Bonjour,
Last weekend we watched the finish of the Drheam Cup (no that’s not a typo, it’s actually got a ‘h’ in it).
This is a boat race along the lines of Sandgate to Gladstone in Queensland at Easter. The race started at La Trinite-sur-mer and there were two courses, the short one to Wolf Rock was 428 miles and long one to Fastnet Rock was 736 miles.
It was a very slow race because there was no wind. Until nearly everybody limped into Cherbourg and then of course we had gale force winds and most things got rained out.
The photos below show the scenes on Saturday before the rain set in. You can see from the flags how windy it was. (Copied these from the official site, so can’t take credit for the photos.)
For some reason they decided to add a bit of an Aussie touch to it all by having a “Australian Cafe” with some interesting activities on offer, e.g. make your own didgeridoo or create a papier mache kangaroo sculpture.
There were some pretty expensive looking boats in the harbour and the crowds came out in force to get a closer look.
The other highlight this week was a visit to a garden (yes – more photos of plants). Some Australian friends have introduced me to Caroline, an English lady who has been living in France for 20 years. She may have been already a little bit eccentric or maybe that is what France does to people. She bought an old stone cottage on 10 acres with a total of about 2 trees on the land and proceeded to plant whatever she liked. There’s no planning or thinking behind what she does and so the garden has just evolved around the cottage. She has two horses that she loves to bits and one of her favourite things is to hook them up to her carriage and take them for a spin. She also has two dogs – Cashew and Owie. The younger dog, Owie is four months old. She took him to the vet for his shots and the vet asked her what his name was. She had decided on Bowie, after David Bowie. The vet told her that was not possible because this was the year of O. So all dogs born this year must have a name starting with O. Next year will be the year of P. So that’s how Owie got his name.
I thought it might be a bit rude to take photos of the inside of her house, which was a fusion of French country/farmhouse/dogs/books/stuff…..can’t really describe it better than that.
Her favourite place to be is obviously outside in her garden. I asked her what she did in the winter months – “stay inside, be miserable and drink”.
We are now in August which is the time when the French take their holidays. So if you have in mind a particular place to go, don’t be surprised if they have shut up shop for several weeks. No matter if things are busy at work. It’s August so it’s holiday time.
Sending warm thoughts to those who are freezing in the southern hemisphere.
L & M
thefrenchfeed 