Houlgate 2012 Plein Vent: 17-20 May 2012
Weather stopped some play en France...but not all! Watch this great video - Click Here
Goodbye Portsmouth
Busy on the Boat
Minkey is a hit with Mary the Brittany Ferries Lady   ~   When we arrived, we went to our digs  ~   Cosy
Then we went down to the beach. It was a lovely evening:
John flew his fighter
Keith flew his Birdie
Friday was a bit cloudy - but dry. We set up the Git Headquarters.
Topping Out Ceremony
Friday Lunch.
Mnum Mnum
Friday on the beach
Cloudy but dry with a good wind
Yellow Pages kites were a great success with the children
We met up with old friends.......
Francoise, Michel and Keith
Ludo and Abdul
...and some new ones...
Stephanie with Paul’s carbonaceous Rok ------ and Stephanie with Paul
Smartie Pants with Stephanie and John in the background
The look on Minkey’s face says it all
Friday Evening BBQ.
Keith "Browning’s eaten all the dried radishes" Alan "He didn’t notice they were laced with senna and curry" John "I did enjoy all those savoury crisps"
For the first half of Saturday, we had blue sky, sun and a perfect wind.
It had to be done .... Again !
Look at that weather. We thought "This is Houlgate proper"
It clouded over in the afternoon but this didn’t stop Keith and Paul getting out their KAP rigs.
Keith was very pleased with his first outing using the GoPro.
Here is the Git Gazebo with the usual throngs of admirers
Alan doing a sterling job of holding fort (Git Gazebo)
Meanwhile, those fighters are still flying well
Lovely poppies (or coquelicots as the French insist on calling them)
Michel D. caught Paul’s Tetrahedral from the air
Keith obviously has something to shout about.... But what?   Perhaps he’s shouting to Minkey to hold tight!
To celebrate the centenary of Roland Garros’ altitude record, this Bleriot XI flew from the beach and did a splendid series of turns for everyone to see.
Not sure what policies he means to pursue.
Well, the weather then turned from wet to very wet and then to extremely wet and then we had downpours.......... Quelle dommage ! (French) No fireworks, no lanterns, no night fly. Quelle dommage! (French again)
We went to the Casino and had a splendid meal in the wonderful company of all the kiters.
Minkey, replete with party hat seems to have cornered the pretzel thingies ......and the vin rosé (French for Vin Rose)
Our good friend  the Ustad Patangwala helps Minkey to have a jolly time.
Sunday came and, what do you know? The rain had eased off a bit....... until we decided to take the Git Gazebo down....... Then it poured.
We had our packed lunches in the marquee and then sauntered down the town, met up with Francoise and Michel. Took a few snaps..............
An arty shot of  some beer
Group shot in front of a façade (French for facade)
Paul and Alan in Le Globe. (French for something like.... The Globe)
Alan thought he might get his things together and settle down for the night.
We persuaded him to come back to the digs with us. and then sauntered back to the marquee where we had a delicious paella (Turns out this is French for paella)
A propos (French) of nothing much except the Houlgate  ambience (note two French words ) here is a picture of a typically overblown bit of local architecture.
Monday. Time to pack up and say goodbye to Natasha
Group waving at CPCV (which of course, is French)
We went to Bayeux (in France) to see the tapestry We were glad to have been able to see it. The presentation was excellent.
Arty shot of a cobble boss showing a couple of the trees which Guillaume (a French name) had cut down to make ships to sail to England to do a spot of conquering (le bâtard).
These boys really go for Group Photographs. At least Alan and Keith are unperturbed by the wide-angle lens.
The Cathedral (same word in French) is splendid.
Intensely coloured window
Then, back to Ouistreham (a place in France) to catch the ferry home
It had to be done. This picture shows how the red sled flew for about 1.3 seconds before flying backwards and getting its tail snarled irretrievably in a car on the lower deck.
Minkey gets a lovely hug from Fleur who was returning from a very wet bike Grand Prix (French for Grand Prix) in Le Mans (a place in France)
Just as we were approaching Blighty, the sun began to shine a bit - ready for the scorching couple of weeks to come.
Business end of La Normandie (named after a place in France)
France is to the left of this picture.
So there we are (or were). Another Houlgate. Weather put the dampers on things a bit but it didn’t dampen our esprit de corps (another French phrase meaning esprit de corps)
Thank you Michel for for some of your pictures - here is his splendid Flickr Photo Album
Thank you all our friends in Houlgate Agnes, Fred, Karine, Laurence, Valerie and all the Houlgate Plein Vent Team. Excellent organisation and a warm, friendly welcome.
Échange et convivialité, c’est la philosophie de ce festival!