www.tescopoly.org

For once I have decided not to post a photo but to publish one of the scores of leaflets Tescopoly has been kind enough to send me. Unfortunately they won’t be of any use in France.
Tescopoly is a UK lobby group “outraged that Tesco’s trading practices are putting farmers and local shops out of business”.
In France, the situation is simple: for the past twenty years giant supermarkets and retailers have replaced small shops that were once part of our French culture. Now on the outskirts of our cities there are miles of ugly concrete buildings with long traffic jams especially at the weekend. And still spreading…
In the countryside all shops and related social life have gone.
Often in class, when I ask my pupils what they do/did at the weekend, they answer that they go/went round what they call “shops”. Supermarkets are now the Number One weekend activity for the new generation. Every little hurts…

Something about England.

About once a month we go shopping in Charmes, mainly to get the cheap stuff.
Charmes is a fifteen-minutes drive from Bayon and both places stand in sharp contrast.
Whereas Bayon is a quiet countryside town surrounded with forests, rivers and lakes, Charmes is the perfect example of urban decay. To me, it is very much reminiscent of parts of North England. In fact, every month, it’s as if I were back in Stoke-on-Trent doing my shopping at Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s in Hanley: the landscape is exactly the same, so depressing. And when I’m waiting at the checkout in Charmes, I could almost be called “duck” by the natives who definitely have something to do with “Stokies”. I think it would be a good idea to have both cities twinned. In fact, just like in Stoke-on-Trent, there’s nothing charming in Charmes…

My foot!

A reckless move last Friday while doing a bit of DIY has resulted in a nasty fall and a twisted ankle. Now that the pain has subsided, the worst is yet to come: 2 weeks walking on crutches at 0.001 mile/hour.

Modern-looking church in Blainville-sur-l'Eau.

There was a weird sight on the road to work on Tuesday: a dead badger on a post.

This morning, I got them all.

10.15: our neighbour, Mrs H. returns home from her morning shopping half an hour later than usual.
All the conversations in Bayon this morning were certainly about the late-season heavy snow.
An hour later though, when I went to get the kids a couple of sausages for lunch, at the checkout of the mini-supermarket, local talk had reverted to the current bird-flu and related German cat contamination.
Sad...

Caramel, for his part, chooses the SW9 road.

9.30ish: Clochette does her best to convince me that the house is a sought-after place this morning and resorts to all kinds of tricks.
However, at 17.42 she still hasn't made it in.

9.17: the postwoman makes her morning delivery, no later than usual, and rejoices that the pavement has been cleared in front of my house.
In the photo she steps into the neighbour's property as if she would onto the gangway of the QE2.

8.00: the shovel was needed to get my way to the wood shed.
The snow turns out to be quite deep, the in-laws are certainly glad they don't have to take the car out to go shopping today.
We can imagine the White Clio will carry on sleeping for yet another day in the garage, ready to hit the road on a safer day...

7.30 Evelyne goes to work, the roads are dodgy but she nevertheless waves to me at the window of our bedroom.
An hour later a phone call confirms that she made it safely to the maternity, 1st-of-March babies can also make it safely into this world.
No doubt they will.