West of the Town

Sunday 16 October 2011

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!

Sunday 9 October 2011

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.