SEPTEMBER DIARY

Summer visitors have almost all disappeared from the Club, & members who took holidays elsewhere are trickling back - wondering perhaps why they ever went away from this attractive place. An early expression of the autumn to come, is the flowering of the Gynerium plant (Herbe des Pampas), between the Bureau & Court 1. Originating in South America, it is a spectacular member of the grass family (Graminée).

After this brief mention of the beauty around us, please consult your diaries & enter important event details for the coming month. These have been sent to me today by the kind attentions of Claudia Stern.
I insert the file she prepared.

Please note that the first event is already close - this coming Friday!

Be safe, & reserve places for you & your friends.

A bientôt !

SUMMER

So we have 4 bushes of lavender in flower as you enter the Club: local insects have very soon detected the perfume & are busy collecting the nectar.  Mainly bees recently, but with the occasional butterfly. (photo)

Now honeysuckle flowers have disappeared, lavender is filling the fragrance gap, as the perspiring players tend to increase their odiferous output with the temperature increase. Complaints heard have been good-natured:  we all suffer somewhat from the heat, but much prefer this climate to the rainy months we had to endure earlier this year.

Last Sunday, our small, mixed team won the series of matches for the Coupe Azuréen - details from our only Hungarian player, Lucien Zsarni: inveterate midday tennisman.  Lucien, once noted for his efficient fabrication of delicious pizzas in the local oven, has some years ago, transferred his talents to the more lucrative pursuit of selling houses.  The obvious result, has been his change of daily transport vehicle, from Deux Chevaux  to something much more ostentatious.........

Back to our luck in enjoying the skills of our current Chef, David Marais.  Enthusing members finish their appreciations by the supplication:  pourvu qu'il reste !  The answer lies within our community, in the first place: we have to support his efforts by our presence.  The more difficult problem, is publication of the excellence of this Club Restaurant to a much wider audience.  Everyone of you can help in this by passing the word to friends & acquaintances.

David asks me, at short notice,  to invite you to join a Barbecue meal this Friday evening, 1st of July, from 7.30 pm, with Buffet de Salades,  Côte de boeuf ou Loup ou Dorade,  Dessert  (25 €).

Reserve at 06 59 08 66 30 ; & do your best to be there. Here's the Chef showing his dessert for a recent Norwegian party.

RESTAURANT DISHES

un couvert

To give you all more appetite for your Club restaurant, here are several photos of recent dishes enjoyed:

poulet riz thai

salade de sardines marinadées

poivrons farçis

dessert aux cérises

       

Bon appétit !

DIMANCHE DEJEUNER

Our new Chef goes from strength to strength: here is the latest notice from his kitchen:

DIMANCHE DEJEUNER

Le Chef vous propose deux possibilities

pour dimanche le 29 mai

1. PAELLA

Sangria à volonté

Dessert

20 €

 2. CÔTE BOEUF - BARBECUE

Sangria à volonté

Dessert

20 €

Nombre de places limitées :

il vaut mieux réserver

06 59 08 66 30

Not to be missed!  See you there!

FRAGRANCE

Many of you may have noticed a pleasant perfume when entering the Club recently. The plant responsible is shown in the following photo.

 

You may have guessed immediately that this is wild honeysuckle.  Make sure by looking more closely at the flowers.........

 

What elegant flowers, you might say.........  so what about a few more details.

The genus name Lonicera has no meaning in Latin apparently, but comes from the name, Adam Lonicer, or Lonitzer,  a German botanist of the 16th century.  Almost 200 species have been discovered since that time;  the common names for some of these sound more interesting: take the English 'honeysuckle' for a start. 'Honey' must refer to the sweet nectar attracting insects as food; 'suckle' is the verb describing an infant taking sustenance from its mother's breasts. So insects absorb the nectar, while of course, acting as useful pollinators from one flower to another. This is said to occur more often during the night, by nocturnal insects such as moths, & when the fragrance is more pronounced. (I leave some of my readers to verify this.)

Other common names are 'chèvre-feuille' in French, 'Geissblat' in German, 'Caprifoglio' (from the plant family) in Italian, & 'Kamperfoelie' or 'Geitenblad' in Dutch, 'Kaprifol' in Swedish.

There is another naturally-occurring plant like the one in the photos, among the many bushes surrounding the swimming pool.  We hope, incidentally that this Club facility will be available in a few weeks, considering the record-breaking temperatures we are experiencing this month of May.

In the meantime, don't miss these sunny lunchtimes on our Restaurant terrace, where our Chef,  'David-le-Grand', is rapidly making himself a reputation for excellent dishes at very reasonable prices.

A vous de jouer !

DUTCH TOURNAMENT

Last Tuesday, our Dutch group organised a get-together, in the form of a RoundRobin tournament, followed by a meal in the Club Restaurant.  The players consisted of ten ladies and ten gentlemen, who obligingly left their tennis racquets on two adjacent tables, ready for the draw. I was given the honour of selecting racquets from the two piles, to decide the initial partners ready for the fray.  Courts were allocated as the partners rejoiced in their particular luck in the draw; and the 5 battles soon commenced.

Struggles became intense, and the level of exchanges was quite impressive;  observing from nearby, I felt that players were much more concentrated than in the ritual Tuesday bouts; and that many competitors were very anxious to win a prize.

Something like 4 games were possible before the next changeover of partners occurred: this moment was announced by the ringing of a bell (or in fact by the sound of a spoon hitting a cup), and points for games won were noted down. One of the players announced before the final round that he was suffering from an undefined malaise, and asked me to play in his place; I was glad to do this, so that I had made another slight contribution to the event.

Then came the lunch - happily outside on the terrace in the beautiful weather we've been having. This was efficiently set out by the new team, and of a very good quality by all reports. We must congratulate the new cook, David, who is rapidly achieving a pleasing reputation. Let's call him David-le-Grand, perhaps, to avoid confusion with the tennis Davids.

Now this group of 40 friends come together, not only to play and eat together, but of course to talk together in their curiously-sounding language.  We others wonder how on earth they were brought up to make these astounding noises........... So we will never know how to speak like this, and will be happy in our ignorance, to hear them having such an enjoyable time together! Here are two photos:

For those who were not there, and haven't yet tried the food, here is a picture of an enticing table already set out for you!  

Bon appétit !

EASTER HOLIDAY

While you were bemoaning your lack of Saturday tennis today - the first rain of April incidentally;  there was considerable activity among the smallest of us. (photo) 

You will see that it's not actually raining around 9 am, although rather dull.  This has not dismayed the young team, inspired as you see by Manu & David. A great variety of exercises with & without ball & racquet are practised: the next photo shows attempts to hit balls over the net.........

Today was the last day of a very successful stage this week, followed every morning by an admiring & enthusiastic group of observing parents & friends. The teachers & assistants are to be heartily congratulated on their inspired work:  just ask the children if they enjoyed it !!  The following photo shows a few of them in the 'jellyfish' game.  What fun !

One more photo to show the speed - you'll soon not be able to catch up with them........

Back at the Restaurant, all the outside windows were being thoroughly cleaned;  an Easter Menu is being prepared for Sunday & Monday, by the new gérants.  There will be no play on clay obviously, tomorrow; but with luck all the hard courts will be available for your enjoyment.  Go to it!