CONKERS & CHESTNUTS

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).

There is a confusion in the naming of these seeds of the chestnut & horse-chestnut trees which I will now try to elucidate. In French, the distinction 'châtaigne' from a 'châtaigner' & 'marron' from a 'marronier' is clear: the first is edible, the second is not. But what about 'chaux, chaux les marrons !' & 'les marrons glaçés' ? Both these products emanate from châtaigners and not marroniers, n'est-ce pas?

For botanical precision, the trees are Castanea sativa yielding the chestnut, & Aesculus hippocastanum yielding the horse-chestnut.

This is now the time of year to visit St. Vallier, sur la route Napoléon, the village has a fine array of marroniers surrounding the equivalent of an English village-green (even used as a cricket pitch!)

The route from Grasse is either via Cabris, or via St. Cézaire. A good weekend outing: then please watch the Club notices for match events the following Thursday morning, & for music-lovers, another notice gives the details of a concert next Sunday in Peymeinade: the Dvorak 'cello concerto & 'New World' Symphony.

What an amazing area we live in!