184. Après moi, le déluge

2nd May 2012. It looks like the weather has finally turned warm and dry again here. In common with much of the rest of western Europe we've been deluged with water here for the last hundred years / well, since Christmas anyway / last month (delete as applicable) and, with the sun up and running, the garden has belatedly started a growth frenzy.

The map (right) shows the average annual precipitation across France. The isolines on this map are called isohyets. Each isohyet connects places that receive equal average annual precipitation. Each band of color indicates places that fall into a range of 100 millimeters of precipitation. Red areas on this map, such as Chamonix and Biarritz, receive more than 1,300 millimeters of precipitation each year. Purple areas, such as Marseilles and the southern tip of Corsica, receive between 400 and 500 millimeters of precipitation each year.. 

I have to mention the lawn here - I know I'm going to regret saying this but at last it's starting to look reasonable with no bare patches. We've tried a number of different types of grass seed before landing on the one that seems to be working best - Gazon Rustique Sud. This is a coarser bladed grass of the type that seems to flourish in the US - hopefully it will resist the baking summer heat better than its predecessors.. And if anyone else out there has been plagued with birds pecking the life out of their garden then I can highly recommend dangling some old CDs in strategic places. I was slightly sceptical about this old trick but since I hung about half a dozen up a week or two ago, the garden has been bird-free - which is a pity as I like having birds around - but, for some unknown reason, they'd been pecking the bejasus out of the lawn.. Tip: Des O'Connor CDs seems to work best!

This cartoon reminded me of the frustration I felt 6 months ago after my PC had a major meltdown due to a virus that I inadvertently let in.. PCs have become such a necessary part of our daily lives as we turn to them more and more - accessing news from all parts of the globe, managing our finances online, linking up with friends via a webcam on Skype and a thousand other things we never dreamed of. Consequently when our PCs have a hiccough, the impact is felt immediately and across a whole range of our activities. This cartoon sums up the feelings I had the last time it happened.  

It's a long time since I've featured a slide guitar here so here goes - it's from that underrated little film "Crossroads":

6th May 2012. Yesterday evening at ~5pm the new SNCF bridge being built to replace the 152 year old structure in the background - built by Gustave Eiffel (yes, him!) - collapsed into the Adour. Full story here. (English  translation here) (Slideshow here)

Bridge in Troubled Water

The Sous-Préfet of Bayonne has been quick to act - for safety reasons, he has closed the river to traffic. That means, for the immediate future, that my former club - Société Nautique de Bayonne - will not be able to row upstream from their position just a few metres downstream of the two bridges and, secondly, rail traffic has been forbidden to cross the old Eiffel bridge just a few metres away.

The two rowing clubs in Bayonne (Société Nautique de Bayonne and Aviron Bayonnais) have co-existed in an uncomfortable relationship since Aviron Bayonnais (my club) was formed in 1904 by a breakaway faction of members from the Société Nautique following the expulsion of an individual for irregular Ugandan discussions (ahem!), perhaps more befitting the former head of the IMF! As the more turbulent waters of the Adour downstream from the Société Nautique don't consistently lend themselves to rowing, the Société Nautique might elect instead to row on 'our' river, the Nive. Who knows, it could even lead to a thawing of the relationship and perhaps a rapprochement between the two clubs. 

151. An English lawn in the Pays Basque

As it was

15th June 2011. It's been a quiet week in the Pays Basque (with apologies to Garrison Keillor!) Starting a lawn from scratch here has proved trickier than I ever would have believed. When we moved in here in February 2008, the 'lawn' (such as it was) was a mess - it was choked with weeds and dandelions (pronounced by Madame in her own inimitable fashion as dan-delly-ons!) with many bare patches of hard-packed earth. I started pulling the weeds out one by one but, after I'd done a small area, I realised I would be wasting my time as there was hardly any grass remaining after the weeds had gone. After looking at the price of turf, I thought it would be cheaper to re-seed. This meant double-digging the whole area all over, putting in fertiliser and a lot of new soil, leveling it and re-seeding.

So - it was out with the spades and the forks. Digging it over took me a week as just below the surface lay a tangled web of roots from the surrounding trees and bushes. Heaving out as many of the firmly-entrenched roots as I could manage filled ten 50 litre sacks - and lopped 5 years off my three score years and ten.. I put in a lawn edging strip to try and contain the lawn neatly at the borders and then I started building up the level with soil. I've long lost count of how many 50 litre sacks of earth and fertiliser I've put in but it's well over a hundred. I seeded and then stood back to watch and wait.

Lawns flourish in England's mild & well-watered climate but that of the Pays Basque is more challenging with its fierce summer sun and infrequent but torrential downpours of rain. 

Early results were illusory (right) - the lawn looked promising but it gradually faded and we ended up with dead burnt patches. I think the tree's roots were sucking up much of the water and so a couple of years ago, we decided to have it removed. As it came down, we discovered that it had been dying on us - much of it was rotten. After re-seeding with different grass and achieving mixed results I bit the bullet and turfed the half at the far end. Madame has been raking it all and putting liquid fertiliser on it and I think we must be doing something right as this year it's finally starting to look pretty good. We've also been making good use of the water barrel to keep newly sown patches well-watered. The birds remain a problem though. For some reason, they keep pecking holes in it. The little treasures!

Did a search on YouTube for a suitable clip about mowing lawns and came up with this.. (don't ask!)

79. The brown brown grass of home

16th August 2010. I've been trying to encourage the lawn in our garden to grow green and weed-free for the past few years but I'm starting to wonder if I'm flogging a dead horse. After a long hot rain-free summer, the 'lawn' is definitely bien cuite.. ie, burnt brown and patchy, despite raising the height of the cut on the lawn mower. After weeks of baking heat with no rain - just the odd shower - we had a torrential downpour at 6am on Sunday morning that was so loud it sounded as though the house was being driven through a car wash. But it was a case of too much too late - the damage had already been done. Needless to say, I'm going to have to try again. There must surely be a variety of grass that can tolerate the climate here.

This evening we walked over to the beautifully landscaped gardens that have been laid out in and around the old ramparts surrounding Bayonne. It was so pleasant to sit there on a warm evening (25C in the shade when we returned home) almost in the heart of Bayonne and yet be in such a peaceful setting.  There's clearly an enlightened council at work here.

17th August 2010. This morning I finally loaded up the car with all the junk from the cellar and took it to the nearby déchetterie on the banks of the Adour.

Whilst there, I spotted a nice wooden winebox that had contained Château Plantey 'Pauillac' that somehow jumped into the back of my car.. I must admit to collecting these (below) and it seems I'm not alone!

Rowed this evening.. had a good outing in an VIII. Did 15km.. (Running total: 41km)

18th August 2010. We went for a bike ride this morning along the Adour as far as Villefranque. It must be almost 20km there and back. It seems only a few months ago that the first shoots of corn started poking through and now the fields are a good 8 feet high with a rustling mass of corn stalks, and I believe the corn is destined for animal feed.

19th August 2010. Arriving at the rowing club this evening I spotted the team coach for the Agen rugby club who play Bayonne tomorrow parked outside the hotel nearby. And as I was walking away from the club after the outing, I noticed 5 massively built South Sea islanders with their Easter Island profiles in their Agen t-shirts strolling along the river bank.. It's not until you see the new generation of rugby players that you realise just how big they are. And as for trying to stop one with the ball running at you..

Very warm out on the river this evening.. went out in a quad sculler and did 10km (Running total: 51km) 

25. Smoking & Joints

21st October 2009. We’re the warmest place in France today at 21C.. Paris is down at around 12C.

I thought I’d give Madame a break from the kitchen today so this morning while she was at her painting class I prepared the lunch. I’d decided to make Jambalaya – which is a combination of many things we like – seafood, chicken, chorizo sausage, rice and hot Basque sauce.. It worked out quite well.. (if I say so myself!) If the finished product looks anything like this, you're in business!

(Gardening Dept: I’ve just finished re-seeding part of the lawn at the back of the house for about the third time.. Or, as it's known here, providing the starlings with yet another picnic.. This time I used a soil compound that was supposedly very rich in fertiliser and I hope this is the last time I have to do this particular job.)

Over the last few years I’ve had some pain in my knees when they’ve been immobile for a while – such as when driving or sat in the cinema.. The docs here sent me for MRI scans and X-rays and it turns out that I’ve got a touch of arthritis in both (aka the creeping march of time..). So yesterday I went to a Rhumatologue – a specialist who deals with articulation problems - and he injected both knees with a compound designed to cushion the joints. I’ve 2 more of these sessions to come then I should be OK again.

The issue of French manners seems to exercise many English people, but as I've observed before, manners here are different. For example, sat in the waiting room of the Rhumatologue, I noticed that everyone who came in said "Mesdames, messieurs" or what sounded like "M'sieurs dames" to the waiting room at large and the majority said "Au revoir mesdames, messieurs" to those in the waiting room on leaving. Now - correct me if I'm wrong - but this would not happen back in England.

Thought for the Day: I remember a doctor friend in England once saying that he was against living healthily with the aim of extending one’s life. His rationale is that the extra 5 years gained aren’t given back to you in your middle years – where you’d want them – but they get tagged on at the end.. where you don’t. He is a keen cigar smoker who smokes without guilt.

All of which brings me on to this: when Keith Floyd died, the holier than thou element of the UK media, aka the Fun Police, had a field day.. The headline in one English newspaper was “The pleasures of life undid him in the end..!” I would doubt that he had a single regret.. he lived his life as he wanted. Many don't. Here's to you, Keith!

Here's Keith in the Pays Basque bravely trying to make a Pipérade - against a constant barrage of 'advice'!

Right, enough of this, it’s a beautiful afternoon down here and it’s time to take the pooch for a walk. Then I'm going to have a drink on the terrace. Or two.