Universitat Occitana La Guépia

One can see similarities here

Fancy something spicy?

Book sale hoping to go ahead in April

Message from Sue Glibbery at Poorpaws

Hallo Faithful Booklovers !

I'm getting in touch to tell you that, barring any new confinements, your favourite Book Sale will be taking place the weekend of 10th/11th April.

As usual it will be at the Salle des Fetes of St; Pantaleon, (Lot), starting at 10am and finishing at 14.30.  I am busy sorting through hundreds of books and can promise you that we have some really fabulous books in great condition !  Do I say that every time ?  Yeah, probably, but I promise you it is true.  As last time, anti covid regulations will govern, masks MUST be worn, there will be a one way system in the hall and hand sanitizers will be plentiful.  We are restricted to the number of people allowed inside - hopefully more than last time - but, as last time, and weather permitting, there will be tables to browse outside.  Please use the village car park which is a two minute walk away and well signposted. Prices have not changed, all books are at one euro, as are dvds, with boxed sets being 50 cents per disc.  Cds, 50 cents.

We CANNOT accept books on the day, so please get in touch with me if you have books to donate. We have sufficient cookery and coffee table books for this sale.  I know you won't mind me saying that books must be in a good saleable condition.

Our fabulous cake team has their mixing bowls at the ready and we are hoping to put them back in the main hall this time so you can better see the delicious choices on offer.  We will not be able to offer lunches but can highly recommend Nina's tasty samosas if you fancy something savoury.

I really do hope that you all feel safe enough to come - hopefully many of us will be vaccinated by then !  We really appreciate your support, at the moment bills are being paid  out of personal savings, which is fine, my choice to keep the unadopted dogs, so I assume, but 600 euros vet fees over the last couple of months is a bit of a choker apart from other expenses.

We do our best to make it a pleasurable outing for all you avid readers and, judging from feedback, we succeed, so your Book Team looks forward to welcoming you all again in April.

Love,

Sue x

Poorpaws

Beware those caterpillars

Hi Val

For all dog walkers, be careful because the processionary caterpillars are about a little early.

Tony

Relaxing game boules

Today I had my first day at leisure for 5 years, playing boules again.

Malc set up this group soon after we arrived probably around 2004

Today now I have retired from Mains Tendues I played boules again.

It was my first afternoon of leisure for 5 years and by gum I enjoyed it. It brought me closer to Malc who had he been alive would have been there with us on our 55 th wedding anniversary. 

This was 2011

For many years now a dedicated group of boulistes, mainly Brits but with regular assistance of some French, occasional Dutch players and often supplemented by summer visitors, have met on Friday afternoon to indulge in this most French of pastimes.

 Numbers vary from 10 to 20+, all ages, both men and women, plus many children in the holidays. In order to achieve some fairness in the teams players are generally seeded into “tireurs” (those who think they can knock out opponents’ boules) and “pointers” (the rest). Teams are always drawn at random to try and give some semblance of equal opportunities.

The game is usually played in either “doublettes” – teams of two players using 3 boules each - or “triplettes” – teams of three players using 2 boules each. Given the unknown number of people attending on any Friday we don’t usually know until we start how many doublettes and/or triplettes we will have. But we usually manage to sort something out.

We usually play 2 or three games, “parties”, up to 13 points. The afternoons last about 2 hours.

In summer the matches are at the Verfeil boulodrome, but in winter we find Varen is less likely to be cold as the sun remains on the “terrain” much longer.

All the matches are played in a serious but friendly spirit and the regulars would welcome any newcomers and will willingly help explain the rules and the tactics. You don’t need to become a regular; come as often or a little as you wish. Some of us have even become familiar on the French circuit of “amicales” – occasionally the very proud winners of a few euros! It’s a pastime or a passion, as you wish.

From Friday 4th November we will be meeting at Varen on the boules terrain by the little Vival supermarket, rain always permitting. So if you would like to come and play or just find out more we would love to see you.

For more details ring Malcolm 0563 64 06 73 or email taglines82@gmail.com — with Deborah Eagle and Neil Ford.

Expo in St.Antonin