After discussing the ever changing world of computers last week we return to the quiet certainty of French rural life and consider a subject that changes very little – wood. They say that wood warms you three times. Once when cutting it from a tree, once when moving it and finally when it is burned on your log fire. This is a gross under estimate based upon my experience, reinforced this week as our tree surgeon arrived to carry out various tree works in the orchard.

Paul, the tree man, is ...

It has been a busy week and started off last Monday with a bank holiday in France. The French very wisely have lots of bank holidays. Last Monday was the 11^th November (Armistice Day) and rightly commemorated in France with a public holiday. Bank holidays in France are a bit different from England where public holidays are either a reason for a party or to go shopping. In France all the shops are closed and there don’t seem many parties around here so instead everyone goes visiting. Usually...

The beginning of the week was one of mixed feelings. On the one hand I was basking in the great backgammon victory but on the other sad to see my friends return to Britain after a great weekend. Alan has asked me to point out for the sake of accuracy and his self esteem that he did win on both the pool table and darts board. But as these were not official ranking tournaments we can safely move on without making too much of a fuss. Needless to say the official Backgammon tournament trophy is s...

Well, lots to report this week which ended spectacularly on Sunday night with the final leg of the Anglo-French Backgammon championship here at La Godefrere. As regular readers will know my good friend Anglo Al and I regularly compete at Backgammon each time Alan comes over. On the last visit I won a great victory and as a result the trophy rests proudly on a shelf in the kitchen. I have tried to insert a picture into the blog of the trophy. And failed! The trophy is a small pottery figure of...