272. Tiptoeing into Autumn

31st October. Even though our first visit to this region was back in 1991, and despite having lived here for 12 years, there are still many places we have yet to visit. The church of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe is one such place. Perched high up on a rock just off the coast to the east of Bilbao, it has a most spectacular location, similar to this one in Greece..

30th October. I was outside in the garden in the wee small hours a couple of days ago as the dog had been agitating to be let out.. when suddenly I heard the raucous sounds of a large formation of grues cendrées (common cranes) as they flew directly overhead on their southern migratory route to their wintering grounds. 

As it wasn't a moonlit night, I couldn't see them. I was surprised that they were flying at night. Half an hour later, I heard that same distinctive sound as another formation flew overhead. 

29th October. I discovered at the dentists this morning that my Carte Vitale no longer works. It was suggested that I went along to a Pharmacie and asked them to re-initialise it. That failed as well, so later on in the afternoon I went alone to the strikingly modern Social Security (CPAM) building (above) on the banks of the Adour. A few years ago, I would not have been able to do this but now I feel reasonably confident of my ability to: a. explain what I want in French and b. to understand the reply. (Not as easy as you might think!) More on the Carte Vitale here.

Paëlla at chez Pantxua

We went to Socoa yesterday to see what our longtime favourite restaurant was offering for New Year's Eve. We were surprised to learn that they had no specific plans made for a set fixed price menu on that night - it would only be à la carte - nor was anything planned to perk up the ambiance. As prices there have slowly been creeping up over the years we reluctantly decided that we'd have to give it a miss - but, before we left, we decided to treat ourselves to a paëlla (left), one of their specialities, and as it was warm, we ate outside in the sun. An hour and a half later, we exited stage left, riding very low in the water.. 

We then set off under blue skies and temperatures in the mid-20s to Ascain via a tangle of country lanes lined with autumnal trees to talk to the owners of another old favourite establishment who have posted a mouth-watering set menu for 31st December on their site. 

After which, we headed off to Ustaritz for a 'shoppex' - and then, as driving through the country lanes resplendent in golds, russets and burnt oranges was so pleasant, we decided to make an impromptu visit to the owners of the gîte at nearby Villefranque where we stayed for 5 months when we arrived here in September 2007 (sounds a long time ago now). 

First though, we picked up a gâteau basque à la crême (left) - and a bottle of honey-coloured Jurançon doux (right) for our former hosts. As we drove up to their farmhouse, it was strange to think that 12 years had somehow elapsed since we arrived here in our rented van without a home to either move into - or to return to. We sat outside in the late afternoon sun - surrounded by yapping dogs (Nutty was hooligan-in-chief) - talking to two of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet. They'd sold all their livestock - their cattle (Blonde d'Acquitaine), their pigs, their rabbits and their ducks - their chickens had fallen victim to foxes - and now they live contentedly in retirement in their valley surrounded by family.    

Lac Marion

27th October. We went for a walk around Lac Marion this afternoon - it's a real haven of greenery with a lake - far enough from the madding crowd - and, surprisingly, it's set in the suburbs of Biarritz. You'd never guess. Worth a visit if you don't know it.

South Africa's Springboks earned the right to a place in the 2019 Rugby World Cup Final by beating Wales this morning 19-16 in an attritional match that, let's be honest, was far from being easy on the eye. Wales will now take on New Zealand in a play-off for 3rd place on 1st November with the England - South Africa final taking place the following day. I'm taking nothing for granted - Eddie Jones' England side won through in their semi-final in grand style against the current world champions - but the real test - the only one that matters - comes next Saturday.

26th October. In watching the replay of the match, I noticed that Maro Itoje had been awarded Man of the Match.. While I'm a big fan of his, that award could have been given to at least half a dozen of the men in white, if not all of them. What a match, what a match though.. So - as a tribute to Maro Itoje's truly stand-out performance against top flight opposition, here are a few of his best moments from the match:
Down to the beach with the pooch for some fresh air this afternoon.. and with the temperature parked at 27°, it was no surprise to see the half term holiday crowds down there taking advantage of the last days of summer. What a great day in many respects!

England's riposte to the NZ Haka that cost them a £2,000 fine* (!) 

Wow! WOW! What an outstanding performance by a relentless England team who dominated New Zealand in every aspect of the game. Even before the whistle, they challenged New Zealand's legendary Haka (read here!) before following that up with an 80 minute monstering of the Kiwis. I think this will be remembered as England's greatest ever performance. It was worthy of a Final.

* Am I the only one who thinks a £2,000 is ludicrous? For what? 

Farrell facing the Haka

England deservedly went ahead at 1min 36secs via Manu Tuilagi's try (right). The final score 19-7 flattered the Kiwis - they were always on the back foot and their only try came from a gift-wrapped present from Jamie George (the result of an overthrow that was a few months early for Christmas!). England had two tries disallowed - the first was rightly chalked off for crossing but I thought the TMO decision to disallow the second 'try' by Youngs was debatable. The TMO claimed that the ball had gone forward in the preceding maul - I've seen the footage and I think it's open to interpretation. I think on another day that try might/would have stood. England also missed a drop goal and 1 or 2 penalties (can't remember now). Overall though, it was a magnificent performance by all involved.. and one that will be remembered - and replayed (in this house at least) - for many years to come. Impossible to pick a Man of the Match.
8am: Today's the day! The first of the 2019 Rugby World Cup semi-finals - between New Zealand and England - kicks off in about 2 hours time. I think the current England squad represents the best chance we've had of winning against the All Blacks for some years. It's difficult to see weaknesses - except perhaps for a predilection for coughing up penalties and Ben Youngs' liking for box kicking - and against a team like New Zealand, these two aspects could prove costly. If England can keep the penalty count low, I think they're in with a good chance of winning. They have a powerful tight five, a devastating back row (Tom Curry, Billy Vunipola and Sam Underhill), quick powerful backs and two of the game's best tactical kickers in George Ford and Owen Farrell. Add in the talent from the bench and if that's not a winning team, I don't know what is. 

The other semi-final sees a heavyweight contest between South Africa's Springboks and Wales. This is another difficult match to predict but as I don't have a dog in this fight, I think South Africa will just shade it. As Wales squeaked home by 1 point against a 14 man French side last weekend, I think the Boks will prove too strong for them. 

23rd October. Here's another piece that our choir will be reprising in 2 concerts planned for late Spring next year to mark our leader's final season before he retires - it's Vivaldi's Magnificat RV610 - and this is a fine interpretation of it by the English Chamber Orchestra and the John Alldis Choir conducted by Vittorio Negri in 1979:

I'm not particularly a fan of sacred music - I never listen to it at home - but it's difficult to describe the tingle that comes during a concert when 60+ choristers combine to sing in four part harmony some demanding passages of music after a year's-worth of practising. When it goes well, it's very rewarding and the sense of achievement far outweighs the pain of endless practices.  

21st October. How is it that we've ended up with politicians like these - oozing insincerity from every pore? We are forever being told today by those who wish us to remain in the EU that we (the poor dumb electorate) were lied to repeatedly by the Leave campaign from 2016 onwards  - but this video shows the reality. Watch this and weep for the country..

I imagine that all those connected with French rugby will still be seething this morning at Sébastien Vahaamahina who committed an inexcusable foul - a 'red-cardable' offence - 8 minutes into the second half of their quarter final match with Wales and got himself sent off. No excuses. France are now on their way home. Wales squeaked home 20-19 courtesy of a Ross Moriarty try in the 74th minute against a 14 man France.

In the other quarter final, the South Africa's Springboks overcame Japan's Brave Blossoms by 26-3. Japan made a lot of friends around the world with their all-action style, coached by former All Black Jamie Joseph.

19th October. What a day for England rugby..! It was Day One of the RWC Quarter Finals and England faced Australia. (Reader(s) in Australia look away now!) It was probably their best performance ever against the Wallabies as it finished up 40-16, with England scoring 4 tries to Australia's one. In the semi-final, England will meet New Zealand (who won their match with Ireland 46-14) in what should be a cracking match.
Tomorrow morning, Wales take on France and South Africa play Japan. It hurts me to say this but I think Wales are capable of reaching the Final. (Edited to add: On reflection, I think Wales have two chances of beating the Springboks: fat chance and no chance)

18th October. A big weekend of World Cup rugby coming up: first, England v Australia tomorrow morning - followed by New Zealand v Ireland.. then on Sunday, it's Wales v France and South Africa v Japan.

We went to the Town Hall earlier today to pick up my new carte d'identité - but after having signed yet more paperwork I was told it should be ready to collect in the week before Christmas! Who said this: “Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small; Though with patience He stands waiting, with exactness grinds He all.” Answer at the foot of this post.

17th October. Good to see that Ye Olde Pounde Sterling is creeping back up again from almost parity with the euro to more welcome rates of exchange (at least for me!). When we lived in the UK, the exchange rate was of passing interest - a footnote to the day's news just ahead of the weather - but since moving here, given that most of our pensions are in £ sterling, it's become of prime importance to us.

16th October. I was in Oloron-Sainte-Marie last week for a 2 day symposium on Trans-Pyrenean evasion networks during WWII. On the return I visited the wartime detention camp at Gurs. While little evidence remained of this shameful and tragic episode perpetrated by the Vichy government, it didn't need much imagination to realise the picture the horrors of life there for those judged to be "undesirables".

We were in Saint-Jean-de-Luz this morning for some shopping and there were quite a few people swimming - but what a pleasure to not have to circle around like a vulture looking for a parking space..!

Nutty, our larger-than-life cocker spaniel, is developing new habits. In addition to his obsession with lizards in our garden, he now checks under every car in the avenue as he trots by - in case there's a cat there. Neither of us have ever encouraged him to chase cats but he hasn't needed any prompting in that direction. What's next I wonder?! 

Here's the Tour de France route for 2020 - great graphics by the way - not much planned for the Pyrenees:

8th October. It was raining in Bayonne this evening when we went out to watch Woody Allen's "A Rainy Day in New York". It's billed as a romantic comedy but in my opinion, it's 99% free of both romance and comedy. In the interest of fairness, I should add that a chap a few seats away from me was laughing out loud in the exaggerated manner of a theatre audience in London's West End (ie, to encourage the cast) while my facial muscles remained unloved. It's probably the least engaging film Woody Allen has ever directed and I honestly felt that I could have got up and gone home at any moment during the screening and I'd have been in no danger of missing anything.

Top tip: still tempted to go and watch it? Resist the impulse at all costs. Tidy your sock drawer instead. Sweep out the garage. Put your CDs in order. Throw out all the books that you'll never read again. I should add I've been a longtime Woody Allen fan but this film is no more than a potboiler containing much recycled material. Apart from some good old American standards on the soundtrack, this gets my 37 carat dross alert!) 

I've got a better idea - draw the curtains / drapes / close the shutters / lower the blinds / whatever works wherever you are - light the fire - then pour a couple of Glenmorangies - one for your squeeze and one for yourself - and play this.

This is a piece we started learning last night for our choir leader's final season - Puccini's Requiem:

5th October. England had a bruising encounter with Argentina earlier today in the Japan RWC - and came away with a 39-10 win against a 14 man Argentine side after Tomás Lavanini had been red-carded for a high tackle on Owen Farrell in the 17th minute.

One to watch in next Saturday's Crunch match with France - scrum-half Baptiste Serin.. he's a quick-witted player with lots of tricks up his sleeve. I'm sure Messrs Underhill and Curry will keep a close eye on him.

4th October. I've been sparing you from having to read any more of the endless poisonous discussions involving Brexit - as they could, for the most part, be summed up by this quotation from "Macbeth":

it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

.. and there's no shortage of idiots! However, I came across this extract earlier from a very worthwhile article by Ben Knight, who worked as a civil servant at the Department for Exiting the European Union between 2017 and 2019. These two paragraphs neatly sums up my reasons for voting Leave. In my view, Brexit is not about immigration, the proposed EU army, the economy, the Euro or any of it - these elements all come under the heading of detail. The fundamental issue at stake is that the majority of the electorate wish to restore parliamentary sovereignty to the UK - because from that, everything else flows - and it's clearly stated below:

"Brexit means the end of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice and of EU law, returning sovereignty to Britain. It is a fundamental principle of democracy that rulers should be chosen by the ruled; but no voter elects the Presidents of the European Parliament, Commission or Council, nor any one of the European Union’s 20 Vice Presidents. The only elected organ of the Union, the Parliament, has no powers to initiate legislation and only limited powers to scrutinise the Commission".

"The extension of Qualified Majority Voting means that Britain’s voice can be routinely overruled, and that the British people can be subject to laws for which not a single British individual has voted. This is plainly an aberration and an assault upon the core tenets of basic political rights. No: the only legitimate form of governance is one in which those with the power to make laws are directly accountable to every individual to whom those laws apply. The restoration of full parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom will mean that our 650 MPs, each of whom we directly elect, are solely responsible for deciding the laws of the land".

His words deserve to be carved in stone. Given the above, I'm at a total loss to understand how and why anyone could vote Remain. I know full well that many of the current crop of numpties and windbags-in-aspic we have using up valuable oxygen in the House of Commons are beyond redemption but I think the UK electorate will make their feelings known loud and clear at the upcoming General Election on Thursday, 12th December. I hope that those of them who have spent the last 2-3 years throwing up all kinds of procedural devices to block Brexit will soon be spending far more time with their families or shouting at the traffic from the nearest bus shelter.  

There's a grassed area (wouldn't call it a lawn) in front of the Palais de Justice (Law Courts) not far from here. There are two great horse chestnut trees on it and beneath them is a carpet of leaves the colour of burnt copper and enough conkers to supply the needs of at least a hundred schoolboys. Sadly, conkers can't be eaten.

There are some oddly-named houses on my dog-walking route as well - one in particular always has me wondering why would someone name their house "Malgré tout"? According to Google, this has a variety of meanings in French including: 'nevertheless', 'nonetheless', 'even so', 'notwithstanding', 'all the same', and 'despite everything'. I remembered from my schoolboy French that malgré tout means 'despite all' and it's the only one that makes any kind of sense to me - but even then, it's an odd name for a house. There's another house that's simply called 'Christmas'.

House names in the UK tending to be more descriptive (see here) although 'Dunroamin' and the pessimistic 'Journey's End' were once fashionable.

People sometimes have asked me if I miss certain things or tastes from England - and I always have told them that there was only one that sprang readily to mind - and that was Stone's Ginger Wine (essential for making a Whisky Mac). I wrote about it here back in 2012.

In the lead-up to the recent Comet Line weekend in the Pays Basque, an English friend who was planning to attend kindly asked me in advance if there was anything he could bring me. Well, what else could I say! I hoped he might be able to slip a bottle into his suitcase.. but when he arrived, I was bowled over to find that he'd brought me a box of six! What a star!

Then, a few months ago, we were invited round to a neighbours for drinks and I was asked the same question. I suddenly remembered one day that a favourite breakfast used to consist of cereal plus a few (canned) grapefruit segments plus cold milk.. Whenever I remembered to, I'd look in any supermarket I was in to see if I could find them anywhere before finally realising that canned grapefruit segments simply don't exist in France. So that was my answer to the question.

Yesterday, we invited them here for supper as they'd just returned from a month away in the north of France and the UK (and you can guess what's coming next!). They passed me a heavy carrier bag containing several big cans of you-know-what..

So now, all my needs have been met for the forseeable future! (I must have perfected my whining technique!)

3rd October. Some more from the "I don't believe it" Dept.. I was returning from taking the pooch for a run through the calm of the beautiful woods at nearby Pignada this morning when two things caught my eye.

Pignada

The first was a council truck with a high lift platform on the back and they were busy attaching the Christmas decorations - yes, the Christmas decorations! - high up on a lamp-post. This must be the earliest in Europe - but feel free to tell me if it's already happened to a lamp-post near you.

The second was a "For Sale" sign on a bakery that we've been using ever since we've been here. All I can say is that the owner must have a non-business reason for selling up, unconnected with his products - because while they were uniformly excellent, his crusty baguettes 'Tradition' were the best in the area. Generally speaking, the one thing that bakers in France are rarely short of is customers. The buying of fresh bread on a daily basis is ingrained in French life. Sorry to see him go.

2nd October. As the 'pneumatic road drill' treatment on my knee (as described in earlier posts) didn't appear to bring any lasting benefit, it's back to the tried and tested injection of a silicon-based gloop (technical term m'lud) into it. It's a two-part process: first, the doctor had to manoeuvre the needle alone into the heart of my knee (a wince-making exercise if truth be told - my stiff upper lip has never been stiffer!) - then he attached the cylinder containing the product to the needle - all the time while discussing France's win over the US in the Rugby World Cup in Japan; the  state of play of the Brexit negotiations and then England's chances of progressing to the RWC Final.. He seemed to think we (England) stood a good chance. Personally, I think he was trying to take my mind off what he was doing! 

1st October. Nutty's fascination with the lizards in our garden has morphed into a full-blown obsession! He now spends his time by the garden door in the kitchen itching to be let out - and as soon as he's out, he darts around to his favoured viewing place in front of the border where the lizards are. He stands there absolutely motionless, staring intently for any sign of movement, poised and desperate to catch one. I think the lizards are safe though!

Answer: It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow..