Newsletter from an Olympian in France

Bonjour

I hope that you and yours are well.

Here in France the Olympic Games are the talk of the village. Not the official games in Paris and cities across the Hexagon as the French call France (it is sort of hexagon-shaped). But the Olympic Games in a village in the middle of nowhere, rural northern France. And not just any old games either.

The story started several years ago when it was first announced that Paris and France would host The Games. It began in our local bar when old Monsieur Lafont suggested that he thought Monique the barmaid might be a contender in the ice-skating rink, since he’d seen her slide on a patch of ice outside the boulangerie and manage to both stay up as she wibbled and wobbled all over the place – and keep hold of her yappy dog (whom everyone detests but Monique adores), and her baguette. This led to everyone in the bar considering what skills we locals could bring to the main event if asked. Sadly we had to conclude that unless eating cheese or doing animal noise impressions were on the list, we probably didn’t have any contenders for the official games. But then Mark, my other half, suggested boules.

Now this is a bit of a sore point here since boules or pétanque as it is more commonly called, was rejected as an Olympic sport by the Games Committee – which just about every single French person thinks is very wrong.

Well – Mark got a round of applause for this suggestion. And it wasn’t forgotten. The Grand Boules Olympics of No-one’s Ever Heard of It, the Seven Valleys, France commences this evening on the village green. I would like to say it’s been a fever pitch lead-up to the event but that would be somewhat of an exaggeration. It’s been more a slow roll, much like my hopefully winning technique, with rather more excitement around the fact that we will all be taking something to eat and drink.

I will let you know how it goes but for me, I already feel like a winner just being here.

Bisous from a rather bonkers little village in France,

Read the whole newsletter and see this week’s top features and recipe picks

Janine
Editor

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.

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