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Visiting Belgian friends Alain (a valiant tennisman) & Janine Verrydt (photo) for a shampoo & haircut in their saloon of La Grande rue, Valbonne, I left by first crossing the Place des Arcades towards the Post Office side, & then by starting to walk up the long flight of steps. Looking right, I noticed horse-chestnuts (photo) below a tree that I hadn't ever noticed before: I went down & collected a few of these shiny, mahogany-coloured seeds. In England, they are known as 'conkers'; the reason being, that as children we made a hole through them, & passed a piece of string, knotted at one end, through the hole. The game was to play alternately 'hold a suspended conker in the air' & 'hit the opposing conker with your own', until one or the other was broken. In this way, separate conkers accumulated a score according to the number of opposing conkers broken. The added scores of opposing conkers were added together & attributed to the new winner. This once-popular English game between schoolboys is apparently unknown in France: presumably it is known that they are unedible, except for pigs (& perhaps horses).