The Bugle Dordogne - Apr 2018

1,200 adverts removed from Dordogne towns In response to a 2015 law, the Dordogne has been gradually removing advertising boards from the outskirts of towns

>> Page 3

November 2016 - Issue #85

Dordogne

Your local newspaper for life in France

April 2018 - Issue 58 - FREE!

Expat rights agreed in transition deal British passports to be made in France - page 9

Britain and the EU have agreed a Brexit transition deal that will guarantee certain rights for expats arriving in France by 31st December 2020.

in France will retain their current rights until at least 31st December 2020, as will any British citizens that move to France before that date. The same reciprocal rights will also be guaranteed to EU nationals settling in the UK. The concession will be seen as a major climbdown by Theresa May, who had previously said EU nationals moving to the UK after March 2019 should not expect to be granted full citizens’ rights. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leading backbench Tory Brexiteer, has previously said that such a deal would be “unconscionable”.

During this transitional period, the UK will

>> continued on page 6

Mechanical doping first in the Dordogne - pg 4

Deal finally ends Camembert war - pg 10

A bilingual look at Eurovision - pg 14

The Bugle Business Directory - pg 15-17

© Richard Bartz (WikiCommons)

I

n a breakthrough moment for Brexit negotiations, David Davis and Michel Barnier have announced that the two sides have agreed on a “large part” of the agreement that will lead to the “orderly withdrawal” of the UK from the EU. Brexit Secretary Mr Davis said the transition agreement, which is conditional on both sides agreeing a final withdrawal treaty, would smooth the path to a future permanent relationship. Mr Barnier said the legal text marked a “decisive step”, but added that it was “not the end of the road”.

The new 21-month transition period means that British expats living

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Welcome to

The Bugle

T

his month, I have been thinking a lot about time. Not having enough time, finding “quality” time, the passage of time (another candle was added to the cake!) and daylight saving time changes.

I crept even further past the statistical halfway point of my life in March and a small party we had one Saturday night brought home that I’m not as young as I once was. We had some friends over for a bit of an apéro and a bite to eat. I am long enough in the tooth now to realise that this does not mean a quick apéro and a bite to eat, but rather a food-filled evening lasting until the wee small hours and providing a good workout for the corkscrew.

It just so happened that this was the evening that the clocks went forward, so by the time we finally hit the hay and added on an hour to our bedside alarm clocks, it was much nearer breakfast than midnight! You’d think that all things are relative and a 3-yearold will just wake up around the same time he always does,

i.e. one hour “later” than the morning before. But no, although he still can’t string a sentence together, my son is familiar with the writings of Machiavelli, and he still woke up at 7 on the dot. How do they do it??!!

Suffice it to say, in my younger days a quick shower and a bacon sandwich would have seen me right as rain, but these days my powers of recovery are sadly diminished and that Sunday was a struggle.

Also on the topic of time, I saw a curious article this month which shows how tiny changes can have significant effects on our perception of time.

Apparently, since January, all of our electronic clocks have been gradually losing time because of a dispute between Kosovo and Serbia of all things! The fracas has resulted in the frequency of much of Europe’s electricity network being reduced from 50 Hz to 49.996 Hz. “So what?” I hear you say, but all the electronic devices in your house (which aren’t connected to the internet) use this frequency to calculate the passing of time.

www.chateau-lestevenie.com 06 48 62 23 73 Given how much we rely on the clocks in our homes, the days have literally been getting longer. Before we all changed our clocks at the end of March, many of our devices will have lost 6 minutes since the start of the year. Enough to miss the school bus, or the start of your favourite soap!!

In actual fact, there is little chance of being late for anything in our house at the moment. My eldest daughter has that innate grasp of technology that only those born in this millennium posses and is a whizz at setting even the trickiest of clocks in our house.

I taught her a while back that if you set your watch a couple of minutes fast, it helps with not being late. We always cut it to the nearest second to catch the school bus in the mornings, and those extra couple of minutes in hand are often the difference between a lazy start to the day and me having to do a 30-minute round trip to three different schools!

Unfortunately, whist she is adept at technology, she is not so at home with subtlety. In her mind, if setting your clock 2 minutes fast helps a bit, then 20 minutes fast helps a lot. One hour, and you’ll never be late again!

The result is that our house effectively has time zones.

“Right, so the oven says 9:46, which means the clock in the bedroom will say 8:46. That one is only 10 minutes fast,

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which means... the bus left 6 minutes ago... KIDS!!!!!”

I can hear what your’e thinking, just reset the clock on the oven, no? Unfortunately, the only way I currently know how to do that is to turn it off at the fuse box and set it again from the flashing zeros. Once it’s been set, the time might as well be chiseled in granite, I haven’t got a clue how to change it and I’ve tried everything. She knows though... she knows!!!!

And is she sharing? Not a chance! No sooner are we back to something approaching European time, she wanders past, waves a few digits and the oven would be more at home in a Kyrgyzstani kitchen!!

Oh well... tempus fugit and it’ll only be another 9 years or so until she moves out !!

Until next month!

Steve Martindale, Editor

CONTACT us Tel: 05.55.41.17.76

General: editor@thebugle.eu Advertising (EN): sales24@thebugle.eu Publicité (FR): publicite@thebugle.eu Subscriptions: subscriptions24@thebugle.eu Write to: The Bugle Les Quatre Chemins 23150 St-Yrieix-les-Bois

INSIDE this edition 3-5 Local News 6-11 National News 12-14 French Life 15-17 Directory 18 Community 19-20 What’s On

Copy deadline for advertising and content:

15th April for May’s print edition

LOCAL NEWS ♦ 3

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

Advertising hoardings removed Big Bird

controversy

T

hey have long been one of the biggest frustrations to locals and tourists alike, but the fight back has begun against the small army of advertising hoardings that line the entrance to so many towns across France. Many of these hoardings are illegal, but little has been done over the years to halt their progress.

An environmental law was finally passed in 2015 which banned outdoor advertising in towns of fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, limited their size from 12m2 to 4m2 and banned painted advertising on the walls of buildings. The only outdoor advertising signs permitted are those promoting cultural and tourist activities, historic monuments and local products. Businesses that flout the law face fines of over €200 per day for every day the sign remains in place after a removal notice has been issued.

When the Grenelle 2 environment law came into effect in July 2015, the government estimated that there were around 600,000 illegal signs, although the campaign group Paysages de France put the number of infringements at over 1 million.

The quandary faced by local may-

A

ors is that they do not want tourists to bypass their towns and that, even though the hoardings are an eyesore, they also work and pull people in to smaller villages that are already struggling to maintain their independent businesses. Others are reluctant to act due to the money that can be raised from a discretionary tax they are able to impose on outside advertising - la taxe locale sur la publicité extérieure (TLPE).

The Dordogne department has

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been one area of France that has cracked down on these adverts, however, and it was recently revealed by the prefecture that a total of 1,200 have been removed in the last two-and-a-half years.

In an effort to appease local businesses, the prefecture is working on a scheme in which communes will install approved fixed panels allowing businesses to remove their existing hoardings and advertise on those instead. ■

new funfair attraction in the Dordogne has become most unattractive, according to local dignitaries. The Big Bird adventure climbing structure, opened in May 2017 at the Univerland site in Le Bugue, has turned into a cuckoo, says the town council and must find another nest.

The giant five-storey construction is a self-contained high-ropes course of the type usually found in woods and forests across the department, only this one is situated alongside the Aquarium in a built-up part of Le Bugue. Already attracting complaints from locals, owner Fabrice Durand Allizé added an extra storey to the structure, despite having the planning permission denied by the local town hall.

In retaliation, the local mayor, Jean Montoriol, sent in the bailiffs to demand its disassembly by the end of the March. Furthermore, the town also insisted on the removal of a separate part of the attraction and removed 80 parking places that they had set aside for its visitors.

Protests from local residents have included its 16-metre height, its skeletal design and the noise, with some claiming it damages the medieval ambiance of this riverside town. The mayor also cited Big Bird’s negative impact on the town’s application for Grand Site classification.

Mr Allizé is adamant that the structure breaks no agreements, and has said he does not understand the decision, which comes on the eve of the tourist season and after a €950,000 investment on his part. ■

by Brian Hinchcliffe

4 ♦ LOCAL NEWS

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

French mechanical doping first

New transport hub for Périgueux

A

Dordogne cyclist has been the first in France to be found guilty of mechanical doping during the category three Grand Prix de Saint-Michel-de-Double race last October. The amateur cyclist, 43-year-old Cyril Fontayne, was stopped at the finishing line of the race north-east of Mussidan, after suspicions were raised the previous week at a race at Les Eyzies where he had “suddenly shown amazing speed on the climbs”. On inspection, a motor was found in the frame of the bike and a battery in the water bottle.

During the race at Saint-Michel-deDouble, Fontayne and another younger racer were well ahead of the peloton before he was forced to stop with a puncture.

The Dordogne case is the first time a “mechanical cheat” has faced court action and only the second time a rider has been caught - the other was in Belgium - but the case has raised doubts about the scale of this kind of cheating.

After he was caught during the race, Fontayne told France Bleu Périgord radio that he “didn’t do it for money” and “didn’t want to be champion of Dordogne”, he just wanted to “feel the sensation again” after having a herniated lumbar disc earlier in 2017 and not being able to race.

Fontayne had won several bonuses while racing with the bike and was found guilty of fraud by the Périgueux court.

He was ordered to pay a symbolic €1 to the French Cycling Federation (FFC) and

€33 to a bike club in Créon, Gironde, where he had also raced.

Cycling has long had a problem with doping and has been working hard to restore its tarnished reputation. The image problem is all the more galling for the French, for whom cycling is one of the biggest sports in the country. Successful French cyclists enjoy huge fame, but the pressure to succeed has led some to find ever-ingenious ways to cheat.

My fear is that this type of cheating will be widespread in amateur cycling, because the technology has become easily accessible and we do not have the same monitoring resources as the professional organisations,” said Michel Callot, head of the FFC. “I have alerted the minister for sport and the UCI [International Cycling Union] so that we can equip our regions with detection methods. I am afraid for the future of amateur cycling.”

Fontayne claimed when caught that the

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site where he bought the motor sold “20 to 30 a month”.

Motorised bikes are available to the public and designed to encourage people to take up cycling, although it costs thousands of pounds to buy a basic model.

Riders still have to pedal them, but they can also get assistance from a batterypowered engine. “It isn’t a scooter, you need to work hard yourself,” explained Harry Gibbings, chief executive of Typhoon, a company that builds these kind of bikes. “You have to cycle and then you push a button. The silent motor is engaged and, to the person on the bike, it feels like someone is giving them a push.”

The UCI recently announced that, from 2018, X-ray machines will be used at Grand Tour stages and Classic races to prevent riders hiding motors in their bikes. Anyone found guilty of a breach will face a minimum ban of six months, plus a fine of up to €170,000. ■

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Plans are now in place for a major public transport hub in the capital of the Dordogne, Périgueux. Since 2010, feasibility studies and consultations with local residents and businesses have been shaping ideas to regenerate the area around the railway station. The outcome is designed to be a real, positive asset to the city rather than a simple tidy up.

Centred around the south side of the SNCF station, the plans call primarily for a bus interchange to facilitate commuters and visitors.

Public transport in the Périgord has not enjoyed a good reputation in the past. In July 2017, The Telegraph was particularly scathing about public transport access contrasted with the unrivalled attractions of the city and the wider department.

The project is to create a PEM (pôle d’échanges mutimodal) to transform the area behind the station, around the old Sernam goods yard area, to upgrade dwellings and to create attractive pedestrian areas. Additionally, in order to develop the city’s unquestioned strength in food, drink, restaurants and hospitality, the plan envisages a gastronomy centre behind the station based around existing businesses and the former tobacco warehouses. Also included is an upgrade of the stadium and sports centre close by.

Local residents, visitors and rail travellers have been keen participants in helping to define what the area needs.

Close attention is also being paid to sustainability, energy efficiency and low-carbon solutions in this imaginative scheme and SNCF have pledged to prioritise improvements to rail services to and from Périgueux. The city’s new PEM is projected to open in January 2019. ■

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LOCAL NEWS ♦ 5

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

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A major tourist spot in the Dordogne has lost a culinary star following the departure of a highly acclaimed chef.

Loïc Lecoin, who earned his first Michelin star at the Moulin de l’Abbé restaurant in Brantôme, is leaving after six years in the kitchen this April to take up a new position at a celebrated château in the Charente.

Loïc is joining the Dyades restaurant at the Domaine des Étangs in Massignac to take over from the

T

ourists and residents are set to get a boon of free Wi-Fi around the department. The tourist office in Nontron has just announced the completion of its coverage in the north of the Dordogne, begun in 2017.

Access is through a network of outdoor stations, or “hot spots” marked by the distinctive blue sign.

The service is free and secure.

Natacha Goreau of the tourist

office in the château on Nontron’s main street, is encouraging users to log on wherever they see the sign: “All you need to do when you are in range is enter your email address, and you are connected. Click and surf!”

The network is WIFI_PERIGORD_VERT and can be joined at any of the 19 Wi-Fi stations.

For information about the hotspot provider go to: wifi.2isr.fr ■

by Brian Hinchcliffe

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previous incumbent, Fabien Beaufour, who left this 5-star château in December.

Chef Lecoin (37), originally from the Auvergne, first learned his trade under the starred chef LouisBernard Puech in Aurillac, followed by stints in a number of other Michelin-starred restaurants, before arriving in Brantôme in 2012. ■

by Brian Hinchcliffe

Channel 4’s aspirational hit series ‘A New Life in the Sun’ is coming back for a fourth series and is looking for more people who would like to appear on the show.

They would like to hear from Brits who are heading to France or Spain this summer to start a new life and business.

If you would like to appear on A New Life in the Sun and are either about to open or searching for your new business, getting ready to experience your first summer season or taking on a new challenge within an existing business, all you need to do is email the production team at anewlifeinthesun@truenorth.tv with your contact details and they will get in touch with you. ■

6 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

>> continued from pg 1 have to abide by all existing EU rules but will lose its say in the decision-making process, something that has angered many Brexiteers. The most vocal response so far has come from the fishing industry who are incensed that they must abide by the Common Fisheries Policy for a further two years. Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted that the agreement for fishing during the implementation period was “shaping up to be a massive sell-out of the Scottish fishing industry by the Tories.

The promises that were made to them during #EUref and since are already being broken - as many of us warned they would be”.

Bertie Armstrong, chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation, said the agreement fell “far short of an acceptable deal”. “We will leave the EU and leave the Common Fisheries Policy, but hand back sovereignty over our seas a few seconds later,” he said. “Our fishing communities’ fortunes will still be subject to the whim and largesse of the EU for another two years.”

The biggest hurdle to a final agreement remains the Irish border. The latest agreement includes the so-called backstop agreement, whereby, “unless and until another solution is found”,

Northern Ireland must remain in full regulatory alignment with the EU. Theresa May had previously suggested this outcome - which is favoured by Dublin - would be unacceptable. Mrs May had insisted that no British prime minister could sign up to a text that included a proposition that could “threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea”.

The only major concession to the UK appears to be the agreement that Britain can negotiate trade deals with non-EU states during the transition period, although they could not come into force until the end of that period.

“As one correspondent said, the government has rolled over without even having its tummy tickled,” said Rees-Mogg, adding that it was “hard to see what points the government has won”.

Expats rights campaigners also expressed concerns about the draft withdrawal deal. Jane Golding, the chair of pressure group British in Europe, said the draft excluded any reference to their continued right to freedom of onward movement to enable cross-border commuting or provision of services in another country. “As things stand, after Brexit, English cheddar will have more free movement rights than we will,” said Golding. ■

© Euseson (WikiCommons)

Britain and the EU agree Brexit transition deal

The key aspects of the agreement: - The transitional period will last from Brexit day on 29 March 2019 to 31 December 2020 - UK citizens arriving in the EU between these two dates will enjoy the same rights and guarantees as those who arrive before Brexit. The same will apply to EU expats moving to the UK - The UK will be able to negotiate, sign and ratify its own trade deals during the transition period - The UK will still be party to existing EU trade deals with other countries - The UK's share of fishing catch will be guaranteed during transition but the UK will effectively remain part of the Common Fisheries Policy, yet without a direct say in its rules, until the end of 2020 - Northern Ireland will effectively stay in parts of the single market and the customs union in the absence of other solutions to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland

NATIONAL NEWS ♦ 7

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

France sets the age of consent at 15

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© Nantilus (WikiCommons)

F

rance is to introduce legislation setting the age of sexual consent at 15. The move was announced by equality minister Marlène Schiappa “after consultations with citizens and an experts’ report” and follows public outrage over two recent high profile cases involving 11-year-old girls. “The law will mean that below a certain age, there can be no debate, ever, on the sexual consent of a child, and that any child below a certain age would automatically be considered as raped or sexually assaulted.”

In one of the recent cases, a 30-year-old man was acquitted after a court determined the 11-year-old in question had not been subjected to “constraint, threat, violence or surprise”. In the other, prosecutors initially decided a 28-year-old man should be tried for molestation but not rape as there was no sign of resistance. However, the same court reversed its decision in February, saying the accused should indeed face rape charges. In December last year, a French school teacher was handed a suspended sentence for sleeping with a 14-year-old pupil.

Under existing legislation, if there is no violence or coercion proved, offenders may only be charged with sexual abuse of a minor and not rape. This has a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of €75,000.

The government promised change although there was believed to be debate over whether the age below which sex with a minor would be considered rape should be set at 13 or 15. The expert panel considered that an adolescent “deserves reinforced protection up until the age of 15 or 16 due to the deep marks triggered by sexual trauma on the functioning of the brain” and lawmakers finally opted for the higher age.

The new law was unveiled by the country's Equality Minister, Marlène Schiappa Psychiatrist Muriel Salmona told AFP that the “image of Lolitas” was still too present in the French collective conscience and that the change would be “a good decision” to protect minors. President Macron was also in favour of the higher limit. “Our criminal law contains intolerable ambiguities,” the president has said previously. He has also been vocal on what he called tolerance of the violence and harassment that French men inflict on women, saying: “Our entire society is sick with sexism.” He did,

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In the UK the age of sexual consent is 16, but children under the age of 13 have additional legal protections that declare they can never consent to sexual activity.

The changes, which were due to be presented to the council of ministers at the end of March, are part of a wider law “against

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sexism and sexual violence”. In the future, men who publicly harass women with wolf whistles or lecherous behaviour risk onthe-spot fines of between €90 and €750.

The statute of limitations for accusations of underage rape will also be raised to 30 years after the victim turns 18, instead of the current 20-year limit. The new laws come as an Ifop poll revealed that one woman in three (32%) had been the victim of some form of sexual harassment in their working lives. ■

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8 ♦ NATIONAL NEWS

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

NATIONAL NEWS ♦ 9

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

I

n an embarrassing turn of events for the British government, it has been revealed that the new British passports to be issued post-Brexit will be manufactured in France. The PR disaster was revealed

by UK firm De La Rue, which produces the current burgundy passports, when it announced that it had lost out to Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto on the £490 million contract.

Speaking to Radio 4’s Today programme, the chief executive of De La Rue, Martin Sutherland, challenged the prime minister or the home secretary to “come to my factory and explain to my dedicated workforce why they think this is a sensible decision to offshore the manufacture of a British icon”.

“I think we have heard over the last few weeks and months ministers more than happy to come on the media and talk about the blue passports and the fact that the blue passport is an icon of British identity,” said the angry executive. “Now this icon of British identity is going to be manufactured in France.”

The company, whose share price fell sharply following the announcement, has said it will appeal the decision, but added that it could not now guarantee that jobs would not be lost at the Gateshead plant that produces the current burgundy versions.

Gemalto, which is listed on the French and Dutch stock exchanges and has a French chief executive, is believed to have undercut British and other rival bidders by £50 million.

Under EU rules, the government could not favour a British company and had to choose the best-value bid, despite calls by MPs for a domestic firm to produce the new documents. Ironically, the government will theoretically

not be bound by this rule post-Brexit.

The British government announced the return of the “traditional” navy blue and gold British passport to much fanfare, hailing it as a symbol of British independence from Europe after Brexit. “It is right that from autumn 2019 we will issue new blue and gold passports, which have always been the UK’s colours of choice for our passports,” Prime Minister Theresa May triumphantly told parliament in February. “It is absolutely right that after we leave the European Union we return to deciding the colour of passports that we want, not that the EU wants.”

The fact that these iconic symbols of British independence will now be printed on the other side of the Channel has not gone down well with Brexiteers. “It seems odd to have a national symbol produced abroad,” observed Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg. The Liberal Democrats' Brexit spokesman, Tom Brake, said: “The blue passport saga is turning into a farce. First it was established that we did not have to leave the EU to have blue passports.

Now we learn that the passports will be printed by a foreign company. And to add insult to injury, we will pay over the odds for them because the value of the pound has fallen since Brexit and they will have to be imported!”

Eloise Todd, of the pro-remain pressure group Best for Britain, said: “The new pro-Brexit blue passports were supposed to be a statement of intent and now we find out they are to be made by the French or the Dutch. The irony is unreal.”

Although best known as the world's largest producer of mobile SIM cards, Gemalto already prints passports for 30 countries, including France. Britain issues more than six million passports annually. ■

Fears grow over measles epidemic There is growing concern that France could be facing a measles epidemic after a huge rise in the number of cases and the death of a French woman who had not been vaccinated.

The current outbreak began in the Bordeaux region last November and since then 913 cases have been registered, said the national health authority (DGS), with more than 500 of them in the last month alone.

Despite being considered by many as a childhood disease, measles can affect people of all ages, causing a skin rash and flu-like symptoms. “The current trend makes us fear an epidemic of considerable importance such as the one we observed in France between 2008 and 2012,” DGS director Jérôme Salomon told reporters. During that outbreak, 24,000 cases were reported.

Experts believe that a 95% vaccination rate is required to eliminate the disease, but many parents have become complacent in recent years, believing that measles is no longer a threat. Consequently, it is thought that only 70-80% of people in Nouvelle-Aquitaine have been vaccinated.

As part of the battle against preventable diseases, France recently made the anti-measles injection one of the eight new vaccinations that became obligatory for all children born since January 1 this year. ■

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W

hen browsing the cheese counter, would you know what makes a Camembert fabriqué en Normandie and at what point it becomes a Camembert de Normandie AOP? The difference, which lies in the quality and provenance of the milk, has resulted in a bitter tenyear legal battle that has finally now come to an end.

The region's small producers have been fighting to protect the rules of their AOP status, which requires the use of unpasteurised milk, 50 per cent of which must come from Normandy cows grazing in Normandy fields. The larger, industrialised producers do not like this restriction and simply use pasteurised milk, brought in to factories in the region, before stamping “Made in Normandy” on the box.

The tactic worked, much to the anger of “traditional” producers, with 60,000 tonnes of “Made in Normandy” Camembert sold each year compared to just 6,000 tonnes of AOP label Normandy Camembert.

After last-ditch talks held recently, the Institut national de l'origine et de la qualité (INAO) - the organisation which regulates French agricultural products decided to relax the AOP rules. Producers have agreed the hugely controversial

step of allowing a cheese made with pasteurised milk instead of lait cru to be called an AOP Normandy Camembert.

The one concession to smaller producers is that 30 per cent of the milk used must come from Normandy cows grazing in the region.

“This agreement will put Normandy cows back in the Normandy meadows,” said Patrice Chassard, chairman of a national cheese authority. The French cheese association, Fromages de Terroirs, disagrees and has claimed the decision marks the “death of AOP” and will see quality “sink inexorably into mediocrity”. “The AOP standard is being relaxed, I would even call it a renunciation of the values of the standard,” president of the association Véronique RichezLerouge told L'Express. “What Lactalis dreamed of in 2006 has been offered on a silver platter: the possibility of manufacturing an industrial Camembert with pasteurised milk within the rules of the AOP. The reality is that we have given the keys of the AOP to Lactalis!”

As one of France's most recognised cheeses, Camembert has also been in the news for other reasons this month. There was outrage across Normandy when a food company in neighbouring Brittany revealed that it had developed a range of grated Camembert. After a six-month

© LAGRIC (WikiCommons)

Deal ends decade-long Camembert fight

study, AB Technologies Alimentaires found a way of sufficiently hardening the typically soft cheese to allow it to be grated. “Today, the range of grated cheese is quite limited,” the company's marketing manager, Françoise Chauvel, told local press. “Emmental, Cantal...

We wanted to offer something else and thought about Camembert.”

Massive wine fraud uncovered

F

rance's anti-fraud body, the DGCCRF, has uncovered a massive wine fraud that saw 66.5 million bottles of low quality plonk illegally sold under the respected Côtes du Rhône AOC label.

48 million litres were affected, including 10,000 litres falsely labelled as Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC. This represents more than 15% of the total production of the Côtes du Rhône region - enough to fill 13 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Although the DGCCRF has not named the business concerned, it confirmed that the CEO was being investigated for “deception and fraud” and had been placed under legal supervision after paying a €1 million bail. The merchant from Vaucluse has also been “banned from operating” his business.

“These controls have a positive effect on the sector by showing that fraud is stopped and punished,” said the director general of the DGCCRF, Virginie Beaumeunier. “It also shows the reliability of the French system.”

This is not the first labelling scandal to hit the country's wine industry. In 2016, wine baron François-Marie Marret was given a two-year prison sentence for blending 800,000 litres of poor quality wine with high-end Saint-Emilions, Lalandede-Pomerols and Listrac-Medocs to sell to major supermarkets under prestigious labels. The case became known as the “moon wine” fraud, so called because the cheap wine was secretly delivered to his cellars in the dead of night.

Back in 2006, legendary Beaujolais winemaker Georges Duboeuf was fined more than €30,000 for blending grapes from different vineyards to disguise the poor quality of certain prized vintages.

The AOC - appellation d'origine contrôlée - is a French term which has been gradually replaced over recent years by the European equivalent, the AOP, or appellation d'origine protégée. Both terms denote official certification which guarantee the geographical provenance, as well as the quality and status of a product. ■

As if that wasn't bad enough, a Canadian version of the creamy cheese was recently voted as the world's best in the Camembert category at the World Championship Cheese Contest. The top placed French Camembert was Isigny SainteMère, which limped in at a lowly 12th place in the competition that it won back in 2010. ■

Frenchman sets Pi record

A French man has smashed the national record for reciting the digits of the number Pi. The achievement came during the recent “Pi Day” celebrations in Sweden, held each year on 14th March... or 3.14 written decimally! Seated on the stage and wearing a blindfold, 32-year-old Sylvain Estadieu recited Pi to 4,681 decimal places without error during a mammoth 90-minute feat of memory.

The Strasbourg native only discovered his talent two years ago when he stumbled across a memory manual. His technique involves breaking the number down into 3-digit sections, to which he assigns an image. He then places the images together to form a story, and by remembering the story, he can work backwards to unveil the numbers.

Despite obliterating the current French record of around 700 decimal places, Sylvain had hoped to get to 10,000, a feat he had achieved several times during training. “I was ready to do 10,000, and I had reached that several times by tapping the digits on my keyboard,” he explained. “But my tongue slipped... I had to translate the digits into Swedish, and I messed up on one number.”

The world record for Pi, held by an Indian man, stands at an unbelievable 70,000 digits. ■

Homeless bankrobber finally caught Next-generation radars

T

he homeless man who stumbled across nearly half a million euros in cash last December has finally been arrested, but there is no sign of the money. The 50-yearold rough sleeper hit the headlines when CCTV footage revealed him scavenging through bins at Charles de Gaulle airport, before leaning against a door which, to his obvious surprise, flew open. He dropped the bag he was carrying, entered the building and reappeared seconds later with two large bags of cash.

Investigators quickly traced the bag the man was originally carrying, but it did not contain anything

to help identify him. “Airport staff are familiar with the man in question,” a source close to the investigation told journalists. “He has been hanging around the area for a while.

There are between fifty and a hundred like him living at the airport, largely by searching the garbage cans of the hotels in the area. But for now, he has not come back.”

With hopes of recovering the money rapidly disappearing, the fugitive was finally tracked down during a routine search of a property in Seine-Saint-Denis in the suburbs of Paris. He was arrested after a simple identity check.

The man admitted that he had

taken the money, but said that he had been kidnapped “somewhere outside Paris” before being beaten and forced to reveal the location of his stash. Refusing to give any details about his attackers, he did confess that he had spent a little of the money and given some to friends.

Investigators will have their work cut out to find the missing cash as the sacks of money were not boobytrapped with indelible ink, as most often are and did not contain a GPS tracker. “It seems the money stolen that day came from a fresh collection and therefore these notes are untraceable,” a police source told Le Parisien. ■

enter testing phase

Over the course of the last few years, the country's speed cameras have gone from a series of unreliable static boxes, to a vast army of mobile, sophisticated, two-way radars able to distinguish between different types of vehicle.

The latest weapon in the battle against delinquent drivers is the Mesta Fusion, a next-generation radar currently being tested in Marseilles. According to the manufacturers, its high resolution camera can monitor 32 vehicles at the same time over eight lanes with an incredibly high degree of accuracy.

This radar also has a touch of Big Brother about it, however, and can also allegedly spot drivers that are too close to the car in front, not wearing a seatbelt, using a phone, jumping red lights or undertaking.

If tests are successful, drivers should be aware that this new generation of radars will be deployed across the country in the not too distant future. ■

NATIONAL NEWS ♦ 11

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The glasses that Tube bosses ban Brexit advert stop you nodding off at the wheel

M

© Ellcie Healthy

any drivers will be familiar with that frightening sensation when you realise that your eyes are starting to go and sleep is threatening to overtake you. In fact, falling asleep at the wheel is the biggest cause of deaths on the motorway network, accounting for a third of all fatalities on the autoroutes. This danger could be a thing of the past, however, thanks to a set of 3D-printed glasses developed by a French start-up.

The tech-enhanced frames, created by Ellcie Healthy, are configured to detect early signs of fatigue or drowsiness in a motorist. They have a gyroscope, an accelerometer, as well as infrared thermal and light sensors, which together can pick up telltale signs such as head dropping, yawning and eye blinking. When any of these signs are detected, red LEDs on the frames will start to flash, or a buzzer will sound. They can also be connected via bluetooth to a smartphone, which will ring or sound a warning when the motorist is in need of a break from driving.

Ellcie Healthy developed the glasses in association with the chain of opticians Optic 2000, which will be selling the frames from this month via their 1,200 stores nationwide.

The cost is expected to be around €250, which does not include the price of any corrective lenses. The lightweight and water resistant frames, made using 3D printing technology, can operate autonomously for around 24 hours before they need to be recharged.

Philippe Peyrard, the founder of the start-up, believes that improving vision will soon become just one of the things people will do with their glasses. “There will be more and more apps for glasses because we wear our glasses all the time, very close to us, and 60 per cent of the adult population wears them,” he told Les Echos business newspaper.

Despite a number of other devices being developed to detect driver drowsiness, such as cameras in the steering wheel and smart seats, Mr Peyrard believes that glasses hold a major advantage. “Contrary to the current detection systems, the glasses are situated very close to the face and will provide much more precise information.” ■

S

ince the UK voted to leave the EU, much has been made of European countries looking to woo big business across the Channel. The latest advertising campaign espousing the benefits of setting up in France is being run by the Normandy Development Agency and urges Brits “to vote with their feet” and leave the UK behind.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign has not been well received by bosses at Transport for London, however, who have banned the adverts from the Tube and bus networks, saying they contained “images or messages that may cause public controversy or sensitivity” adding that the ads “did not fully comply” with advertising guidelines.

The campaign features a mock-up of a fictional newspaper, The Normandy Times, with the headline: “British business owners can now vote with their feet and leave post-Brexit fears behind.”

“If you didn’t vote for Brexit or it’s not right for your business, why not vote with your feet and open

an office, or settle a production unit, in Normandy,” it says. The advert also carries a mock classified ad saying: “Hot entrepreneur wanted... Someone allergic to post-Brexit tariffs, legislation and restrictions preferred.”

Although the transport ban will impede the agency’s ability to reach some London commuters, the adverts are being run in many national newspapers and will also be wrapped on a bus which is heading for a tour of Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Cambridge and London.

Hervé Morin, president of the Normandy region, said he was surprised by such “censorship on the part of the authority in charge of the London metro, in a country which is said to be liberal”. The region is offering tax breaks and help accessing grants of up to €100,000 to British companies that decamp to France.

In 2016, Defacto, which manages Paris’ La Défense business district, ran a similar campaign with the message: “Tired of the fog? Try the frogs!” ■

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Artichokes - the arrival of spring!

by Julia Watson

nce upon a carefree time, I ran away to live in a remote fishing village in the top lefthand side of Greece. It has now become one massive holiday T-shirt emporium, entered through countless different shop fronts selling the same design; but then it was a modest settlement of people who relied upon foraging to supplement what they grew in their gardens to feed themselves.

The year passed in a series of seasonal activities for which the entire village turned out - olive picking in late autumn, with a further harvest in January; meatless Lent broken on Good Friday by feasting in the central square on tripe soup redolent with fresh garlic (I could have done without that dish); the massaging with herbs and oil on Holy Saturday of the lamb sent to the baker on Easter Day for roasting; the communal making of shortbread-like, icing sugar-dredged kourabiedes for Christmas.

You knew spring was on its way because that’s when the villagers would climb the surrounding mountains to gather the new wild herbs and greens for the preparation of arni fricassee, a stew of cheap lamb cuts slowly cooked with ripped up Cos lettuce, wild greens and big bunches of fresh dill, its juices turned into a sharp, thick, egg-and-lemon avgolemono sauce just before serving.

The other alert was the arrival in the local markets of artichokes. These smaller violet-coloured ones could show up as early as March, so when Easter fell later in the year, dishes of artichokes stewed various ways became the harbinger of spring. Such artichokes timed their arrival right - becoming available at the same time as the appearance of the first broad beans.

Together they provided a stew of artichokes, outer skins and chokes removed, halved and slowly simmered in olive oil with slivers of garlic and red onion, baby broad beans, copious amounts of lemon juice, and chopped fresh dill that brushed away the winter cobwebs.

In France, the first artichokes to arrive in the markets are the baby artichokes which generally come from Provence and Languedoc-Roussillon. They are tender enough to be eaten raw in salads, sliced very thinly and dressed immediately in lemon juice and olive oil to prevent them going brown. They’re picked early and sold before the tough choke has had a chance to develop, so may be eaten whole.

Artichauts barigoule is an easy yet celebratory spring dish. For four people, use one or two small petits violets de Provence artichokes per person, 1 or 2 medium shallots per person, peeled and sliced, 200g smoked bacon, 10 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced in two, a pinch of saffron filaments, 150 ml olive oil, the juice of one lemon, a small glass of white wine, salt and pepper to taste.

Chop the smoked bacon into small pieces. Cut the artichoke stems off at the base of the artichoke and slice the artichokes in two vertically, removing any choke with a teaspoon. Peel the artichoke stalks and throw everything into a bowl of water containing the juice of one lemon to prevent them going brown.

In a sauté pan, soften the onions and the ‘lardons’ of smoked bacon in the olive oil. Drain the artichokes and their stems and add them to the pan, along with the garlic, saffron, salt and pepper to taste. Moisten with

a small glass of white wine, cover the pan and simmer gently for half an hour. You may need to add a splash of water during the cooking period to make sure the liquid doesn’t dry out.

You can also bake whole baby artichokes with a little olive oil and the juice of a lemon till they’ve softened, about 20-30 minutes.

Given the people of the south-west are fortunate enough to have access to the black truffles of the Pé-

rigord, it makes a special treat to cook small Artichauts violets à la barigoule with shavings of truffle. This slightly different Provençal dish goes back almost 200 years and, authentically, is made with white, not black, truffle. But why would one quibble over the colour of a truffle? See below for recipe. ■ Julia Watson has been a long-time Food Writer for newspapers and magazines in the US and the UK.

Artichauts violets à la barigoule - Serves 4 8 artichauts violets 2 shallots 2 small carrots 1 clove garlic, peeled 8 cl white wine

6 tbsp olive oil Small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves roughly chopped Salt and pepper to taste

Peel the carrots and chop into small cubes. Finely mince the garlic. Tear any damaged leaves off the artichokes. Slice the heads across so that you have removed the top half of the leaves. Cut the stalks back to 4cms long and peel them.

Add half the olive oil to a small saucepan. Add the shallots, carrots and garlic and sweat them for 1 minute over medium heat. Push the vegetables to the edges of the pan and lay the artichokes in the centre. Drizzle over the remaining oil, season, cover the pan and stew for 5 minutes, then pour over the wine and cover again.

Lower the heat as low as you can and simmer 50 minutes, adding a little water if necessary if the vegetables begin to catch.

Remove them to a warm serving dish. Sprinkle over the chopped parsley and set the artichokes, stems up, on top and drizzle over the cooking juices. If you are using one, shave truffle over all.

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T

Six tips for protecting and growing your wealth - Blevins Franks

oday presents many challenges to preserving your wealth and seeing it grow over time. Alongside economic uncertainty surrounding Brexit, we have endured years of ultra-low interest rates and an ever-changing tax and regulatory landscape. All this makes it harder for investors to achieve returns that are not eroded by inflation and taxation.

At times like this, careful planning plays a particularly important role in securing your financial security over the long term. Here are six key tips that can help.

1. Establish a suitable strategy When it comes to investing, one size definitely does not fit all. What will suit you depends on your specific objectives, time frame and attitude to risk. With an ill-fitting investment portfolio, you could find that your money is not working hard enough or is difficult to access when you need it.

Even worse, it could be eaten away entirely.

It is crucial that your portfolio is created and managed to meet your particular set of circumstances and goals, including your requirement for income. For example, are your

investments tailored for your life in France, where your expenses are mostly in euros, or are they better suited to someone living in the UK? 2. Understand your appetite for risk Before investing, establish the right balance of risk and return for your peace of mind. Different investment assets represent varying levels of risk, from cash and fixed income assets (government and corporate bonds), to equities and ‘real assets’ like property.

It is extremely difficult to effectively assess your own tolerance for risk. Instead, speak to an experienced adviser who can ask the right questions and use appropriate tools to create a clear and objective risk profile for you. They can then recommend an appropriate blend of investments to match your profile.

Remember: without some element of risk, you may struggle to outpace inflation, especially with longer term bank deposits and today's low interest rates. Explore options that help control risk within your comfort zone, such as staggering the timing of riskier investments to reduce exposure to

market movements.

3. Identify your timeline for investing The longer you have to invest, the more risk you can generally afford to take. With time, you can ride out market volatility and benefit from compound returns (interest on interest, for instance).

Understanding your time horizon is also the key to ensuring your investments offer the right level of ‘liquidity’. You never know when your plans may change – for example, needing to return to the UK unexpectedly for family or health reasons – so make sure you hold some liquid assets that can be sold if you need to access your capital or change your strategy.

4. Insist on diversification The higher your concentration in one particular investment type or area – including the UK – the higher the risk. Spreading out investments across asset classes, geographic region and market sectors limits exposure to any one area.

You can take diversification further by choosing an adviser who uses a ‘multi-manager’ approach to spread your investments out

as receiving an inheritance. Or you could simply change your mind about what you want to achieve.

You should review your financial planning around once a year to keep it on track. If anything significant happens that might affect the effectiveness or suitability of your portfolio, including a change in the law or tax rules, make sure you bring this forward.

The key to bringing all these guidelines together is ensuring you take personalised, expert advice from a regulated adviser. Whether you are looking at investments, tax planning, estate planning or your pension, it is crucial that your approach is appropriate for you. With the right strategy in place for your life in France, you can protect and grow your wealth – in real terms – not only during your lifetime but for future generations to enjoy.. ■

among several carefully-selected fund managers.

5. Incorporate effective tax planning To help maximise real returns and protect your wealth for future generations, factor in tax planning when setting up your portfolio.

Look for arrangements that can shelter capital from tax while providing a tax-efficient income, and that enable you to transfer wealth to your beneficiaries with minimal bureaucracy and inheritance taxes.

For expatriates, this is complicated by having to work with the rules of more than one country.

An adviser with cross-border expertise can ensure you meet your tax liabilities, in France and in the UK, while taking advantage of available opportunities.

Tel: 05 53 63 49 19 Email: bergerac@blevinsfranks. com Web: www.blevinsfranks.com

6. Regularly review your strategy Good financial planning is not a ‘set and forget’ exercise. Your circumstances, aims and requirements usually change over time.

This may be due to moving into a different stage of life, like retirement, or following an event, such

All advice received from Blevins Franks is personalised and provided in writing. This article, however, should not be construed as providing any personalised taxation or investment advice.

The Grumpy Granny Guide - A Mixed Bunch

T

he Dordogne has been enriched over the last few years by an increasing number of gardens open to the public and as a keen gardener myself I am always happy to admire the fruit of somebody else’s labour and expertise. Since so many sites are still closed for the winter, this is a good time to step back and reflect on the gardening highlights of the year as well as on those sites which need to try harder. Of course any assessment of a garden is very personal and if you love topiary and box hedging you will not get the same enjoyment from a profusion of roses as someone who loves the romantic and informal.

A garden which is a pleasure to visit takes up huge resources of time, energy and money and sadly some gardens, ephemeral as their owners’ good intentions and/or budget, prove inadequate.

The Jardins de la Licorne is one of several gardens over the last decade which have come and gone but others have popped up to replace them.

Maybe you appreciate a garden for its atmosphere or landscaping rather than its horticultural diversity, but whether a garden is designed round water features or herbaceous borders, there are several inescapable criteria for a successful visit, whatever the focus.

First and foremost it has to be accessible, because arriving at any site after losing your way leaves you mildly annoyed and stressed which is the very antithesis of how you should feel in anticipation of a visit. The Clos des Sources and the Chartreuse du Colombier are cases in point, adequately signed from one approach but lacking any directions from another.

Secondly, regardless of how beautiful or interesting the garden itself, it has to have a minimum of infrastructure. Just opening the gates is not enough. Adequate parking, toilet facilities, drinks for sale and enough seating are all essential.

This last is not a minor point. Irrespective

of how mobile you are, a garden needs time to be appreciated and so sitting and absorbing the sights and smells is an intrinsic part of the experience. Most gardens provide seating at strategic spots but far from all. Cadiot is a culprit in this regard whereas Hautefort has taken this issue on board and recently improved its seating areas.

Thirdly, there has to be something of interest whenever the garden is open to the paying public. We have all heard “It’s a shame the roses are over” or “you should come next month when we turn on the fountains”. Much better to highlight what is worth looking at than excuse what is missing.

Fourthly, there should be some information available, whether it’s naming the species on show or explaining the focus, evolution or background to the garden.

So often a garden has been created with a passion which is not then adequately conveyed to the visitor. It is too much to ask that someone knowledgeable should always be on hand to answer any questions but printed handouts, labels or signboards all increase our pleasure.

Last but certainly not least, although with the variable seasons and weather patterns no one can expect every inch of a garden to be in its prime each day of the year, obvious signs of neglect are inexcusable. There should be no overgrown walkways, withered plants, or unweeded beds. The Chartreuse du Colombier and the Jardin d’Albarède can be disappointing in this respect.

Although there are no ‘best’ gardens, since your enjoyment of a garden depends so much on your personal taste, here nevertheless is a small selection.

For topiary and formal planting Marqueyssac and Eyrignac are still the obvious choices. Both these sites respect the visitor and do their best to provide activities and points of interest for children and the less mobile. Topiary is also an important feature of the gardens at Hautefort

and Losse.

Then there are the intimate gardens like Le Clos des Sources or l’Albarede and more particularly Cadiot, where there are lots of interesting shrubs and herbaceous planting although these gardens which rely primarily on their blooms really do require that you pick your season and day to visit with some care.

There are several specialist gardens which present just a single species such as the water lilies at the Jardins d’eau in Carsac, bamboo at Planbuisson and perhaps the most spectacular, the less wellknown ‘Pimpinellifolia’ rose garden in St-Aubin-de-Cadelech, near Eymet.

The public gardens in Sarlat above the prefecture, in Périgueux at Vésone or the Jardin exotique in La Roque Gageac offer, for free, shady oases away from the heat and crowds and the newly planted garden at the Château de Campagne is a family-friendly delight with a good picnic area just 300m up the road towards Meyrals.

It has to be said that several paying gardens do not offer enough to warrant an entry fee but would be great as open public spaces; both Les Jardins de l’Imaginaire and the Jardins Panoramiques in Limeuil fall into this category. While gardens surrounding châteaux are a welcome addition and places like Brantôme highlight their gardens, apart from a few exceptions, e.g. Milandes, Hautefort or Losse, they are not as good a garden experience as those cultivated in their own right.

You will have your own preference, so before deciding which garden to visit, give some thought to what pleases you most and go online to check which garden is most likely to meet your expectations. Your visit should be a magical discovery and not leave you with a feeling of disappointment or that you could have done as well yourself.

This spring I shall start visiting some of the smaller gardens again and those off the tourist track and so for those of you

who have a favourite, less-known, garden near you, why not share it with other Bugle readers by contacting me via The Bugle at editor@thebugle.eu? ■ This is part of a series of features devoted to the tourist experience in the Dordogne provided by the website grumpygranny-guides.com which highlights those sites which are comfortable and pleasant to visit and which offer a warm welcome.

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Grumpy Granny Guide

The Grumpy Granny Guide® will help you choose if you:

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14 ♦ BILINGUAL

The Eurovision Song Contest

ext month, music fans from across Europe will once again gather for the longestrunning annual international televised singing competition, the Eurovision Song Contest. The first contest, which was based on Italy's Sanremo Music Festival, was held in May 1956 and was designed to test the limits of live music and television technology. Featuring just seven countries and a live orchestra, the contest quickly grew into a true European tradition.

The contest has been broadcast every year since and is one of the longest-running television programmes in the world.

It is also one of the world's most watched non-sporting events, with audience figures in recent years as high as 600 million.

In the early days of the competition, all participants naturally sang in the language of their own country. Before long, however, entrants realised that the key to success was for the judges to understand the content of the song. When the 1965 Swedish entry “Absent Friend” was sung in English, organisers changed the rules to force contestants to sing in their native languages.

In 1973 this rule was removed and the following year ABBA won the competition with their classic song “Waterloo”, before language rules were again reintroduced. Since 1999, there have been no restrictions on which language can be used for each country.

As the competition's biggest financial contributors, Europe's “big five” - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom - are guaranteed a place in the final, along with the host country.

Ireland has won the competition a record seven times, followed by Sweden with six victories. Both France and the United Kingdom have been crowned champions five times, but neither has been victorious since 1997 when Katrina and the Waves won with “Love Shine a Light”.

In recent years, voting has become in-

© Frédéric de Villamil (WikiCommons)

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www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

creasingly politicised and Europe's larger countries have not fared well. The United Kingdom has finished in last place three times, the first of which was Jemini's famous “nul points” in 2003, and has only made the top 10 twice since language rules were finally relaxed in 1999.

France's most recent victory came in 1977, although they have only finished last once and have never received the dreaded zero points.

Winners of the Eurovision Song Contest rarely go on to have a successful singing career. Notable exceptions are Sweden's ABBA (1974), the United Kingdom's Bucks Fizz (1981) and Céline Dion, who won for Switzerland in 1988.

Tradition dictates that the winning country hosts the following year's competition and in 2018 the contest will take place in Lisbon, Portugal, on 12th May. ■

L

e mois prochain, comme chaque année, les fans de musique de l’Europe entière vont se rassembler autour de la plus ancienne compétition télévisée internationale de chanson : le concours de l’Eurovision. La première édition, fondée sur le modèle du festival de musique italien de Sanremo, s’est tenue en mai 1956 et avait pour objet de tester les limites de la musique live en regard de la technologie de la télévision. Impliquant alors seulement sept pays et un orchestre jouant en direct, le concours se développa rapidement jusqu’à devenir une véritable institution européenne.

Depuis lors, le concours retransmis tous les ans est un des plus anciens programmes télévisés au monde. C’est aussi un des événements non sportifs les plus regardés mondialement, avec des chiffres d’audience atteignant ces dernières années 600 millions.

Dans les premiers temps, tous les participants chantaient naturellement dans leur

Many thanks to local French teacher, Sophie Arsac, for this month's bilingual article. Why not get in touch with Sophie to see how she can help improve your French! See page 6 for contact details.

The wines of Bergerac

W

by Martin Walker hen one visits Château des Eyssards in Monestier, a choice is immediately presented. One can fall at once under the spell of Pascal, the huge, genial and imposing but slightly intimidating winemaker with his endless stories. Or one can notice the photograph on the tasting room wall of Prince Charles enjoying a glass of Pascal’s wine at a Buckingham Palace dinner in 2009.

Pascal can launch at once into an anecdote of the evening and his subsequent visit to the royal yacht Britannia before waxing lyrical about a breakfast of bacon, sausage, black pudding and eggs and all the trimmings outside St Andrews. Beware. One can be entranced by this man, a natural actor and raconteur who relishes the performance he gives. But you are here to taste his wines and to discover some of the best bargains in the Bergerac.

I came across his wines by accident at my local cave, Julien de Savignac in Le Bugue, a place so well and imaginatively stocked that I put it into one of my first novels, Dark Vineyard, where I called it ‘a temple to wine.’

Some unexpected guests were about to arrive and I was short of cash. At the cave, I asked the omniscient Manuel which two bottles he could recommend that I might obtain for the ten-euro note I had in my pocket.

He handed me two bottles of the Eyssards Bergerac Sec and gave me some change.

I was entranced and so was my wife, Julia, who now insists that a case of this splendid blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Semillon be our first purchase of spring.

It is a happy wine, fresh and inviting, dry but not astringent, a wine that continues to glow as the light begins ever so slowly to fade in the long Périgord twilight. It is an adaptable wine that matches one’s mood, full of contentment and responsive whether the moment calls

for it to be sipped or quaffed.

Having met Pascal at various wine fairs, I now know him to be a fine businessman who sells most of his wine abroad. Japan takes sixty thousand bottles each year. You can find his wines at the dozens of branches of Karstadt, the German chain of department stores, in Belgium, Ireland and California. Like so many Bergerac winemakers, he laments the way that Bergerac is so often seen in France as the little country cousin of Bordeaux. He therefore seeks his market elsewhere.

But in the modest farmhouse that glories in the name Château des Eyssards, Pascal Cuisset with his magnificent basset hound reigns theatrically supreme. On the walls are the certificates of the gold and silver medals his wines have won in Paris and Bordeaux. Behind him are posters for the films of Pascal’s hero, Marcel Pagnol, whose rough and sometimes bawdy humour cannot conceal the warm and tolerant philosophy which animates this quintessentially French work.

“I’m a proud peasant in the real sense of the word,” he exclaims. “I love this region, its earth and its weather.

In my vineyard I enjoy learning its little secrets, like why in this patch my vines want bushy foliage to shade them from the sun whereas the next one needs trimming to get the sun. I marvel at the way a stony field suddenly decides to embrace the vines of Cabernet Franc after years of refusing to grow decent Sauvignon.”

And then he declaims an impromptu prose poem on his upbringing on his father’s 10-hectare vineyard (now grown to 55 hectares) when the family lived on the rabbits and pigs and chickens and the farm and the fat vegetables that were grown between the vine rows.

“Tête de veau, rognons de veau, ventre de veau,” he declares, his lips smacking and eyes staring into some ancient culinary distance and his lip curls at the meats

langue maternelle. Mais très rapidement, les candidats réalisèrent que la clé du succès était que les juges comprennent les paroles de la chanson. Lorsque la chanson candidate suédoise de 1965 « Absent Friend » fut interprétée en anglais, les organisateurs changèrent les règles pour obliger les candidats à chanter dans leur langue natale.

En 1973, cette règle fut abolie et l’année suivante, le groupe ABBA remporta la compétition avec leur chanson Waterloo devenue un classique, avant que les règles de langue ne soient à nouveau réintroduites. Depuis 1999, il n’y a plus de restriction sur la langue que chaque pays peut utiliser.

En tant que plus gros contributeurs financiers au concours, les 5 « poids lourds » de l’Europe appelés « Big Five » (France, Allemagne, Italie, Espagne et Royaume-Uni) sont assurés d’une place en finale, en compagnie du pays hôte. L’Irlande détient le record du nombre de victoires car elle a remporté le titre sept fois, suivie par la Suède avec six titres. La France et le Royaume-Uni ont été chacun couronnés cinq fois, mais ni l’un ni l’autre n’a été victorieux depuis 1997, année où Katrina and the Waves l’emporta avec « Love Shine a Light ».

Ces dernières années, le vote est devenu de plus en plus politique, et les plus grands pays européens s’en sont plutôt mal sortis.

Le Royaume-Uni a fini trois fois à la dernière place, la première fois étant le fameux « zéro point » de Jemini en 2003 et n’a intégré le top 10 que deux fois depuis que les règles de langue ont été définitivement abandonnées en 1999. La plus récente victoire des Français remonte à 1977. Mais ils n’ont été derniers qu’une seule fois et n’ont jamais reçu le si redouté « zéro point ».

Les gagnants du concours de l’Eurovision continuent rarement une carrière à succès dans la chanson. Les exceptions notables sont les Suédois ABBA (1974), les Britanniques Bucks Fizz (1981) et Céline Dion, qui gagna pour le compte de la Suisse en 1988.

La tradition veut que le pays vainqueur héberge la compétition de l’année suivante, ainsi le concours de 2018 se tiendra à Lisbonne, au Portugal, le 12 mai. ■

sold by supermarkets.

“One of these modern winemakers came to see me, sipped at my wine with appreciation and then asked if it was organic. ‘No,’ I replied, ‘and I don’t plant according to whether the moon is up or down. I work the soil, give the wine air and water, see whether it wants sun or shade’. She spat it out and left.”

Not only does Pascal give a great performance, he keeps his prices low because he maintains that Bergerac will succeed when people realize it offers that best combination of quality and price in France. Not that this stops him from traveling to quiz New Zealand winemakers on how they produce such richness from Sauvignon Blanc, or asking Tuscan winemakers how they get their depth of flavour.

Above all, he believes in the grapes. So this is a rare place where you can find Adagio, a wine of purely Merlot, rich at 15 degrees of alcohol but a bargain at 13 euros. Or his Chardonnay at 8.50 euros. Or his Semental, pure Cabernet Sauvignon at 17 euros. And from May this year, you can buy his new wine, Les Francs, pure Cabernet Franc at 8 euros, and coming soon is a pure Malbec.

“You have to try different things and explore,” he says. “Why else are we here?”

One answer is a wine called Mano a Mano, a glorious white wine at 6.50 euros that would be cheap at twice the price. It is made by his daughter, 25 years old, who looks like becoming the third generation at Château des Eyssards, And Pascal’s great chest swells with pride. ■ Martin Walker, author of the best-selling ‘Bruno, chief of police’ novels, is a Grand Consul de la Vinée de Bergerac. Formerly a journalist, he spent 25 years as foreign correspondent for The Guardian and then became editor-in-chief of United Press International.

He and his wife Julia have had a home in the Périgord since 1999 and one of his great hobbies is visiting the vineyards of Bergerac.

DIRECTORY ♦ 15

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

Business Directory

Your indispensable guide to finding local businesses & artisans Auto Services

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CONTINUED NEXT PAGE...

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16 ♦ DIRECTORY

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

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DIRECTORY ♦ 17

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

ADVERTORIAL

HOW SAFE IS YOUR FINAL SALARY PENSION?

O

nly the other month we were hearing about the demise of Carillion and the news that the company pension scheme is being placed into the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).

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The above information was correct at the time of preparation and does not constitute investment advice and you should seek advice from a professional adviser before embarking on any financial planning activity.

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UK: 0333 022 0359 FR: 07 68 64 22 54

W: www.milenlighthaulage.co.uk E: info@milenlighthaulage.co.uk

Bonner Prestige Classic and high value vehicle transport throughout the UK and Europe

Bonner Prestige is a dedicated vehicle transportation service offering professional vehicle transport throughout the UK and Europe.

We offer a bespoke service to suit our customer requirements.

Our fully enclosed vehicle transporter allows for vehicles to be moved securely and safe from the elements.

For more information contact Trevor Bonner:

UK: +44 (0)7871 975 859 France: +33 (0)7 69 72 44 86 bonnerprestige@gmail.com

Man & Van Transport

Genuine/Reliable/Honest Local + Europe + UK runs Now also available for House/Barn clearances!

14m3 capacity 4.2m load length English & French Spoken

European Removals Full or part load, French registered.

We offer: Removals, Storage, House Clearance, also Car, Caravan, Plant Transport.

Offices in UK and France.

+33 (0)6 73 96 38 39 www.dordognestoragesolutions.com

09 82 12 69 73 87150 Oradour-sur-Vayres

www.frenchvanman.eu Siret 530 213 644 00012

sales24@thebugle.eu

05 55 41 17 76

18 ♦ COMMUNITY

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018

Get in touch today to find out how we can put your business in front of 25,000 readers each month SALES24@THEBUGLE.EU

05 55 41 17 76 EFSA English and French Speaking Association Lessons in English and French, together in one class, held at the salle polyvalente in Thenon every Tuesday evening from 7 pm to 9 pm, with a free cup of tea and a biscuit at 8 pm.

Membership costs €10 per year and the 2-hour lesson is €10 for members (€11 for non-members).

For more information: tel 05 53 46 64 41

Person living in Neuvic-sur-l’Isle is looking for French-English speaking person(s) to help improve her English.

Tel:

06 67 19 88 08

Sebby - born 14.05.2017

Poor little Sebby spent the first four months of his life living rough and was in a terrible state when he came to us. He had a huge abscess on his eye which has resulted in scarring on the retina, although he still has sight in that eye. He is really really affectionate, loves to be cuddled and sit on your lap for as long as you want and loves dogs, cats and children. All he needs now is someone to love him back forever!

Association France Alzheimer and its English-speaking volunteers offer support for people with dementia and their carers in the Bergerac area.

Drop in for a coffee with us on the first Tuesday of each month between 10 am and midday at restaurant/bar L’Étoile, Le Bourg, 24520 St-Nexans

Sebby is chipped, vaccinated and castrated and, if you would like to meet him or learn more about him, his foster mum Sophie would be happy to hear from you.

Please leave your name and telephone number with our reception and one of our English-speaking volunteers will endeavour to call back the same day.

Telephone Helpline 05 53 27 30 34

Contact Sophie Nicol tel 05 53 73 91 13, mob 07 78 21 13 55, email sophie.nicol@yahoo.fr. Sebby is in 24, Bergerac.

www.phoenixasso.com www.facebook.com/PhoenixAssociationFrance

Worship services in English held throughout the Dordogne: Bertric Burée, Chancelade, Eymet Temple, Limeuil, Négrondes, Sainte Nathalène (near Sarlat).

All are welcome!!

Please visit our website for more information: www.churchinaquitaine.org Find us on Facebook: English Church Aquitaine

Association France Alzheimer Dordogne 2, rue Emile Counord 24100 BERGERAC E: alzheimer.dordogne@orange.fr W: www.francealzheimer-dordogne.org

We rely on you to help us keep these pages up to date with interesting information and events.

If you have anything to share, please let us know: notices@thebugle.eu Many thanks!!

APRIL 2018 ○ THE BUGLE ○ www.thebugle.eu

WHAT’S

ON

WHAT’S ON ♦ 19 VARIATIONS CHORALE EASTER CONCERT

Haydn Nelson Mass

Fauré Requiem

Exceptional programme by this prestigious choir Périgueux - 6th April, Eglise St-Georges, 8 pm Ribérac - 7th April, Eglise ND de la Paix, 8 pm Reservations: 05 53 91 53 52 clare32pag@gmail.com Tickets: €20; 12-16s €8; Under 12s free.

Cancer Support France Est et Lot Spring Market Saturday 21st April, 10 am – 4 pm L’Ostal, 46340 Lavercantière

Arts & crafts, plants & flowers, cake competition for adults and children, textiles, local produce, kids’ fun.

Refreshments will be available throughout the day, including fish and chips from Cod en Bleu and pies and sausage rolls as well as bacon, sausages, etc. from La Saucisserie.

L’Otal is situated on the edge of Lavercantière village; it has easy access and excellent parking facilities.

Come and help us celebrate spring and at the same time support our CSF Association which provides help and support to English-speaking people living in France affected by cancer.

For more information contact delot-vice-treasurer@cancersupportfrance.org

The exhibition “Terres singulières” presents the world of 7 contemporary ceramicists with very original personalities: unique, marginal worlds, drawing their inspiration from popular or mythological culture: Jérôme Galvin, Nicolas Rousseau, Nicolas Roscia, Claire Lepape, Sarah Maso, Arnaud Erhart and Marlène Requier.

Pôle Expérimental Métiers d’Art de Nontron et du Périgord-Limousin Château, av. du Général Leclerc 24300 NONTRON 31st March to 21st May. Open Mon-Sat from 10h-13h & 14h-18h. Also open Sun 13th & 21st May. Free entry.

For more information visit www.metiersdartperigord.fr

Cancer Support France Annual Second-Hand Sale Saturday 14th April from 9:30 am Salle des fêtes, 24300 Javerlhac Clothes, bric-a-brac, tea and cakes, books, tombola and lots more!

Open for donations on Friday afternoon For more information email: nellaprice4@gmail.com

The Spring Phoenix Book Fair will be held on Saturday 28th April in Campsegret (24140), just north of Bergerac.

Over 20,000 English, French and Dutch books, all in category (lots of History, Cookery, Gardening and more) or in alphabetical order, will be for sale from one euro and up! There will also be specialist stalls selling hundreds of DVDs, CDs and vinyl; new Crime books; Antiquarian and Collectors books.

The famous home-made catering will be on offer, with lots of scrumptious goodies. If that’s not enough, there will be kids’ books and toys, jigsaw puzzles, greeting cards and Bric-a-Brac bargains too!

Children and dogs are welcome - so come with the whole family and spend the day!

If you’re looking for a new furry friend, we can help you!!

Doors open at 9:30 am (9 am for people with limited mobility) and close at 3 pm. Entrance and parking is free.

Please bring your donations of books, home-made cakes, unwanted gifts and pet paraphernalia on the day!

All the proceeds will go to the Phoenix Association... caring for and rehoming animals in need (http://phoenixasso.com).

20 ♦ WHAT’S ON

www.thebugle.eu ○ THE BUGLE ○ APRIL 2018