Toques et Clochers

This past weekend was the 2010 Toques et Clochers, an annual event organised by a bunch of local towns and villages ostensibly to raise funds to repair their church towers (Toques) and bells (Clochers) but in reality an opportunity for tens of thousands of people to sample the local wines or bottle stuff as I prefer to call it. This year it was the turn of our local town of Couiza to host it, and as us dogs do not touch the stuff, I sent two experts (my mum and dad) to report on the event.




There was the usual big parade with noisy bands, banners, and men carrying model churches (!) all followed up by what seemed like thousands of local dignitaries all wanting to get in on the act. Then, around the town, there were also a load of people dressed up in funny outfits for some reason.






At the end of the parade they all gathered in the park for speeches, and mum used the occassion to get up close and personal with our local vigneron (and the man who prunes our single vine) Francois.

However, the real reason for this event appears to be the consumption of enormous quantities of the very high class bottle stuff produced for the occassion and needless to say mum and dad did their bit towards it.

As for me, I just dozed the afternoon away and awaited their return and my dinner, which fortunately (given the circumstances) appeared reasonably on time.

Now apparently summer is officially here and for me this means two things - the doors to the outside world stay open all day, and my favourite garden chair has reappeared. All we need now is a nice hot summer so I can top up my tan.

I'm back from hibernation

Hello again all. I'm back from my self imposed hibernation. To be frank, January and February are normally pretty boring months where not much happens, but this year it has been so cold and miserable that I decided to hibernate for a while. Now I know dogs don't normally hibernate but if you have a nice warm house, a thick duvet, and regular meals, it is perfectly possible to almost do it.

However, the sun is back out and things are warming up so my bed is back out in the garden so I can bag some rays and come to slowly.


Whilst I was being dormant mum and dad celebrated Christmas for the second time at the beginning of Feb. Apparently, because we were in the UK for the real Xmas, we missed having a nice fun day with all our good friends and so they decided to do it all over again complete with decorations, crackers, turkey, Xmas pudding, and, of course, loads of that bottle stuff. Fortunately it was a nice day as me and my new mate Fig were banished to the garden for the duration of the meal which went on for hours. We did get let back in as evenig approached and Fig and I did a bit of socialising with everyone.


The other great thing about the sun coming out is that work on the garden starts up. Now I like nothing better than helping with the gardening, as you can see, but strangely it is not always appreciated.


The very thought of all that work has made me really tired so excuse me if I snuggle down under the duvet for another kip. Speak to you all again soon.