It's that time of year again!

Week one and we're off

I couldn’t go the whole of December and not blog about the Taizé nativity scene now could I? So here you have it, the 2016 assessment of the Christmas Crib. As every year the nativity scene is managed by the permanents, so it changes each year as a new set of ideas and ideologies inspire its creation.

The whole advent period, there have been real live sheep in attendance next to the church, so no matter what day or what time you visited, there was always something to chat to. I think their last presence must have been Christmas Eve as Christmas morning they had gone. The theme this year was not as outspoken as previous years but was obviously influenced by the terrible situation in Syria. There is some beautiful Arabic calligraphy on the walls of the church, well done to whoever made those.

Week four- everyone is there except one person

Week one showed a near empty stable, a couple of sheep and the ox and ass were there. No sign of the (un)happy couple and no star. By the second week, the shepherds had arrived and the stall was full of sheep and I mean full, there has been some serious sheep creation going on by the permanents to get the numbers up. The star had made its appearance, shining over the stall.

Stunning Arabic calligraphy

The unhappy couple make their entrance in week 3 – oh dear did no one think to change those grimaces? The sheep gone and the ox and ass back - it was starting to look like Christmas. Finally in week four, the whole crowd was there, shepherds, sheep, ox and ass, empty manger and Mary and Joseph.

Finally on Christmas morning I saw the baby Jesus, snuggled in his manger. What I hadn’t realised before is that this is a double of the ox and ass model with the baby Jesus painted into the manger itself. This brought me to thinking of an idea for next year – permanents are you listening to my pearls here? You could make slip over faces or complete doubles of the holy couple giving them a smile after the baby has been born! That would brighten the thing up a bit.

Christmas Day - the main man makes his appearance

All in all, congratulations to this year’s group, you have created a lively story with interest throughout the advent period, thank you for that, it makes my weekly visits up the hill well worth it. I have one little request though, before you put them all to bed for next year’s team to use, please do something on the Mary and Joseph grimace issue. It may be a bit miserable giving birth in a cold stall miles away from home, but Jesus is the son of God and I really think that they should be happy to be the first people to see him.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Fun on the bus?

Torch bearing stilt walkers heralded the big event

The annual Cluny winter spectacle was held last week, it was freezing cold and foggy and not an evening I wanted to go out in, but as last year had been so spectacular, we felt it was worth braving the cold.

After a misunderstanding on our part about the time of the show, we arrived in Cluny far too early, we quickly saw the light and sound “happening”, visited the Christmas market and treated ourselves to a currywurst and chips from one of the stalls in the market square, which very good indeed. Still with time to spare and with feet that were starting to feel the beginning effects of frostbite, we set off to our favourite bar and quickly warmed up on mulled wine. When we heard the band leading the torch lit procession in the main street, we headed back to the market place for the main show.

Tightrope walking on top of a bus

This year the same performing troupe was being used under a different name, they were called the “Funambus” - a witty French name to show that they were using a bus to do their show. The show itself started off by the bus being “dragged” into the arena by a girl with a long pigtail (a bit bizarre but hey, live and let live) the bus then went totally crazy and started careering around its designated area, not much more than a meter from the audience and then it headed straight for a group of spectators, fortunately the brakes worked and it stopped about 1 foot short of them. Call me a kill-joy, but I felt it was a little irresponsible even without the ice that was present on the ground. It didn’t put me in a mood to really enjoy what was going on after that.

Human figurehead

Fortunately the bus then stopped and the human part of the show started. All of the action took place on a tightrope on top of the bus, it was without a doubt technically very skilful and very well executed, but for more than half an hour with temperatures at about minus 3 it was too much for a lot of the audience and numbers dwindled. We stayed to the bitter end and the finale was quite good with the tightrope walkers walking up and down while the bus was moving and the female performer acting like a ship’s figurehead, hanging on to the front of the bus.

I think that it is great that such a small town as Cluny invests in putting on a show at this time of year. It gets us all out of our houses, enjoying ourselves on a miserable bitter evening and we will certainly be back next year.

The writing’s on the floor

No parking between the 16th and 31st

Traffic in Cormatin has always been a nightmare on the 1st and 16th of the month. Why? Well that is the day the "Great Parking Changeover" takes place. What’s that? I hear you ask. The art of compromise has determined that cars will be parked on one side of the main street for the first half of the month and then on the other side of the road for the second half of the month. This means that no one has to have a line of cars in front of their door on all the days, but it isn’t half confusing for the non-regular parkers in town and most particularly for the tourists, meaning that on 1st and 16th cars are parked on both sides of the road and traffic comes to a standstill.

Someone's been writing on the floor

A couple of weeks ago we were in town buying a newspaper and fresh baguette and we saw some mysterious writing on the tarmac. What could be happening? I duly took a photo for posterity and we went home to contemplate this bit of exciting news. Was Cormatin finally going to have a sensible parking policy?

A few years ago it was decided that something had to be done about this silly parking system. No, we couldn’t all park on just one side of the road (why? – no idea) there had to be a system of alternate-side parking, but not changing twice month, a permanent alternate-side parking.

One car not in an official space..

Much debate in the council meetings has been devoted to this subject, and there has been much argument in town amongst main street and non-main street residents and even though the plans were published two years ago, no one could agree and nothing has been done.

But those little markings on the tarmac, did they mean that something might actually happen?

The diggers moved in the following week and caused a lot of chaos in town, pavements have been torn up and curbs lowered. And then they left….. those daft parking signs were still in place.

Finally last week, the painters turned up and have marked parking spaces and the parking signs have been removed. We now have permanent parking spaces, but we have far fewer than before and nipping in for your newspaper or loaf of bread isn't as easy as it was.

Another car not in an official space.....

But the big question is, has life been improved for the parkers, the residents or the traffic flow - the jury is still out on that one, but I doubt it. Parkers have already taken an anarchistic approach and are ignoring the painted spaces and parking anywhere which is blocking up the road and lorries are still thundering through town at an inappropriate speed. But we will see the real effect next summer when the campervans and caravans start to clog up our main street again. Watch this space for an update!