A Difficult Day...

Yesterday was a difficult day...

Well, not for me, being Scottish, nor actually for the entire French Nation... and specifically not for our French friends in Douzains where we live.

Yesterday was difficult for Richard, being both English and a Rugby fan.  (England lost to France by a record score at Twickenham).

Let me explain.  We have a very active 'Comite Festif de Douzains' who organise lots of events in our Salle de Fetes - the local community centre.

Yesterday they organised a Repas - a meal - and put on the Rugby on a big screen.

Kick off was at 5.45 and we got there in good time.  There was a good crowd.  As you'd expect, mostly French but quite a few of the English community were there, too.  What was really nice was that the Comite had decorated with Salle with both English and French flags, red, white and blue was everywhere and there was much laughter and anticipation as well as quite a lot of beer.

The way these things work is like this.

The community comes together to organise the events.  You pay a fixed price for your food but you bring your own plates and cutlery and you are more than welcome to bring your own wine which I did.  Richard bought beer from the Comite at 2 Euros a glass!  There are long tables and you simply find a space and you become part of that table.  The food was fabulous - a huge piece of steak cooked on the fire pit outside, pommes frites and apple pie!

So, the national anthems were sung - the Marseillaise was belted out, God Save the King was slightly more muted.

To be fair to Richard he did say that England were in for a tough afternoon... he just didn't know how tough it was to be!

After the game Richard said to one of the men from the village 'C'est une catasrophe!'  'Pas pour nous.'  Came the reply.  Roughly translated that is:

'It's a catasrophe!'  'Not for us.'

But then the drink flowed and Sweet Chariot was sung followed by Flower of Scotland then the Marseillaise (again) and we all went home arm in arm.

Of course, Rugby is like that but so is rural France.

I love living here because the people are so inclusive and welcoming and I think they genuinely appreciate the fact that we go to these events and enjoy being part of the community and village life.

We even appeared on the Comite Facebook Page - 'Renee and Richard - Merci pour votre participation!'  Thank you for taking part.

Thank you for having us!