Rugby! How important it is in the life of the village! Gravitational pole  of Sundays: the U.S.P. The Union Sportive Plaisantine.

      When I say that to " Bordeluches" (natives of Bordeaux) they laugh at it and so do I. Yes, I am a Plaisantin* and proud of it. So are called the inhabitants of Plaisance:" Jokers". Perhaps  I owe to  this name one of my favourite sayings. " To be serious in  life without taking myself seriously ".

*Note of the author and translator : here a pun on the word "Plaisantin" meaning "joker" in English


 
          I have played rugby on Plaisance stadium  but rather with the kids of my age, often during  school holidays.
 


     I have  seldom worn the yellow and black jersey ,only in unofficial games because I went on exile very early, I have worn  other colours. But that I like this jersey, this team! In my childhood, my  father Odon played in the U.S.P team. We accompanied him in the big coach full of supporters, singing loudly.. " the halves are good friends, the backs make good bargains.... " My father a player ,then a referee, inoculated me the virus of rugby. I still have, it is similar to the AIDS one, it seems, one cannot get rid of it
           Yes, Madam,yes, Sir,  perhaps you still don't know it, but the U.S P was champion of France in the  1st series championship..

           I know each street of Plaisance, I passed along them many times , on foot , by bike, by moped, I always discover something there and I never get tired of it. In fifty years  houses have been closed in the center,  new houses have been built in allotments.
           Plaisance, a "bastide" founded in the middle Ages, has two places with arcades, which is, it seems, exceptional. The  Church Place, debaptized since, - which seems a shame for a christian  place -and the Town hall place.
           How many times have I crossed these places?  thousands of times undoubtedly. Me, a poor dancer, I have even danced there during the village fetes, I have followed the "Toro de Fuego"*,a black cardboard bull from where spouted out the sparks of fireworks

*N of Translator :Toro de fuego: in Spanish "the bull of fire"

.
   The chuch place
           On the Church place, there is the famous restaurant Ripa Alta (High Bank in latin) of the famous  chef Coscuella . I must say that I rather know the lane behind it. I had a buddy  who was an apprentice cook.He came from Gavarnie and learned the trade there. We were in love with the same girl, a Parisian strictly supervised by her grandmother, a  very attractive girl  whose sweet name was that of a saint or a sinful woman :Marie Madeleine(Mary Magdalen)
 

      The Ripa Alta
           To the Cahuzac café, owned by a small  elegant old man wearing a  hat, went my parents after the Sunday mass for a ritual, that one more profane, that of the aperitif.

           As for me, I was a fan of grenadine. 

 Next page