Walking to Mahle last week I passed fifty or so shacks on a waste ground. At first I thought they were part of an abandoned allotment waiting to be cleared for development. But then I saw a woman washing clothes in a tub. Children playing in the grime. Guys kicking a ball around. Smoke rising from chimneys. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2013
96 – Transferwise
On 7th September 2011, my first week in France, I made a transfer of £500 from my UK account to my brand new French one. With an exchange rate of 1.0717 plus a £10 bank fee, I received the grand sum of €535.85. Continue reading
95 – Five packets of Gerblé biscuits and a box of Bavarian Gold
After my trip to Annonay last Friday to see my dieting biscuit friends at Cereal & Santé, I fancied a pack of my favourite beer: Pelforth Ambrée. It would have been an easy trip to the supermarket if I hadn’t seen Bavarian Gold on special offer:
LIKE PELFORTH AMBREE?
THEN
YOU’LL LOVE BAVARIAN GOLD!
94 – Col de la Chassenoud
I drove up to the Col de La Chassenoud in the Pilat Park on Sunday and after trekking up a lovely woodland track for an hour, arrived at a tiny locked chapel that was the summit of the creatively named Mont Monnet. What’s more there was a panoramic viewing board that explained all the features I was looking at: primarily the Rhone valley, with Lyon on the far left, Annonay on the far right and a lot of fog, haze and industrial pollution in between. There was also a plaque on a rock that said you could see Mont Blanc on a clear day. Continue reading
93 – Twenty Days to the Equinox
When I told my students yesterday that ‘Thank the Lord it was spring tomorrow,’ they looked at me as though I was dribbling the slimy filling from a half eaten Ginsters Cornish pasty all over their notes.
‘No, Oggers,’ they said in unison consulting their online agendas. ‘Spring begins on Thursday 21st March not the 1st.’ Continue reading