banks. You can manage your account at your branch, but not easily from another one. In fact the branch here at Vitry cannot do anything for me when my local branch is in Chef Boutonne.
"You see, it's a different bank" I was told.
Quite so! In any case was persuaded to transfer my account to Vitry.
So it was this Saturday we called in by appointment to move the account. "Actually it is easier to open a new one", she said, "it is actually a different bank". Yes I know. But at least they can move all the standing orders and things like that automatically (actually I fear she will do this manually at our next rendez-vous on Saturday).
At the end of the 100 minute meeting, she put all the new documents in a folder for us. "These documents", she explained, "are not important. So I will put them at the back". The documents in question were the signed pieces of paper that acknowledged that we had given our phone numbers freely to the bank. There were several documents like that, some more important than others.
We were told that the French love paper. There is certainly plenty of it. They also love documents like passports and birth certificates. All dutifully photocopied and then scanned into the computer. Everyone found it complicated, from our hostess, to the trainee, and us, of course.
So now we have 2 bank accounts. In time we should be able to get it back to just 1. I hope so!

And so onto the station to find out about going to Paris for the day. It was closed. Strange because lunchtime was over, and any way, the station is one of the places that is open right through. The door presented the answer. "fermeture exceptionnelle" it announced. So we hunted for information and soon gave up. We booked on the web in the evening. Not sure how to get the tickets but I have the receipt printed and we shall see!

Bank Holiday Tourism

When there is a bank holiday in France, everyone wants the day off. So it was that when we played the tourist, most of the tourist locations were close. I am sure this suites the French mentality, it was a very cheap tourist day out!

Charles de Gaulle tomb, wife and daughter too

It has to be said that the Charles de Gaulle memorial was open but we wanted just to visit the huge cross on the hill and to try and find his house. It turned out that the man was not born in the village where he is buried, but moved there and opened a restaurant of some sort. We could not visit it because it is now a tourist attraction, and closed on bank holidays. He went there partly for his daughter's health, but sadly she died aged 20 and is buried in the family tomb in the small cemetery next to the church.
CdG wanted a modest affair. It is almost, but there is also a large memorial in the centre of the cemetery and dozens of plaques along the wall.

Flies on the picnic bag-
We had thought that this location was ok,
but at least the yellow bag bunched most of them!

We did not stay for lunch. Wherever we went we were plagued by thunder-flies. We elected for an early bank holiday return home.

A 'Vitry' Parade

This weekend is a bank holiday. So this Saturday there is a brocante (jumble sale) and parade.

Since the parade goes right past our window, we were banned from parking near our house for a day!

Still it gave June an excellent viewpoint, whilst I elected to get some photos from a closer angle.

"La Mécanikabulle", a bubble making machine.

The Serenade!

As the parade passed, it often stopped. Here the "Magic Skatolog All Stars" serenade June, taking full advantage of an impromptu stop, and her!

"Most embarrassing" she said afterwards.

A Chinese Dragon embarrasses 2 girls by snuggling up

Some more embarrassing moments for some.

Traditional band

Some more photos from the day:

You can get too close!
These are the "Chromoaptères"

The local catholic church dancers

"Karib'k" - very energetic!

"Cie Magic Land" - very tall and frightening!

Touching the dragon!

Majorettes. <Click> if they are not dancing for you!

"Char ACP"- A tough lot, the lady carries the tuba.

Bobble blowing! <click> to see it in motion!

Chromoaptère in motion <click> to see it move.