Carol Singing, why just Carol?

Singing carols in church makes one as religious as standing in a garage makes one a car, according to one of my readers. Whilst I agree with his sentiment and I know little of religion, he has a strong religious affiliation and is very circumspect (or something like that if you get my drift) but I feel sure that his protestant hindu rabbi will have something to say to him about atonement at his next confessional.

Carol singing will take place again this evening at Valbonne Church with the Riviera International Singers, although why Carol should get so much attention is beyond me. Why is it called carol singing? Why not Daphne singing or Esmeralda Singing? What’s so special about Carol?

For a time, until I discovered my mistake, yesterdays photo was, rather than the chocolatier photo, a picture of my beloved Valmasque forest and specifically the Brague river. Most mornings I can be found there, walking the family dogs, that lovely old family retainer the springer spaniel Max, and the dreadful diabolically deranged dog Banjo. However the weather has not been at its best over the last few days, so walking has been off the agenda. That means that the catastrophic cocker has even more malevolent energy than is normally the case and has taken to barking at the lawnmower. Barking indeed.

But now that the weather has recovered and is its normal sunny benign self, we have been considering dashing up to the slopes for a spot of skiing, and if tomorrow dawns clear and sunny then we may drop everything and head up the mountains for the day.

Yesterday at the last moment, that nice lady decorator decided that she wanted to lunch at Lou Fassum in Plascassier, possibly my favorite restaurant in the area. It has great views as the picture below shows, it was taken from my luncheon seat and shows the Mediterranean glistening in the distance. The food at this Michelin Star establishment is as you would expect, top class. An amuse buche (it’s the way I tell them) followed by monkfish on a bed of mushroom risotto and a pear Melba to die for plus a large glass of wine for 22 Euros a mere £18.50 at todays exchange rates, a weekday bargain.

The south of France in winter at its best

Church this morning at Cafe Latin will be poorer for the absence of Neil “I’m free” Humphreys who will be manning the till at his delicious wife Helen’s exhibition of her wonderful living paintings in the village. Neil seems to have decided to forgo searching for work in order to live off the immortal earnings of his wife, who’s creations are proving very popular.  To some this may be viewed as pimping but I could not possibly comment. I have heard it said that he is so taken by his wife’s success as an artist and determined to emulate her achievements, he has taken delivery of a package of something called “painting by numbers”, but I suspect this to be a fabrication as arithmetic has never been his strong suit.

I have scanner nowadays, which, when it operates is a very useful tool for my busy business empire, however it is a bit like the french and refuses to work from time to time for no apparent reason, thus I have decided to employ a new technique of which I have recently been made aware. Percussive Maintenance is the art of beating the crap out of an electrical item to try to get it to work again. Maybe it should be employed on those French?

Chris France

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