sdale100

I'm not so surprised by the fact that someone got held up, especially in Marseille. The most surprising part is how she managed to sell several hundred euro's worth...

onlyonebrenda

Glad I'm not in Marseille. I picked muguet from the garden for my neighbours and friends. It seemed to come into flower right on call. In fact I had a bit of a gardening day. The village square at Jumilhac, opposite the magnificent chateau, was taken over by a gardening fair which included a plant exchange run by the local gardening club. I took along some tree saplings, strawberry and violet plants, all of which grow in great profusion here. In exchange I got some useful plants. The rain kept off and there was even a rare sighting of sunshine, however, when I went to plant everything yesterday the sun was blistering hot. What a difference. I'd forgotten what it was like. The river is still very high and the ground sodden.
Anyway a rather belated happy May Day to everyone.

treskillard

met a muguet seller yesterday who had made 1000 euros on mayday!
home grown (muguet that is...) and roses too.

Collioure_Bee

Scuse my ignorance, but what is muguet?

treskillard

Lily of the Valley

onlyonebrenda

Ooer! I could have done with that. Next year maybe.
Came across an interesting little editorial in a French gardening magazine. May is sung about as being a jolly month in French and English and there's certainly a lot in the way of fêtes going on this month. For our ancestors, however, it was probably not so jolly, more of a month of transition when the reserves from the last harvest were more or less used up and the next harvest a long way off. Moreover fragile buds would be at the mercy of a spell of early heat, a hailstorm or a frost. The famous ice saints - the saints of hail, frosts and breakers of buds, alias Mamert, Pancrace et Servais, feted on the 11th,12th and 13th May, could well announce the 'neige de coucou', the 'cuckoo snow' which falls in May. So in May fecundity and germination are all in the balance and throwing into question survival for the year to come. May's ambivalent nature concentrated a number of processions, rites and rituals intended to fête the return of nature and to distance famine and blight.
Well, writing that has kept me from mowing the lawn a little bit longer. My lawn is certainly fecund - with violets, wild arum, a couple of docks and thistles, forget-me nots, lady's mantle, the dreaded buttercups, daisies and pis en lit, ragged robin, bird's foot trefoil and goodness knows what else. Overnight I've had to go into my summertime schedule because of the heat, rise early, siesta and work late.
By the way do you think we have been a little lacking in our respectful salutations to St Pancras? Is that why the Eurostar trains are behind on time at present? Or did the earliest railway builders already have excuse no 39 'the leaves on the track...' in mind when they picked the Patron Saint of Ice and Frost as the name for a major rail terminal?

dmu

Don't you have a Dictionary down in Collioure?

dmu

Knew about les "Saints de glace" and it's not just an old wives' tale that it can suddenly turn cold on those days. After the "Pont du 1er Mai", did you know that this coming Thursday is also a public holiday (World War II Armistice) giving the possibility of an "viaduct" with Whit Monday tagged on to Whit Sunday (it was abandoned for a couple of years but has been reinstated). No wonder May is a catastrophic month for the French Economy.... (and it's only by a quirk of the calendar that Ascension Thursday didn't make a fourth public holiday in May this year).

Collioure_Bee

Yeah also have case of the too lazies to look it up LOL. Just seen it's on the desk by the computer screen too!

onlyonebrenda

Apparently today is Liberation Day in Holland whereas in France it is held on the 8th. If you go down to your mairie/local war memorial in the morning there will no doubt be a little ceremony followed by a 'vin d'honneur'. The French appreciate us making the effort to pay our respects on these occasions.

onlyonebrenda

You mean you haven't downloaded a free computer version?? Actually I have a 5cm thick Oxford Hachette sitting by my desk. I guess we could get quite competitive over who has the biggest dictionary here. I'm just a wordoholic.

Collioure_Bee

Can't take my computer up the shop and make everybody wait as I look up every word I want to use and then form the sentance. It's funny how many people can suddenly speak English to hurry you through

onlyonebrenda

You're a smart one! Mind you, I've ne'ver heard of French shopkeepers hurrying.

Collioure_Bee

No, isn't that lovely too brenda? My dad came over visiting and was moaning because the lady in Auchan was talking to the customer without a care. Told him to shut up, he's the first to moan about the UK being all go.

Talking of easy going, was on a bus in Herculanium and the driver just blocked the road off as he got out and went and got some shopping. The other drivers just tooted horns. Can you imagine that in England?

onlyonebrenda

At least you know when it gets to your turn they will be just as relaxed and obliging.