Shop found in Leeds!

July 21, 2010

tags: Currencies Direct, Living In France, Moving To France, Otley, Sunny France, The Junction, Valbonne

After a long search we found the shop in Leeds. We were able to get some ferret food, some pigeon pellets and some tripe, all top quality market produce. They had a whippet for sale, but it looked a bit thin to me, I was tempted to buy it to feed it up a bit until it was pointed out that they are all that thin.

I thought the gin traps looked a bit fierce, and of course a gin trap in Valbonne has a very different meaning but can have equally fearsome results. In France a gin trap is when you happen to be at someone house at around 6pm, gin and tonic o clock, and one has little choice but to imbibe.

As far as I am able to ascertain, In Yorkshire a gin trap is designed to snare young animals which are then eaten. Both traps are just as difficult to spring however.

Fish n chips, which passes for gourmet food in Yorkshire, were (was?) taken at the Bracken Fox at Scarcroft and for lunch was quite decent, then siesta time before a trip to Otley to witness some Yorkshire music in the evening, where we meet Toby and Emma. Emma is a doctor so I ask her how her missionary work in these northern wastes is progressing.

Names like Scarcroft, Thorner, Louth and Grimsby seem to have a special place in the hearts of the locals. Who was it that woke up one morning a decided “I know, let’s call this place Grimsby”?

Grim, scars, thorns, louts? I understand the alliterations having visited some of them, whereas in the comparatively barmy south you have towns named after nice things, like Brighton, Dover and Ramsgate (that one was especially for our resident sheep lover Steve Weston -see blogs passim, ad nauseum), so bright, and dove being the genus to towns names in the south seems to tell a story….

The music impedes conversation to we adjourn
To the Rose and Crown in Otley where quiz night commences as we arrive, so second place was a good result, given our lack of preparation.

We were lucky to get there given the cloud bursts which meant we had several unmarked fords to cross and several diversions due to flooding.

Today I will play golf and collect my £10 from Dave Wurr. I know that removal of this amount of hard cash to turn into euros from the local economy will be a blow,He has not revealed the course where the contest will take place, but my picture today of what I believe to be a local course show the kind of challenge I can expect.

A typical golf course in Yorkshire, I imagine

I am beginning to allow myself to consider the delicious possibility of returning to the sunshine in France soon. The hardest part of the drudgery (actually Drudgery sounds like a good name for a northern town – whoever makes up the names, please note) is nearing an end, Tomorrow sees us back in the civilised south and, dare I say it?, the prospect of a pint or two of London Pride.

Oxford and Henley beckon but at least the weather forecasters have given up with the hype, rain is now forecast for every day we will be in England, it having rained at some stage on us every day since July 3rd when we arrived. But I will not be downcast, not with the prospect of sunshine soon in sunny Valbonne

Chris France

buying a house in France, moving money? www.currenciesdirect.net/chrisfrance

Latest local news? http://www.fr2day.com/

Best Estate Agency in Valbonne? http://www.rivierarealty.net/

Best French Riviera Property Agent?

http://www.afa-international.com/

http://frenchriviera-properties.com/

rent my house in summer? http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p412514

Best on line resource in Valbonne? http://www.valbonneonline.com/

Secret supper club http://www.red-radish.com/

Wedding reception? http://www.bastidestmathieu.com/

Valbonne Tourist Office http://www.tourisme-valbonne.com