Sonoma Wine Country Classic

Yesterday, the Valley of the Moon Pétanque Club hosted its annual Wine Country Classic tournament. An event also dedicated to the memory of beloved Tino (Nunziato) Lofaro who passed away almost 2 years ago.
As expected, it drew a big crowd. Thirty eight (38) doublettes or 76 contestants to be precise.
The weather was good (not too hot) but in the afternoon the wind picked up significantly and blew clouds of dust all over the field.
The event was ably run and supervised by my good buddy, unflappable Patrick Vaslet.

The format of the tournament was “Select Doubles” and people teamed up with what I assume was (and I could be wrong) their BFF (Best Friend Forever). All the people were too numerous to mention, but  among the players I know I noticed the two Jean-Claude (Jean-Claude Bunand and Jean-Claude Etallaz) and the two Peters (Peter Mathis and Peter Wellington).
I also spotted Carolina Jones and Carlos Couto, Alain Gusella and Jean-Michel Poulnot, Steve Jones and Christine Jones and Antoine Lofaro and Luc Pouget.

Among the players, two lone all-female entries:
Erin Mc Taggart & Barbara Hall, and Antonia Paulsen & Colette Van Der Meulen.

As usual, 3 eleven points game were played in the morning to separate the Big Boys (and Big Girls) from the fray, and thirteen points elimination games were played in the afternoon.

Personally, I teamed up with a little known player named Tamara Semionovna and she did extremely well. We won our first two games (11/7 and 11/6) and for our 3rd game of the morning, we faced John and Cody Morris, a delightful team of father and son.
They beat us 11/9 but it was a real pleasure playing with such gentlemen.

16 teams ended in the Concours, 14 teams in the Consolante A, and 8 teams in Consolante B.

In the afternoon, in the first game of the Concours we faced Mickey and Nicole Coughlin. Shall I say more? They threw us out of the tournament with a resounding kick in the fanny. The almost unmentionable score: 13/0.

The final results communicated to me by Patrick Vaslet are:

Erin McTaggart

Concours
1st: Barbara Hall and Erin McTaggart
2nd: Yor Lee and Paul Maua
3rd: Mickey Coughlin and Nicole Coughlin
4th: Mone Lee and Pao Ly

Consolante A
1st: Peter Mathis and Peter Wellington
2nd: Antoine Lofaro and Luc Pouget
3rd: Steve Paulsen and Bill Miller
4th: Nan Walter and Etienne Rijkheer

Consolante B
1st: Thomas Moua and By Vang
2nd: Steve Jones and Christine Jones
3rd: Brendan Cohen and Marco Ilaria.

I find it exhilarating to find an all-female team at the top of the heap.
Congratulations to Barbara Hall and Erin McTaggart for besting the best male players of the tournament.

Alain

PS: I forgot to mention the 3rd all-female team in my report and I apologize for this.
The missing team was Shannon Bowman and Holly Sammons.

 

 

 

La politesse française

« Le manque de politesse est l’imitation de la force par l’homme faible » Eric Hoffer

Le français a longtemps été la langue des diplomates, et les français ont longtemps été réputés pour leur galanterie et leur politesse. Hélas, selon un sondage récent, ce sont des temps bien révolus.

Selon ce sondage, Charles de Gaulle, le deuxième aéroport le plus fréquenté d’Europe, est le plus discourtois de la région, alors que l’Aéroport de Copenhague est présenté comme le plus amical.

Une enquête publiée par le site de voyage Skyscanner montre que Charles de Gaulle, qui accueille plus de 60 millions de passagers par an, est l’aéroport le plus malpoli d’Europe avec un score de 4.86 sur 10. CDG se place même devant Moscou qui a toujours eu une très mauvaise réputation

Skyscanner a interrogé plus de 500 passagers qui ont voyagé pendant les 12 derniers mois, et leur a demandé d’évaluer les aéroports européens en fonction de la gentillesse de leur personnel.
La France caracole en tête (ce n’est pas un compliment) avec le score le plus bas de la région.

Voici le classement de Skyscanner :

Cinq (5) aéroports les plus discourtois d’Europe
1. Paris CDG 4.86
2. Moscow 5.03
3. Istanbul 5.91
4. London-Heathrow 5.94
5. Madrid 6.01

 Cinq (5) aéroports les plus amicaux d’Europe
1. Copenhagen 7.08
2. Amsterdam 6.92
3. Stockholm 6.68
4. Barcelona 6.46
5. Frankfurt 6.21

Il faut dire que Charles de Gaulle (inauguré en 1974) montre les ravages du temps et a grand besoin d’un « facelift », autant physique que spiritual.
Comparé a d‘autres aéroports internationaux, Charles de Gaulle fait maintenant bien piètre figure. Ce qui fut un projet d’avant-garde il y a environ 40 ans est maintenant en piteux état. Il est démodé, encombré et très mal balisé.
Et c’est toujours une déception d’arriver en France et d’être traité comme du bétail par un personnel continuellement grincheux.

Et pourtant, « La politesse coute peu et achète tout. »  Montaigne

La prochaine fois que j’irais en Europe, rappelez moi d’éviter Paris et d’atterrir a Copenhague.

Alain

A new look

Here we are. A new look!
After countless hours of intensive labor, the site of Le Cochonnet Marin has morphed into a blog.
The old website is still on line, but all new entries will be posted on this blog until I decide whether to continue with this format or go back to the website format.

I am watching you!

The basic difference between a blog and a website is that on a website the main page and all the other pages contain static information.
On a blog, the front page constantly changes. New entries will show up in a chronological order and the last post will appear on top of all the other entries.
On blogs (at least on majority of blogs) visitors can leave comments and interact with the “blogger”; this can be very helpful to the blogger in determining what to put on his site.

I like the look and the feel of the blog, but it has a few inconveniences.
Posting new entries is cumbersome and labor intensive. Inserting text and images require more steps and is more time consuming than the website format.
This program also lacks a variety of fonts to choose from, but altogether I think that this blog looks sleeker and more contemporary than the website!
I’ll let you judge.

I am trying to keep this site simple and uncluttered. A blog needs to remain spartan because after a while it can become untidy and difficult to navigate.
By the way, if you get lost while navigating, click on the “Home” button to bring you back to the “home page”.

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions. They can be very helpful to me.
When you leave a comment you will be asked to leave your name and e-mail address and whether you would like to be notified of new posts via e-mail. If you agree, you will be automatically notified of a new post.

Keep in mind that this site is a work in progress and that it will evolve as time goes by. I rely on my readers to let me know what they would like to see, and what could to be changed or improved.

Don’t forget to “bookmark” this site https://cochonnetmarin.com in order to easily get back to it.

Thank you for your attention.

Alain