There are usually just a couple of months of the year that offer sane people some respite from the tribal fanaticism of the erstwhile sport of soccer. Cricket should take over and, whilst not as gentlemanly as it used to be, still beats soccer hands down. Regrettably, once every four years, what would normally be the halcyon days of a football-free summer are ruined by the World Cup. Such is the case this year though, because we are in France where the national team seams to be doing as poorly as our own, it is not being rammed down our throats to the extent that I might expect.
Up until this trip, I’d have said that the French knew nothing of the existence of cricket. However, Francine did spot a reference in our campsite book to a site that is “close to a cricket pitch”. She can’t remember where but I assume it has to be in a region with a substantial number of ex-pats. The weather back at home in England is consistently beating our French weather so there, cricket may be continuing relatively unhindered. Were there a cricket season here, by now it would surely have been cancelled due to weather if not to soccer.
The halcyon days of summer are on hold in France, at least. Once again, yesterday we suffered a 15-hour deluge. Today was technically an improvement with the rain being light and very intermittent, though we were still being battered by very high winds. However, the ground is now so waterlogged that caravan Guillaume was surrounded by pools of standing water. The water wasn’t draining anywhere very quickly so we decided to move Guillaume up the slope of our pitch to what might hopefully be drier ground. In doing so we uncovered another poor critter that also seemed to have the impression that cricket season had been cancelled this year. I’ve never seen one before but it’s a Field Cricket. I was surprised by its size; it’s about 2cms long. It should be chirping away in the sunny fields but couldn’t seem to find anything to sing about.
We know how it feels.
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