Thankfully our friends went and brought us back all the news.

Once we have got medical certificates for the kids (everyone needs one from the doctor if you are going to play in a proper team) then the kids can join the club properly. Previously Molly was playing with the under-12s and Rosie was with the under 16s. There is now a proposition that, due to the way the numbers have worked out, that there should be an under-14s team, made up of some of the girls from the under-12s and Rosie. This sounds fine with us – only 1 set of training sessions, one set of tournaments. Nice and easy!

[OuestFrance.fr - Handball : un club en progression , Foussais-Payré 08/07/2008 (ouest-france.fr)]

So it was with some trepidation that on Saturday I stood on the court at the Foussais sports hall about to take part in the Handball tournament as a member of “The School Team”: Myself, Francois-Marie and 3 dads from school. I wasn’t quite sure how I managed to get roped into it. I think partly through my usual trick of just saying “Ah oui, c’est bon” when I’m in a french conversation, which will no doubt get me into all sorts of trouble, but also partly because I thought it would be fun.

At 10 minutes before “kick-off” though, the thought of “fun” was replaced with thought like “I don’t actually know any rules” and “The opposition are all half our age and 10 times as fit” and “Do my legs actually still work these days?”.

It was a “sans-license” tournament, so there were all sorts of different teams there, of all abilities, ages, shapes and sizes. Molly had a team made up of some of her usual under-12s girls team. We borrowed two of them to be our substitutes, joined by Rosie, who was keen to get involved but missed out on joining the girls from her usual team by virtue of not asking them It was a league arrangement, split into two groups – the older folks in one group and the younger ones in another. With 10 teams altogether, it worked out quite nicely.

So, I’m there thinking that I’ll be able to have a bit of a practice and size up the opposition for a while, only to find out that we were on first – talk about pressure! Luckily there was a lot of “Home” support and everyone was very encouraging. And after seeing my team-mates warming up I was feeling a bit more encouraged. Although Francois-Marie claimed he hadn’t played for ages, he failed to mention that he must have been a fantastic player the last time he played, as he was rather amazingly good. Along with Olivier and Christophe, both also still in fine form, I felt happy that I could leave the hard work to them…

Anyway, the first match started and unfortunately I soon discovered that in handball everyone has to do the hard work. It’s not like football, where as a defender you can hang around at the back while the guys with all the skill take the ball and score all the goals. Oh no. In handball you’re up and down the pitch as one, passing to and fro, probing the defence for a gap, looking for an opportunity to score. Then, as quick as a flash the tide can turn and you’re sprinting back down the pitch trying to catch up with a teenager going at 60mph with the goal in his sights!

After a long hard fight, we were drawing at 4-4, until the dying seconds when the opposition scored a final goal to beat us 5-4. What a shame! But it had been a good effort. Individually, I had been pretty poor, I don;t mind admitting. I had never even handled a handball before and so I was taking a while getting used to the feel of it, how to dribble it and pass it about. It’s a small ball, but quite light and very bouncy, so it really takes some getting used to.

The next match we also lost, although I felt my performance was a bit better this time. I was still a bit of a muppet when trying to catch & pass the ball in front of the goal area – not enough power in my throws still, but I worked hard in defense and got in a few good tackles.

By the third match, we managed a draw and I was really starting to get into the swing of things. I was surprised at how well I felt – I had imagined being flat on my back by now – but I was keeping going. it was great having the girls to call upon to give us a minute’s break during the match though. They all really helped out and it was especially nice to see Rosie out there playing for us. I think it did her confidence some good and the trainer of her team must have been pleased to see her taking part.

Meanwhile, Molly’s team were trying very hard. They were the youngest team by far, and so were struggling to make an impact against most of their opposition. But they kept on trying and, although I can’t remember all the results, they played with great spirit, but lost most of their matches. We really felt for Molly – she was in goal for most of the matches, and the shots really did come raining down on her. But she put in a fine performance, pulling off some great saves and keeping her chin up. In a couple of games they had a “guest” keeper – Francois-Marie on one occasion – which gave Molly the chance to play out-field, which gave her a bit of a break from the onslaught between the sticks.

Everything stopped for lunch, when many people went home for something to eat. We had brought a small picnic, but couldn’t resist the chips on sale outside… We had a drink at the bar and chatted to some of the locals. It was a nice opportunity for us all, as the only English there, to get involved with the villagers again. Lisa had a nice long chat with Thierry, the husband of Joe’s teacher, who speaks no english at all, and found that he could understand her really well. She has really progressed over the last 6 months with her french – all it takes is a bit of confidence, which is starting to come now.

Once everyone had returned, all fed and watered (or beer-ed in a lot of cases), the afternoon continued. We played several more games as the arrangements got more and more complicated. I think it went something like: Losers of group 1 play losers of group 2. 4th place in group 1 play 4th place in group 2 etc.

As Molly’s team were 5th in their group, and we were languishing in the same position in our group, both rather unfairly we thought, there was ultimately a match between us and the girls. This was good fun and I think everyone enjoyed it. Although, of course we tried our hardest and played as dirty as we could, we were simply outclassed by our younger, fitter counterparts and they thrashed us

This then gave us an overall table of all 10 teams. There were then play-offs between each pair of consecutive teams. So the teams in 10th and 9th place battled it out. Then 8th and 7th etc. to reach the final standings.

So we had one final match to give ourselves the glory of coming 9th. And guess what? We won! Quite amazingly we managed to win a game and proved to the world that we were not the worst team there on the day. Quite an achievement we felt.

Big praise to Molly’s team though, who did fantastically well to come 5th. Congratulations girls, you were great!

Once again, we had had a thoroughly enjoyable day. Every single match was played with great spirit. they were competitive games, but always fair. There were no fights, no retaliation, no aggressive fouls, no arguments with the referee, no parents fighting on the touchline. Just a great, friendly atmosphere with great sport and great people. Every day we find more and more reasons to love it here, and that day added a whole lot more.

And although I now ache in all sorts of now and wonderful ways, I actually really enjoyed it. Perhaps there is life in the old dog yet…

Basically, handball is a cross between netball, basketball and football. The game is played with a very bouncy ball (about half the size of a basketball) and can be dribbled (with one hand) by the player as in basketball. The player can also run without bouncing, but only for 3 steps, after which they must pass the ball by throwing or bouncing it to a team-mate, as in netball. The “gardien” guards the goal much like a traditional football keeper – using any part of their body to defend the goalmouth – which resembles a football net, only much smaller.

And that is about the sum total of my knowledge of the rules. There are lots of official ones, but that’s pretty much all we’ve managed to pick up on so far! handball is actually an Olympic event, so we will get to see it in Beijing in a few weeks time, which will be good.

Molly plays with the under 12s while Rosie is with the under 18s. They both really enjoy it, I think partly because it is something totally different, and also because it’s a great opportunity to get to know some more friends from the village. Both teams have made the girls really welcome and it’s so lovely to see them a part of something like this so soon after arriving here.

Anyway, on Sunday Molly had her first tournament. She’s not officially able to play in proper matches yet as we haven’t got round to getting a license organised yet (all sport teams require a doctors certificate before they will accept you into the team properly – a good system I think). But no matter, as this was a “sans-license” tournament, meaning that anyone could play. So Molly got to take part, which was great news.

The tournament was held at Les Magnils-Reigniers, about 40 minutes from us in another of the great sports halls that they have in most villages round here. it was a combination of 4 under-12 girls teams and 4 under-18 boys teams, with the matches alternating between boys and girls. This was a great arrangement as it made for a really exciting day. Although the girls do very well, watching the boys play is a totally different experience. It’s a surprisingly fast and physical game and the chaps really do take it seriously. At times it was more like watching rugby than handball! But something that impressed us all was the spirit with which all the games were played. Although there were fouls, penalties and lots of very hard tackles, no-one got angry, no-one retaliated and there were always pats onthe back and hands shaken at the end of the match. The whole atmosphere was one of friendly excitement, with us visitors able to be neutral in the boys competition and enjoy the spectacle.

Back to the girls – Molly started as sub, but soon came on, getting involved in some attacks and defending well – she’s twice the height of most of the girls in the team, so can use her size to her advantage. Sadly we lost the first match, but the girls played well. In the second game Molly went in goal and this seemed to be a stroke of genius from the coach. As she has not been playing as long as the others she is not quite as comfortable dribbling and shooting as the others, but, as mentioned, she is big and, more importantly, very brave. So when she stood between the posts, she managed to fill the space easily and did a terrific job of keeping goal. Unfortunately the outfield players couldn’t manage to get the ball in the other net very well, so we lost that game as well. But i think everyone agreed that Molly was a good person to have in goal. For Molly, it was just like the old times with Healing Hotspurs, the local football team she was in back in England. There she spent many matches “between the sticks” and always proved a solid and fearless ‘keeper.

Unfortunately, Foussais just couldn’t manage to score the goals to get us a win until the final game of the day, where our well-deserved victory gained us 3rd place overall. Even though we didn’t get the greatest results, I think the whole team enjoyed the day and we all had a great time. The only down-side was the hard wooden benches we had to sit on. Next time we’ll have to bring cushions!

Foussais is an ancient village located in the south-east corner of the Vendée (click here for a map). It has about 1200 inhabitants and is classified as a “Petite Cité de Caractère”. It was originally founded in the 11th century and is, apparently, steeped in history. There certainly are some rather nice old buildings, and the church is Roman and seems to be quite important architecturally.

There is a book in our local Tabac all about the history of the village which I keep meaning to buy, but I am always put off by the thgouht of having to translate it. Perhaps I should start by reading children’s books and work up from there…

The village is quite vibrant, with an Auberge, a Tabac, a small supermarket, butchers, bakers (our neighbour, Michel – more of him to come!), Chocolate shop (Rosie’s favourite place), and a big sports centre. There are lots of events held in the local ‘salles’ and there are 2 local schools – St. Antoine (where our 2 youngest go) and Gaston Goulard.

We ended up in Foussais rather by chance. While looking for an area to live, we narrowed our search based on the transport links – it was vital that I could easily travel back to the UK in order to work there when necessary, so I didn;t want to be more than an hour from the airport.

The region between Nantes and Niort seemed to fit the bill quite nicely, as half-way between these two cities is a region that is around 1 hour from 3 airports, Nantes Atlantiques, La Rochelle and Poitiers. So we focussed our search on this small area. Having seen several houses on the first 2 days of our initial house-hunting trip we really were despairing about our plight. We felt we would never find anything and it was so depressing.

Then along came Marion, our saviour! She pulled out 3 great-looking houses, the second of which was this one in Foussais. Once we saw it we knew this was the one. And as an added bonus, Marion also lived in the village, so we found out everything we could possibly need to know abo ut the area too. We really fell on our feet and snapped the house up!