Pub diary (journal)

I intend to give a sort of diary report from the bar, given that not many Merthyr people run a bar in the wilds of Brittany it should be ever so slightly out of the ordinary but it won't be easy as virtually nothing happens; last night for example I closed at midnight with four customers, which beats my record of three for the last fortnight.My main trade now is around six o'clock, which is aperitif time, although as I've explained previously my trade is in beer; stout,blanche,organic blonde and a sweet draught bitter based on a recipe from the 'Ringwood brewery' in the 'New Forest' Hampshire but inspired by a visit to Castell Newydd Emlyn (Newcastle Emlyn) twenty four years ago. Most of my regulars were there; Nanard the electrician whose been around Wales with me and who went to Meic Stevens's fortieth birthday party at his birthplace in Solva, West Wales; Jean-Pierre the Council worker who gave up his job in the fish factory because of the threat of redundancy and who sells me my wood for the fire in the open hearth; René the J.C.B. driver; Gilles who is a man of all trades but seems to concentrate on plumbing and it's related sales such as washing machines; Marcel,the Mayor who was born in Plouye and came back to spend his retirement with his wife after a long sojourn in Paris,(yes we have Mayors in little villages of fewer than a thousand inhabitants), his role is also that of first Magistrate and link to the local Gendarmerie. Here I digress, I was taught that 'gendarme' translates 'police' but the police are civil whilst the gendarmes are military and come under the Ministry of Defence and not the Home Office. To continue; Michel who seems hardly ever to have worked but retired with a load of money and plenty of houses and cars, most of which he's now sold off. He's sixty nine years old yet looks and acts forty nine,he has three latent cancers but you wouldn't know it to look at him, he used to take alternative medicine but the authorities closed the place down There's hardly a country in the world he hasn't been to, traveling widely as a youngster and taking it up again in his retirement; Emile the rugby fanatic from the Ardeche region, married a local girl and is to become the father-in-law of my niece (there are very few rugby fanatics in Brittany, it's a game in the south of France and Paris, where everyone is forced to emigrate under the centralised French regime). My first customers of the day came in with a lady who was secretary to the Mayor more than thirty years ago and knew a bit about Wales and the Breton Saints, she new that Wales is 'Bro Gembre' in Breton which corresponds to the Welsh word Cymru,(in the Breton Anthem, which is a version of the Welsh National Anthem,they say Bro for country whereas the Welsh say Gwlad), that is unusual because for the French, Wales is considered to be part of England, a synonym for Gt. Britain or even the United Kingdom. Notwithstanding, the most popularly read French dictionary cum Encyclopaedia 'Larousse' clearly states " England, the largest part of Gt. Britain, limited to the north by Scotland and to the west by Wales". Sorry Cornwall you are officially part of England in the same way that Brittany is officially part of France. The confusion arises because the Franks, corresponding to the Angles & Saxons created France in the same way that the Angles & Saxons created England but they also conquered the whole of Gaul, which was not the situation in Great Britain, therefore France also became the name of the State whereas England didn't.To carry on; A couple came in and ordered two coffees, something I haven't served for years but I have to have alternatives now that I have diabetes and am not allowed to imbibe alcohol because of the sugar content. I run a pub and I've always tried to stay away from the French concept of 'cafe'. The French don't have a pub culture and refer to real pubs as Irish, especially in Brittany because many of them holiday in Ireland and bring the idea back with them, it's the same thing with stout, because of the world-wide renown of Guinness peple believe stout to be an Irish drink, which it isn't, it was accidently brewed in London for the first time when an over zealous brewer burned the malt. Later on a Welsh couple from Cardiff and Ystrad Mynach came in, they've bought a house adjacent to the the church and they're over for the 'New Year',they intend to come beck today bringing a few Welsh friends with them. Two girls came in from Sgrignac and I showed them their photos on the internet, the address of which is http://picasaweb.google.fr/www.tyelise.com and around 10.30 my last four customers came in.