Well, I dunno ...

... what happened to the footy this afternoon at Pionsat's ground. After something of a considerable thrash (and I mean "thrash" as well) through the delightful Combrailles countryside, I arrive at the Pionsat ground at 15:10 - 10 minutes after kick-off -to find the place all locked up and deserted.

So why the thrash through the countryside? Well, that was because at 13:00 Pionsat's 1st XI was playing at St Priest.

This was a match that swung like a pendulum - Pionsat were all over them for the first half an hour and were 1-0 to the good. Then we had half an hour of St Priest to take the match to 2-1 for them, and finally another 30 minutes of Pionsat with the score ending 3-2 in their favour. And I reckoned on the balance of play that they deserved it.

But there is always a little contention between these two teams and today was no exception. A fair amount of unnecessariness, including an excellent left hook from a St Priest defender that put Gaëtan on his back for a full five minutes (and for which a card of the colour ... errrr ... yellow was produced). It must be me, I think. I seem to be the only one making any kind of remark about things like this.

Anyway, back at Pionsat, I went round to see if Marianne was in and we ended up going for a walk along the old railway line. 

It looks quite good in that photo just here, but it isn't. Along much of its length we could have done with a machete or two, and something to help us with the barbed wire would have come in useful too. And we did find (quite by accident) a place where there was an astonishing view right across the valley over to La Cellette in the distance with the viaduct in the background.

And if the view was so good, how come it isn't reproduced here? Well that's because bird-brain of Britain here ran out of SIM card, so after all of these exertions we'll have to go back and do most of it again.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday. That is that going out in the early afternoon I happened to glance out of the window and I noticed nothing special about the trees. Going out to the football several hours later I happened to glance out of the window again and they were all covered in blossom. That's how quickly spring has arrived here - all of five hours. It really is astonishing.