So this evening we went to the next village, St Thomas de Conac, to attend a Nuits Romanes. Now St Thomas could best be described not as a 'one horse' town but a 'one dog' village. The acts consisted of two excellent gymnasts performing amazing acrobatics for an hour, they were stunning. This was followed by an male jazz combo consisting of a double base, two acoustic guitars and a violin (which is what had attracted me to attend). They played music from Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli. They were excellent, absolutely amazing. It often amazes me how good some of the bands in France can be when playing at such lowly venues.

During the break between the gymnasts act and the music we decided to return to the Paj to get our own fold up chairs and some beers. En route we passed a bar, so we nipped in for a quick one. The bar was run by a Brit, best described as a standing 'corpse' who mumbled away to Brit customers whilst slowly pouring beers. It became apparent that the assembled in the bar were all Brits and of the 'living dead' brigade. We waited for 5 minutes for service which never transpired whilst eaves dropping the conversations, Brits chatting about............. eeerrr...........nothing. My wife glanced at me and said something along the lines of "I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than wait here amongst this lot for service" so we left to continue on our way to collect our chairs and our own chilled beers from the Paj...........bottles of Becks and Buds
We then returned to listen to the music.

These events must be funded by the commune during the 'saison vacances' for the tourists and as an opportunity for the local businesses to sell their wines, spirits and of course, food. No event here would be complete without 'beaucoup de nourritures' whether you've already eaten or not being it was 21.00 before it all kicked off and was an opportunity to 'gorge some more'.

Whilst sitting listening an ageing overweight Brit woman we had seen in the bar 'tottered' by carrying an open bottle of wine and she looked slightly the worse for wear having consumed a 'drop' too much. One could best describe her as p!ssed and overdressed sporting glitzy clothes and staggering along on high, gold colored, wedge shoes. Embarrassing to watch a fellow Brit like that inebriated and over dressed inappropriately like an overweight ageing hooker. We saw some other eye watering sights there as well.

Earlier today I was reading a financial journal which contained some odd facts about France. Brits install or own more swimming pools per capita than the French, about 78% more. (it's most Brits dream to own a swimming pool even if the house is crumbling around them 'cos they never could have afforded one in the UK) Although I'd previously done my own calcs, it confirmed that the average use one gets from a home swimming pool in France is less than 10% of the available time assuming that's 168 hours per week. The average installation cost of a pool complete is €20,000 plus €4,000 per annum for heating and maintenance if that is paid for on contract.

The French spend nearly 65% of their disposable income on food and wine whether at home or in a restaurant.

https://nuitsromanes.poitou-charente...-Saint-Thomas2

This is getting so boring so I'll not bore you with more rubbish about France.