There has been chaos in Beaucaire recently; chaos, bad weather, and great excitement. The occasion was the 44th Etoile de Besseges cycle race, which for a short while had Beaucaire in a state of almost Monaco Grand Prix fever, except much quieter. The first we knew of the race was the notices on the windscreens of all the cars that park daily on both sides of the marina, and along the one-way traffic circuit which is a key artery through the centre of town. Our...

Last Sunday Liz and I went to church. This, as God will testify, is a rare event, but it was for a good cause. Basically we were there to pray for a good vintage for 2014, and well, heaven knows we all like a good vintage. So, unusually for us we were up and ready for the off by 9am, at which time we met up with Jim and Sandra who had offered to drive us to the nearby town of Jonquieres Saint-Vincent on this fine Sunday morning, to take part in an annual wine fe...

I bought a new hat. Okay, that's hardly going to make the headlines, but it's a major in my life, as I have probably bought no more than maybe four bits of headgear in all my mumbledy-years. I can now hold my head up high in Beaucaire society, or at least keep my thinning locks hidden. Headgear is commonplace here in le sud de France, and varied. The favoured hat for young French men is, sadly, the ubiquitous beanie, usually black and wooly. Not exactly haute f...

I know, I know... we haven't blogged anything for a long time. Sorry, but. Happy New Year anyway, and all that. See, like yourselves, we've taken some time out over the past few weeks to relax, visit friends and family, drink and eat too much, and generally dispose of all of last year's resolutions in bulk. We also haven't been sailing in the boat anywhwhere, and so haven't had the ammunition or felt the impulse to blog. That's not to say we haven't been doing ...

There are some clever observations of life that have been made by some clever people, such as where does your lap go when you stand up, and if you dismantle something can you mantle it again? Deep questions, well worth asking. So it stands to reason to also ask, what happens to mariners when they're not marinating? What do boaties actually do when they're not cruising? Because, from September through to around April, most boaties here in France don't live up to ...