Some You Win, Some You Lose

Since we moved to France,we have been following the fortunes of ASC XIII, our local Carcassonne Rugby League team and in the last 2 weeks they have had 2 local derbies. The first match, was at Limoux which, as you can see from the scoreboard, was a win for ASC. Unfortunately, the second match against Lezignan who are top of the league, was not as successful. The final score was 14 - 28. To be honest, the better team won. They created more opportunities and capitalised on Carcassonne's mistakes. ASC are still third in the league and if they continue to play well and keep this place, they will be in next year's English Cup. There were large crowds at both matches and the atmosphere was great.

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We went for a walk across The Razes this afternoon and saw this snake. I am sure it is a viper. It was just crossing the footpath and not interested in us at all, fortunately.

Fresh Air and Fun

This week, we had read in the local papers, "If you walk around Puichéric on the 2nd Sunday in January, you risk being surprised by the noises that you hear". As the sun was shining, we decided to visit la Foire du Cochon and find out what was going on.

We walked around the village looking at the variety of stalls. To be honest, we have seen most of them at the various fairs that we visited in the last 2 years, but somehow they always look a little different. This fair was based on 'porc' products, with samples of sausages and other foods.

The highlight was the pig racing. There were 2 races at 11:30 and more at 3 o'clock. The piglets were released from their pens and had to run around a small ring, encouraged by a number of children. The piglets ran everywhere with no idea of the urgency of the occasion. One little pig even managed to get into the area in the centre where the smaller children stood. There was more squealling coming from the children than the pigs. Here are a few photos as well as a video of the event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38gMzHwfgOQ

After the races there were the customary apéros donated by the Mairie.

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As we have joined a gym which is staffed by Carcassonne Rugby League players we have been to quite a few league matches. We hadn't seen a live Rugby Union match since we left the UK, so after lunch we decided to rectify this and went to see Carcassonne versus Villefranche. The match was good and Carcassonne won, but boy, was the wind cold! It is quite exciting watching the match with a backdrop of the Carcassonne Cité.