102. The Big Chill

15th December 2010. A bright and cold day today - blue skies, dazzling sunshine, c-o-l-d but luckily no wind... The temperature out there this morning was a bracing -3°C. I took the dog for a long walk along the river and came back via the Christmas market - the stallholders looked frozen. I had a squint at what they were selling and I must be honest - there was nothing there that made me even want to slow down, let alone insert a hand in a back pocket.

At midday it had warmed up to a balmy +1. I think we could be in for a dose of snow tomorrow.

18th December 2010. The last few days have seen us in a bit of a frenzy of activity getting ready for Christmas. Presents have been retrieved from hiding places to be wrapped; we've put up one of those Christmas trees that's guaranteed (?) not to drop its needles and last night Madame worked her customary magic on the house with a profusion of decorations that appeared miraculously from dusty storage containers. Not much left to do now. I think one last raid into Spain for some last minute shopping is planned for next Tuesday. Beautiful weather this morning in the Pays Basque - cold, yes but with blue skies, bright sunshine and no wind.

Spare a thought for those who will be having Christmas on their own. I can't think of much that's worse than that.

Last night we enjoyed our first taste of Christmas Pudding.. Madame made several earlier in the year and they've been lurking down in the cellar ever since. As far as I'm concerned, Christmas Pudding - known here as Plum Pudding (a bit odd as there are no plums in it) - is the taste of Christmas. (Half fat version here if you must) I'm convinced Rabbie Burns' most famous verse was originally written about a Christmas Pudding.. but he was later persuaded to change the target to a Haggis!

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

Best wishes for a Happy Christmas to all..

20th December 2010. Still no snow here.. touch wood! Some old friends of Madame's (from uni days) are arriving later in the week by TGV. TGV services have been affected by the wintry weather - they're running at reduced speed (~200kph) in the north. 

101. Back in the saddle

4th December 2010. Finally, a dry day.. and sunny too. Despite it being only 2°C this morning, I decided to get down to the club for an outing. I've just looked back and the last time I was out on the river was 13th November.. it having rained every single day since then. This morning we went out in a coxless quad sculler and did a relatively painless 12km (Running total 333km). I say 'relatively' because with not having rowed for 3 weeks or so my hands had softened up - so I'm now sat here with fresh new blisters.. With it being the first Saturday of the month, it was time for an apéro at the club after the outing.. As Basil Fawlty might have said, I mentioned France's crushing defeat last week at the hands of Australia only once - but I think I got away with it! 

Walked along the sea front at Biarritz this afternoon and around town. Christmas shopping seems to have clicked into top gear at last.

6th December 2010. It's 16°C here this morning and forecast to rise this afternoon to an unseasonable 19°C.. warmest in France. Bizarre weather. Meanwhile, up in the north, Cherbourg suffered badly from unprecedented flooding yesterday as a result of melting snow combined with a high tide.

We took the dog for a long walk through town and out along the Nive as it was a warm afternoon.

7th December 2010. It was reported on the TF1 news last night that the temperature at Saint-Jean-de-Luz yesterday reached..... 22°C! 

Spent the afternoon in the garden taking down a hefty cypress tree that had got out of control. I've now got a stack of logs that I'm hoping someone down at the club can use. 

8th December 2010. We went to Dancharia in Spain this morning - just across the border from the lovely Basque village of Ainhoa, reputedly one of the most beautiful villages in France. I wouldn't argue with that. Dancharia is known for the numerous Ventas that are located there - Venta Peio is our favourite.. and with Christmas in mind we stocked up on drinks. As an example, a 2 litre bottle of Sir Edward's Scotch (made from 100% Scottish grapes*) was a tad over 16€.. (about £13.80 at today's rates) - and that puts it at a quarter of the price of a reasonable single malt. It's far better than its price would indicate. 

The car indicated that it was a balmy 22°C on the way home.. Meanwhile the rest of France shivers. As does the UK.

* I jest!

Today marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death. It's impossible to imagine how he would have lived through the intervening years.. what new personas he would have lived out, what causes he would have espoused, what great new music he would have made. RIP John.

9th December 2010. Stop Press: I bought a cheapo (17€ something for a litre - I should have known better) single malt whisky while in Spain yesterday - it was a new offering from Glen Grant called The Major's Reserve. To be honest, that's where it should be stayed - in reserve.. There's more than a faint whiff of varnish in the aftertaste - but, being charitable, that could just be me. Whisky preference is a matter of personal taste and we all have our favourites. Single malt whiskies invariably reward the drinker with a range of subtle and complex tastes and they benefit from being aged in the cask for 10 years or more for these flavours to develop. In the case of The Major's Reserve I sense that the distillery has cut corners on the aging process. I read somewhere on the internet that The Major's Reserve is 7 years old. Years ago I had a 5 year old Glen Grant (yes, another cheapo sold on the Continent) and it was exactly the same. By the way, there's no indication on the label of how old this product is which in itself should have rung warning bells. One to steer clear of. Don't say I didn't tell you..



Pray silence for
The Balvenie

Nectar of
the gods

I should have paid the extra and bought my usual favourite malt whisky - 10 year old Glenmorangie. The other one I'm very partial to is the 12 year old Balvenie.. (hope Father Christmas is reading this!) but the Ventas in Spain don't seem to stock it. If you tried whisky once, and didn't like it; or if you've been drinking normal whisky all your life; or if you'd like to try a malt whisky but don't know enough about it to know what to ask for - the next time the person who usually buys you a present asks, "What would you like for Christmas, your birthday or whatever.." - don't answer suspiciously quickly - ponder a moment before replying either a bottle of Glenmorangie (or Balvenie).. You'll thank me for this!

100. Allegiances

28th November 2010. Gawd, 100 posts.. I really should get out more..

I see from studying the local weather data (trying to find out when this monsoon we seemed to be locked into is going to end) that the visible moon phase in Bayonne today is Waning Gibbous - which, if I were into howling at the moon, has a nice ring to it and could easily set me off. However, if you don't know what Waning Gibbous means, come and see me afterwards. (let me put you out of your misery - here) Waning Gibbous could easily be an American Country & Western singer as well!

Just to stop us from getting bored, this morning we were treated to hail - in addition to the more usual rain. Is there no end in sight..?

Now, rugby.. ah yes. Last night France were surprisingly hammered by the Wallabies 16-59 (and that's no misprint). I don't think I've ever seen such a one-sided points avalanche in such a short time involving two of the best sides in the world - in the second half the Aussies scored 46 points in 30 minutes (to France's 3). I started thinking this morning about who I support - as, I have to confess, last night I was supporting - wait for it - Australia. Friends in England have previously made jokey comments to the effect that, since moving here, I must surely now be supporting France - but that's not the case. My answer to them? Moving across the Channel hasn't changed a thing..

This is how it works:

When England play, I support them irrespective of who they're playing.

• When the other home nations play each other - I'd support Ireland first, with Scotland an extremely close second. 
• When any of the home nations (Wales, Scotland, Ireland) play a non-UK nation, I want them to win. Except for a France-Wales fixture - in which case I might support France (but doubtful).
• I support France against any northern hemisphere non-UK nation.
• Now introduce the southern hemisphere.. I'd support any northern hemisphere nation (except France) against any southern hemisphere nation
• Southern hemisphere nations playing each other? I'd support Argentina if they're playing - otherwise I couldn't give a toss.

In the event that I can't decide who to support, then I usually support whoever plays the most attractive rugby with the fewest fouls. Foul play automatically swings my allegiance to the sinned against team. I must confess that I've never been able to warm to the All Blacks. Look at the haka on YouTube from 20-30 years ago and it was just a bit of harmless folklore. Now? It's been "improved" upon such that it embarrasses me to watch a serious rugby nation like NZ having to resort to the haka as a psychological weapon.. something that their opponents are supposed to "respect" it.. Give me a break! It's laughable. I think their opponents should ignore all this hokum.. and simply continue with their warm-up, read a newspaper, have a burger or whatever.       

Complicated this armchair sport isn't it..?!

29th November 2010. Finally, at last, am I dreaming..? Blue skies are back today - but according to the forecast we're set for 3 days of rain again as of tomorrow. As it was finally dry, I took the dog for a long run along the beach at Anglet as he's been more or less housebound for the last few weeks. On the way home I saw that the Pyrenees - which form a backdrop to Bayonne - were covered in snow..

I read an article today about the precarious financial situation in some parts of the Eurozone.. I wish I could say that I understood it all (or even half of it) - but I don't. For countries to take part in monetary union they had to satisfy economic convergence criteria - public sector borrowing, budget deficit, inflation, interest rates and much more had to be held within agreed limits. I always thought that these were only the technical financial deal-breakers. How about the efficiency and productivity of the underlying economy? Here's a prescient quote taken from a very readable article written in 1997 by the Swiss-based Bank for International Settlements:

There is a widespread belief in the economics profession that nominal convergence - as expressed by the convergence criteria - is less important for a successful monetary union than real convergence. Real convergence encompasses factors such as labour mobility, price and wage flexibility, exposure towards external shocks, industrial structures, and so on. Judged by these factors, convergence among future members of the EMU still has a long way to go. This is important because to be successful a European monetary policy depends exactly on these factors. Without a high degree of real convergence, monetary policy is bound to have different effects in different parts of the monetary union. The very idea of a single European monetary policy would thus become unrealistic. The ECB would come under political pressure to accommodate mutually incompatible wishes from different parts of the monetary union. The result could only be a less than optimal monetary policy and rising inflation and interest rates.

For purely selfish reasons (pensions paid in £££s), I'd welcome a return to the former European currencies - the D-mark, the franc, the guilder, the peseta et al.. When we arrived in France in September 2007, a £1 was worth a worthwhile 1.48€. Just a few short months later, the rate had plummeted to around 1.03€, which equates to a fall in value of 31% (ouch!). It now stands at 1.18€ - which is a 21% fall since September 2007 (OK, a slightly lesser ouch! but still painful). If the French franc were to be re-introduced and the £ returned to its former trading position against it - somewhere near £1 = ~10Ffrs then I for one would be delighted. I'm not holding my breath though about the possible demise of the euro and a return to those old currencies - I think there's too much political capital invested in the Euro for it to fail. If it does though, I think the first country in the eurozone to display any cracks from the strain of supporting other less efficient economies would be Germany.

Wouldn't you agree though - just purely on the look of the former currency - that a 50 franc note featuring Racine:

or a 10 franc note with Voltaire:

is far more stylish than this anonymous and utilitarian 50€ note (worthy of East Germany):

As Del Boy might have put it: "Je reste ma valise.."

1st December 2010. Back to rain again this morning. It's preferable to snow which is what much of the rest of the country has to contend with but I'm starting to get a bit fed up with it now.