In Sapa, Vietnam

In Sapa, Vietnam

About Me

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Sharing time between Southampton and Noyal-Muzillac in southern Brittany. Sports coach, gardener, hockey player, cyclist and traveller. I studied an MA in Management and Organisational Dynamics at Essex University in 2016-17. Formerly an Operations Manager with NEC Technologies (UK) Ltd.

Saturday 7 July 2012

#Allezwiggo

Great day to be British in France today :o)

What an amazing achievement by team Sky Procycling in today's Tour de France stage:

Stage winner:  Chris Froome
Leading Team: Sky
King of the Mountains leader: Chris Froome

And, GC leader and Yellow Jersey wearer, Bradley Wiggins. Wow, brilliant performance.

All details click here:

Will be getting the Union Flag out above La Basse Cour tomorrow for Brad, hope it stays up until July 22nd when he leads the TDF home on the Champs Elysées - dare to believe in a first British winner of the Tour de France!

An Anglo-French disagreement

There are many things that unite Britain and France - two countries separated by only 35km of La Manche. Many more things separate them; language, the price of wine, the social maturity of children, the currency (maybe only until the Euro crashes and burns ....) and, perhaps most contentiously, Plaster. When I was at school we used Plaster of Paris to make casts of animal footprints - Plaster of Paris, along with most of the interesting things I did at school in science, is now banned from British schools on health and safety grounds. It is, of course, still widely available in retail outlets in France.

In the UK we are used to a pink plaster that needs to be mixed to its final consistency and then gives a consistent 45 minutes of working time. French plaster, being French, is different. It's white for a start, needs to be mixed to the consistency of cream and then left for an indeterminate period of time until it firms up (a non-linear processs) and then you have anything from five to thirty minutes get it on the walls or ceiling. Forum boards and blogs written by Brits in France are full of "How rubbish is this French plaster ...." sort of posts. And, I have to confess, when we plastered the house I imported UK plaster to do that. Faced with the enormous task of plastering the utility area in the lean-to and all the upstairs and downstairs barn ceilings, Adam, Barbara and I thought we'd better get the hang of this French stuff.

Plaster seems to me to be a metaphor for the different working methods in the two countries - UK style is to use something consistent, get it done fast, shave off all the time possible and get on to the next job; the French style requires faith that the end will be reached, allows a certain undefined period of time for reflection and discussion while casually stirring the wet plaster sitting on the table and then, suddenly, a huge outpouring of energy once it's decided that the correct consistency has been reached.

As a precaution we used Lutece Rouge L (the L is for Lente - slow) - the C (courte for short) stuff must be amazingly quick setting - probably between pouring it out of the bucket and it reaching the table. [Interesting fact from Adam: Lutece was the Roman name for Paris and, initially, all gypsum for French plaster was mined from under the city].

We had decided to plaster all the walls and ceilings in the lean-to as a warm up for the main barn and Barbara reprised her role of mixing and timing supervisor with the drill and paddle and Adam and I were the plasterers. Plastering requires a team of two or three to be efficient, solo mixing and plastering must be a very hard task. After a couple of tricky batches (too soft, too hard) we all got the hang of the process and turned out a consistent result that, even though I say so myself, looks pretty good. It's not a mirror flat polished finish but the odd trowel mark and line looks appropriately rustic in an old building.




The other slight difference between French and UK plaster is price - about €15 for 35kg in France compared to £4.20 for 25 kg in the UK. That's about twice the price ......