Report on IntraVillage Games
All village events are in two parts – the event itself and the food. This was to be no exception and the planning had been going on for weeks and the hams had been marinading since Thursday. On the Saturday the “tivoli” had been put up and the swimming pool created. The swimming pool is made from hay bales lined with a plastic sheet and filled with river water. On the Sunday about 10 turned up to prepare the salade nicoise at 8:00. And all this before any games could be played.
The afternoon was warm and sunny perfect for the games and six team stood at the starting line. They were the farmers, firemen, hunters, people from the camp site, les Seralliers (a part of Availles) and a team made up of Gendarmes and English residents.
The games were the normal mixture intended to ensure that the maximum of laughs were obtained with the minimum of damage to the participants. (Pictures can be found under pictures and the events gallery. ) They included
- Rolling a bale of hay through an obstacle course;
- A race on stilts;
- A sack race;
- A tug of war for four members of each team
- A tug of war in the swimming pool
- Jousting in the swimming pool
- An egg and spoon race in the swimming pool
- A general knowledge quizz
- A race in which an object is called out and the teams have to get it from the crowd
This provided a good dose of fun and when everyone was wet and all the points had been counted up my team came fourth so we were not disappointed but as always we will do better next year.
Then it was time to serve the meal and there were about 260 to feed the meal being Sangria, the speciality of Pepito, then salade nicoise followed by roasted hams – done to perfection by Nenie and Simone. Then cheese and M. Nault’s cakes: all washed down by red wine.
And cap a wonderful day when we were starting to clear up at about 11:00 all the people who were still there helped so it took no time at all