Liquid fall

A bit of research suggests that the closest French approximation to Sod's law, is la loi de l'emmerdement maximum. A good example occurred last week: beautiful sunny weather, albeit rather cold, up until Friday evening. The weekend comes around, and it rains solidly for two days. More rain was forecast for the Toussaints bank holiday today, but it seems they were erring on the pessimistic side, because we had lovely sunshine for our morning constitutional along the banks of the Rhône.

Of course, rainy weekend weather has its benefits: la bienheureuse consoles herself in the kitchen. Delicious walnut carrot cake (thanks DenEboy), tartiflette, parsnip soup and the promise of lamb tajine this evening. And yesterday morning, I had the annual vignerons independants wine fair to console me. Tasked as usual with purchasing provisions for the annual skiing holiday in January, we set off early and arrived before the doors had opened. And spent the next ten minutes queueing in the rain with a couple of hundred other early drinkers. In less than two hours we were in and out, twice, which also meant two soakings while ferrying numerous boxes of wine back to the car. 

With la bienheureuse unable this year to partake in the degustation, I adopted targeted tasting tactics, having more or less decided beforehand what we were going to get. Result, nine cases of wine, four of which are reserved for the skiing holiday. That was after going in with the idea of only acquiring two or three cases for personal consumption. I blame the non-drinker for encouraging me. She drove home even though a breath taste before leaving put me under the limit. Not that I felt it…

Saturday followed a familiar course. Pub in the afternoon for me, watching the righteous men of the true faith eventually find a winner against the one-time academy of football. Then straight home and straight back out with la bienheureuse to Gerland, where OL eventually ground out a 2-1 win against Sochaux, which did nothing to appease the fans. Following the failure to beat the bottom team the previous weekend, the "Puel: demission!" demands have got louder again, and on Saturday (after chairman Aulas confirmed coach Puel in his post) they gave up asking politely and demanded that he be sacked instead: "Puel: licenciement!"

The protests of more import, those against the retirement reforms, seem to be petering out, squashed by the coincidence of school holidays and the law being officially passed by parliament. The petrol refineries are back at work, as are the ports, and 80% of trains are running. The day of protest last Thursday saw half the number of protesters than the previous one. There is one final resort due this week, when the constitutional council rules on a challenge by the opposition to the law, and then the final protest is scheduled for next Saturday, a week or so before Sarkozy is due to definitively write the law into the statue books.