La Vie en Foussais » video

Cheap flights, Fascinating Aida style

Richard — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:24:14 +0000

Following on from the previous post, where some actual, honest-to-goodness cheap flights are on offer, I bring you Fascinating Aida singing “Cheap Flights”. Thanks to the comments from Leslie, who pointed me to the video on Alex’s blog Moving From France To Ferrets (I kid you not).

Just had to share this here

Filed under: Fun Tagged: cheap, fascinating aida, feck, flights, funny, singing, song, video

Introducing our very own Partridge Family

Richard — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 17:30:33 +0000

For the last couple of months we have been spotting a family of red-legged partridges waddling about around our hamlet. They are so funny to watch and we have been trying to capture them on camera for a long time. Finally today I noticed two of them through the office window as they explored Michel’s garden next door.

So I whipped out the video camera and managed to grab some photos and video of these cute little fellas.

We just hope that they stay well clear of our cats!

Filed under: Animals Tagged: birds, garden, partridge, photo, video, wildlife

Merry Christmas from the Barleys!

Richard — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:24:43 +0000

Get your own at http://www.elfyourself.com

Posted in Uncategorized Tagged: christmas, elfyourself, video

Missed the horse show?

Richard — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:29:53 +0000

Foussais-Payre recently hosted a show-jumping event in one of the fields near our house. Unfortunately it coincided with our ill-fated attempts to dig out a space for our pool, so we never made it there. Well, someone went and has posted the video. Here it is for those of us who couldn’t make it. We’ll try next year!

[via DailyMotion - Cavelierdu85]

Spotted: The happy hoopoe

Richard — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 09:28:54 +0000

There has been much a bit of excitement at our house over the last couple of months due to the arrival of a Hoopoe. The hoopoe is a rather odd-looking bird, one that we had never seen before as they rarely venture up to england. They do migrate up to europe at nesting time though, so we were rather delighted when we first spotted him pecking around outside out house, looking for worms.

We have only ever spotted him a couple of times, although we have heard him more often thanks to his “woop-woop-woop” call. When I first heard it I thought it was an alarm clock going off somewhere in the house! After hunting high and low, I discovered him sitting on next-door’s roof. Sadly, by the time I got the video ready, he had flown off

Well, this morning he returned and, thanks to our shiny new camcorder, I managed to capture him in close-up. I apologies now as this was first thing in the morning so the camera-work is a bit shaky, and everyone was eating breakfast with the TV on, so it’s a bit noisy. But I’m glad we managed to get some close-ups of this guy as he really is quite a special bird.

Musique, musique, musique

Richard — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:22:42 +0000

Wow, what a jam-packed weekend that was! to make it easier, I’ll split our festivities into separate posts…

As I mentioned previously, Friday was Fete de la Musique day in Foussais. We wandered down to the garden behind the church, where it was all going to happen, and got ourselves established. It was a beautiful evening, the sun was still strong and there was not a cloud in the sky. The evening kicked off with a lady playing the accordion, joined by what I assumed to be her pupils – one on the accordion and one on the flute. They played a few tunes and the pupils did very well. I imagine the accordion is deceptively tricky to learn, what with it being side-ways-on and all that squeezing in and out – seems like a lot to remember to me.

Then came the kids from Gaston Goulard, the ecole publique. They did several numbers, all unaccompanied, and performed admirably. Some of them were really getting into the swing of it and were jigging along without any worries. Then they were joined by some of the children from St Antoine, including Joe, to sing a song that really confused the audience by singing alternate verses loud then quiet. Each time the quiet verse came around everyone thought they had finished and started clapping!

Then the GG kids left and the rest of the St Antoine children, including Molly, joined the “stage”. They were accompanied on the guitars by Joe’s teacher Nathalie and her guitar teacher in an anglo-french version of “Do-Re-Mi” from the Sound of Music. Lisa had leant Nathalie the DVD of the film a while ago to help her in getting the pronunciation right – the only word they struggled with was “so”, pronouncing it “soo”, but apart from that they were spot-on.

They then went on to treat us to a couple of songs that had featured in last month’s Chante-Mai, “Oh Eh Hein Bon” and “TGV”, both very catchy numbers that had the audience singing and clapping along. The kids were brilliant and we were very proud of them. it was especially nice that we had Lisa’s mum and sister with us so they could see the kids performing, something the family will miss out on very often now we are so far away.

The evening then progressed with a choir from, shall I say, the older generation in the village. I’m not sure what they were singing about, but they made quite a lovely sound and did quite a long session. The crowd were really getting into it by the end, swaying in time to the music and joining in with the chorus – great to see.

By the time the choir had finished, our troops were getting restless, so Lisa took her mum and sister plus Rosie home, while I satayed for a while so Molly and joe could play with their friends. it was such a nice atmosphere, as it always is at these events. The kids all got on and played without getting up to too much mischief and the adults could all relax and enjoy a drink on the grass.

While they played a young lad with another accordion played several songs. I have to say that I think it;s great that there was so much music on show, but the accordion did start to drag on a little bit – reminiscent of the flamenco guitar from the Stevenage concert. Thankfully the accordion was soon replaced by a chap singing some folky kind of songs, accompanied very well by a guy with a guitar. He sang a few songs, then made way for a 3-piece combo of keyboard, flute and some other instrument which I can’t remember now…perhaps an oboe. But they were very good, and nicely turned out in matching costumes too!

Once they had finished it was about time to head off. Joe had already been picked up in the car, so Molly and I walked back home. It was still a lovely long, warm night and it was a really nice way to end a very pleasant day.

A cry in the dark…by what?

Richard — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:39:23 +0000

Okay folks, I’m looking for some help again here. This creature has been entertaining us at night for a while so I thought I’d capture it’s call and see if any of my faithful readers can help me again with identifying it. You were all so great with the frogs & nightingales, I’m sure someone can tell me what this thing is

Your guesses in the comments would be great. Thanks!

Name that sound

Richard — Thu, 15 May 2008 08:24:14 +0000

I am constantly amazed by all the wildlife around us here. The other night I walked down to the lake at the end of our lane to try to capture some of the sounds this wildlife makes.

Anyone out there care to try to identify the various sounds (other than my feet crunching in the gravel obviously!), as I’m a total duffer when it comes to animals. Your David Attenborough-esque comments would be much appreciated!