A cottage in Berry...

Tuesday, November 29, 2005.

Generally, the "Berrichonne" typical house is low.
The door opens onto a big room. In a corner, near a window, there is the kitchen.
In the middle of the room, there is the living-room and the dining room. One long table with two benches furnish the centre. Two armchairs are in front of the fireplace.



Against the wall, the plates and dishes are displayed in the "Vaissellier". This is a cupboard in two parts. The top part is with shelves where the delicate and decorative plates are exposed.









There is also a clock called "Comtoise", with a pendulum. It strikes the time, the quarter past, the half past and the quarter to.

There is also a bedroom and a bathroom, there is sometimes a loft (grenier).
In front of the house, there is a small garden with flower-pots.






Françoise, English 1B.

My thoughts about Beaujolais nouveau

As most of you know, I worked in the restaurant business for more than 30 years and I have many memories of ' Le beaujolais nouveau'.
In the past it was quite a treat to have the first taste of the new wine.
But as my taste buds matured, i realised that the majority of the wine wasn't worth sprinkling on my chips!
It s the only red wine that you serve cold, I began to realise why. But we used to have a good evening with a french menu, well in those days it was 'Chicken a la creme' mussels marinieres and if you were lucky crepes suzzette.

There used to be supposed races to have the first bottle on the table. It was just like the first grouse, on the glorious 12th. August. Straight from the freeezer!!

Call me an old sceptic!
Peter

The Beaujolais nouveau has arrived !

As each year in mid-November, an event in a great deal of Pubs in France takes place. For the first time of the year, the pubs’ owners serve the Wine Beaujolais (Beaujolais nouveau), harvested in August and September. This wine is also sold in supermarkets and people drink it at home. It is a special process that allows the wine to be bottled before the majority of other wines. A part of the harvest is treated like that so as to delight people with something new in november!! and to sell it earlier … It is a tradition that started in area of the town of Lyon. People go to Pubs to taste the wine and also eat, sing, dance …In principle it is a time of conviviality. This phenomenon has spread throughout France and now it is a “fashion”. Japanese people buy a lot of wine (at a very high price) and it is a big event in this country with all its excesses! It is sometimes an opportunity for people to get… drunk and … have a hangover the next day!! It could be funny except if, like in Grenoble (town near Lyon and Alpes) young people (many hundreds) had a party and got drunk. The result was fights with the police and fifteen policemen hurt (nothing to do with the recent riots). It is not a good behaviour when you want to have fun!!
For a few years, it appears that French people have been less interested by this event. We see less parties in Pubs. The problem is that the prices have increased and this wine has a special taste (Specialists say it tastes of banana, blackberry, strawberry…it depends on the year). Anyway, it is a little bit sour! It is not very good and a five year old Beaujolais is better! At least it is my opinion. Not everyone agrees.
This has brought about good profits in the Beaujolais area! In other areas, wine growers have thought it worthwhile to do the same thing… and now you can find for example the ‘Touraine nouveau’! It is not better and appears to be a commercial operation!

So much wine was drunk in Lyon that people said:

Three rivers flow through Lyon: the Saône, the Rhône and …the Beaujolais!

Clairvoyance and well-being forum.

Merci mille fois encore Claude.

Last weekend in Bourges took place a forum concerning the clairvoyance and the well-being: nowadays, strange topic! People went to this manifestation to attend lectures, meet Clairvoyants and have séances allowing them to know their future life. They could discuss with many specialists but it was not free (60 € an hour… without obligation of results). There were different techniques: numerology, “tarology” (card) and so on … and that is the least of it!. 1 700 people went to this forum in majority to “see”. See what, see whom: maybe their future, maybe the next world, maybe their dead grandfather maybe as a “voyeur” !! I don’t know.
It appears that after these séances people feel better because they can speak, tell their stories and talk about their difficulties. More and more men are attracted by these practises, it is an actual fact. One says that politicians sometimes use the services of Clairvoyants!! If it is the case, they haven’t seen the riots arrive!!!
There is an advantage to have people interested in this phenomenon: they feel better therefore, they don’t go to the doctors and accordingly they allow the “hole” of the Social Security to be partly filled up…( probably it is a bad dream). Of course, the séances are not refunded by this administration.
They are mad these Froggie Gauls!

(From an article of the Berry Républicain newspaper)

L'informatique

Have a look at this brilliant PowerPoint prsentation with music, from Sylvia.


http://elgg.net/cafepierre/weblog/

Merci mille fois Sylvia.

Erick's 'site-web'!

Have a look at Erick Mengual's website from Bourges. Erick is the Director of IMEP.

http://www.erickmengual.com/

La conspiration des poudres de 1605

Sans doute, cet acte de la trahison contre la monarchie de James I est le plus audacieuse et bien connue dans l’histoire de l’Angleterre.
De nos jours, on la commémore encore. Cependant, pourquoi faire ? Surtout quand c’était un échec !
Pendant les années quinze et seize cents, il y avait les temps instables en ce qui concerne la religion.
En 1605, le roi, James I était protestant mais il y avait toujours ceux qui voulaient que le pays devienne encore catholique. Ainsi, un groupe de conspirateurs catholiques (il y en avait treize) ont tenté de faire sauter le parlement pour se débarrasser du roi et son gouvernement protestant.
Un de ces conspirateurs, un homme qui s’appelait Guy Fawkes, était découvert et puis torturé pour qu’il dise les noms des autres conspirateurs avant d’être exécuté. La peine pour la trahison était drôlement terrible – d’être pendu, éviscéré et écartelé !
Malheureusement pour les autres, ils étaient trouvés aussi et par les suites exécutés. (Sauf un qui est mort en prison à cause d’une maladie)
La tradition aujourd‘hui est qu’on brûle des effigies du Guy dans des grands feux et on tire des feux d’artifice. Cela a lieu chaque 5 novembre pour qu’on n’oublie pas que la trahison ne peut pas être supportée et ce sera puni sévèrement !
En réalité, je crois que la plupart de gens ne réfléchissent pas beaucoup du vrai homme, Guy Fawkes ou même s’il avait raison de faire ce qu’il avait fait. En outre, je ne suis pas sûre qu’il fût un mauvais homme qui mérite d’être brûlé tous les ans dans un grand feu. Après tout, s’il a réussi et l’Angleterre est devenu encore catholique, il aurait été héro n’est ce pas ? L’histoire peut être vraiment injuste !

De plus – saviez-vous … ?

1. Jusqu’ à 1959, en Angleterre, c’était illégal de ne pas célébrer la date de l’arrêt de Guy Fawkes…

2. Aussi tard que 1998, la peine de mort a existé encore en temps de paix pour le crime d’une trahison en Angleterre et le Pays de Galles…

Nous sommes fous, nous anglais, n’est ce pas ?

November 2005
Helen French 5

Claude Boutet November 8th. 2005

Riots in France

English people have probably been informed by the different media of the events that have been taking place in the suburbs of many towns in France. Maybe they have better information than French people can have. My feeling is that the media and the French Government are trying to minimise the events. These headlines are not presented as the main news, the reports on the TV are very short and only show no shocking images. The journalists’ comments are not very virulent and people questioned in the streets say only that the riots have to stop. Now the riots are probably being organised because they are spreading to most parts of France… except Bourges. Not yet, anyway!

The problem has been foreseeable for many years because the main difficulty is that our country is not able to provide work for everyone (over 10 % of unemployment). Generally, the level of education is not very high in the suburbs though the educative system is the same as in the other part of the towns and many people leave school without been able to read or write. People of the same nationality, same “colour”, same religion and same standards… are inclined to gather in the same place as we have seen throughout the centuries and the countries. It is almost something natural! Sometimes these places are quiet sometimes there are big problems! Often people don’t want to do anything because in these districts there are a lot of people who don’t work and live only off grants and trafficking, which are more lucrative and easy.

Today, in terms of damage, the result is frightening: over 3000 cars burned, many schools, shops, shopping centres… burned down and more serious, many injuries and two innocent old people dead.

Now the problem is: what can we do to stop the riots? And who will pay for the damage? I am not sure there is a short-term answer to the two questions!

Last news of the last night: 1000 cars burned, 10 schools burned down in France…and 11 cars burned in Bourges! The wrongdoing is spreading and there is a risk to spread abroad: Belgium, Germany and …Great Britain!

Our man in Bourges Claude Boutet.

Sorry for the delay in publishing this story, but better late than never! Peter
Strike in France.


This week, the newspaper headlines were devoted to the strike in France. There were a lot of people in the streets to demonstrate in many towns and to show the French government they are displeased with the economic situation. The newspapers explained why people were demonstrating: unemployment, purchasing power, tax increases, civil service decrease, relocations… and so on! More than one million people marched in the streets with banners and shouting slogans against the Government and the Politicians like in England I think!. A poll showed that 70% of French citizens agree with the strikers. This situation has not changed whatever the governments in power for the last 20 years. The explanation is maybe that the majority of our Politicians come from the same school: the National Administration School (Ecole Nationale d’Administration: ENA). They all have the same way of thinking and same behaviour and practically all of them are civil servants without risk. If they are not re-elected, they are back in the French administration with a good promotion! You find them in the left-wing and right-wing. The one thing they are able to do is increase taxes, contributions…There is an old French expression to describe this:
It’s white bonnet and bonnet white*(c’est blanc bonnet et bonnet blanc in French). This means it’s the same thing. Why that: the bonnet is always white whatever the place of the adjective (why the name bonnet has been taken: I don’t know). In French the most common expression is ” bonnet blanc” but in poems or in old language the place could be before the noun. But if you say that nowadays you are taken for someone a little bit old-fashioned!!

* do you have a similar expression in English?