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EURO HASH No.4 |
Jim et Jan Vogt |
After a week of strong winds and rain the weather decided to be nice to a band of 18 hashers on their way to France for the fourth French Hash..
Some arrived at the farmhouse on Friday from various ports to discover Jim, Jan and Louise had already been sussing out the Sunday hash, whilst picking up some of the nasty local woodland inhabitants on route. There were 10 of us for dinner at La Donjon restaurant in Vic-sur-Aisne, where we were sprayed with wine by the waitress who dropped and Wasted a whole bottle of wine due to Susanna deliberately parking her bag in the wrong place, so the waitress thought..
Saturday morning we had breakfast at 8.45 when 6 of us decided to have a bike ride through the Foret de Compiegne. Mike and Pru declined preferring to be tourists in Compiegne. The 6, Paul, Louise, Susanna, Graham, Alan and Amanda were dropped off eventually at 1.45p.m. local time after a little confusion from Susanna as to who was to be dropped off first..
2 hours later, after a great ride, painful for some, especially Graham who had not ridden a cycle for 34 years, they returned to meet. Jim and Jan at Pierrefonds for lunch. Back to the farmhouse to meet Dave, Pete and their better halves and John to get ready for the first hash of the weekend..
10 of us gathered by the pool ready for the off, whilst Paul slept on after bingeing on french cakes. The hash was in a tight area around the farmhouse and we were told not to overrun falsies. It was a good hash, all we will say is that it went up, down, round, through nettles and bushes, with loads of woodland and back through the village of Ressons-le-Long, to find that Robin, Mary and driver Carolina, the last of the group, had arrived..
We all went back to La Donjon to enjoy another dinner where the Hares gave us maps and directions to the next days hash..
On Sunday after breakfast we had a quick tour of the caves under the farmhouse then drove to Rethondes, the start of the hash, to meet up with "Slack Mac" the only hasher from the Paris Hash who was able to join us..
With a few words from the hares it was left to the pack to search out the right trail which turned out to be bog land, overgrown and lined with yellow irises until meeting a proper path. The course went anticlockwise, zig-zagging in and out using the full potential of the hills with a few long stretches and a couple of regroups. Mike, Susanna and Pru took full advantage of all short cuts, their excuse being that it was very hot and humid. At one point Pete out ran a path, picking up another trail beyond a falsie, taking a lot of persuasion from the hares to return to the true trail. At another point Paul, Dave and again Pete followed a trail that turned out to be a falsie but they continued on picking up Mike, Susanna and Pru on the way in spite of hares calling on back. They argued this was wrong and had a con-flab of 5 ex masters/mistress as to legalities. They had to wait awhile for the rest of the pack to catch up, complaining all the time about the flies and waving their fronds (despite Mike giving us anti-fly ointment to use at the start of the hash). The on-in was found after about lhr.30mins..
Back at the cars some of us were found to be infested with "ticks", Louise and Jan in particular. Vaseline was spread on any that could not be removed with tweezers..
Dave, Pete and Robin went off to collect their wives and to join us at Pierrefonds, where through a misunderstanding we were thrown out by the owner who had a nasty slanging match with Slack Mac and refused to serve us because we were English. Obviously sour grapes at France's world cup failure..
Most of us went to the local patisserie, which was rather good, Paul being a pig again and then visited the chateau. Others found more congenial surroundings near the lake to have their lunch..
More sightseeing on the route back to wine and picks at the poolside before getting ready for dinner at the Abbaye de Longpont. We had a lovely meal and were treated very well by the staff. Jim's herrings and potato were not officially on the menu but he did manage to clean out the restaurant by finishing of their last two bowls..
Monday morning after breakfast most of us were packed and ready to hit the shops on route to the ports. Graham, Pru Alan and Amanda stayed on for another day of sightseeing, meeting Jim, Jan, Louise and John at Chateau de Courcy to look around the ruins. A very interesting place, well worth a visit..
Many thanks to Jim and Jan for arranging a fantastic weekend which was enjoyed by all. They worked really hard, finding and laying two great trails. A good time was had by all who attended..
Due to Queen's jubilee no photos from Pru's camera available as chemists inundated with films to be processed.
Graham