When one looks at my tradition-strewn yearly engagement plans, one could rapidly get the impression that I be (as chippie says) a religious one- arr! I hasten to set the record straight. The opposite is the case, but certain things have, unfortunately, been an obligation to adopt. After all, why not eat fish on a Friday? One should eat it more often anyway, but at least once a week is better than nonce a week. (In view of the price of fish now, anyway, once a week is princely or even royal!)On top of that, because the Catholics took it upon them to eat fish on Fridays, this meant that basically the fish which one could buy was fresher on the Thurs/Friday than on other days, and indeed the choice was greater on these two days as well. Often the prices are screwed downwards for a change (not by much - but every little helps)as well, so - FRESHER FISH, IN GREATER VARIETY,AT A CHEAPER PRICE(sometimes), but only on a Thursday or Friday. You would have to be stupid not to take the opportu

Just so you know I'm still awake, alive, and generally in good form, here is a little gem of general information picked up somewher recently. When the space race started way back in time, the Americans sent up people who had occasion to write down notes on a pad. Much money was spent on counter-effecting the effects of non-gravity, but they forget that the ink in a ball-point pen would be affected also. Result? The pens didn't work! On return to the ground, millions of $ were spent apparantly on research into this problem. Now we can all buy the results of these researches. The poor old Russians didn't have the money to do all this, but neede to take notes as well. What did they do? THEY USED A PENCIL!!!!! Sometimes in a modern, technological world, it is best to start in the past and do things simply!

from mr le Marquis and from his mascots PART ONE - PART TWO IN DECEMBER Here in France there is a strict routine which accompanies every night of the 24/25th December, has done for centuries, and although everybody hates it, nobody can screw up enough courage to change it. This is a little description of it. Noel in France: (IF THE SMILEYS AND LITTLE PICTURES HAVEN'T COME UP-SORRY-TRY LOOKING IN NEW COMMENTS (OR MAKE A COMMENT ON THIS MESSAGE - SEE POST COMMENT FIELD ) with lots of and stuff. It all starts weeks before the actual date. Lists are drawn up with names of people you want to invite, people who are going to turn up anyway, people who you don't want to invite but must (therefore you leave the invitation to the day before, hoping they will refuse, having made other

As you can all see from the above title, I have finished a lovely meal, appropriately accompanied with the necessary liquids. Actually, it is very simple. As I was calmly eating, a couple of adverts on the TV screen attracted my attention, and set my mind to wandering even more than normally. Did you know, for example, that here in France, you will NEVER see white hen's eggs on sale in shops? Might be racist, but they don't exist! All hen eggs are more or less brown. When a French person sees white eggs in a shop or a market stall, abroad, he takes it for granted that these are either Duck or Goose eggs! Strange isn't it? White eggs do, I think, exist, but are onlysold/traded with inside of certain sales associations, like dry soup/sauce producers, who only want the egg yolk anyway, or within the patisserie trade, where a lower quality/lower priced egg is required for sponge mixes/quiche mixtures/meringue preparations etc. Now you know - don't look for white eggs on

La reine du chateau. (The queen of the castle) 

Granite de l'oasis (la chatte de mr le marquis 

As my mate "chippie" said to me "You are getting me into trouble with her-indoors" (and that after bathnight too) I knew the time had come to change the Marquis. On top of that, I think I understand a little bit more of what is going on (very famous last words), but it's a hell of a lot of work. Lost are all my reminiscing on Beaujolais Nouveau, that wonderful fish called Bonite (a small tuna) my hysterically funny letters about blogg and bluggers(!) and all the rest. Gone too are all those photos I never wanted to post on the site, and certainly not in double! Sponge-over, and let me try again. If the same thing happens, I will no longer be a Google fan! Incidentally, have a look at the other blogspot which seems (for the moment) to work correctly. It's URL is: http://vauvertvillage.blogspot.com and has some nice photos of a Southern French Village (if you live in cold,damp climes, the sunshine in the photos will warm you up!

home of Mr le Marquis 

Home of Mr le Marquis

My goodness me, it looks like at least 1 message and two photos got through (even if the photo titles are misleading!). If this one gets through as well, I'm off to watch the Champions league football, and I have done my duty towards Chippie and Sugar-plum!