This week in Provence word got out that I used to play football (that's soccer) in England. So on Wednesday evening a very nice chap came to pick me up and take me to play in the next village.
It turned out to be exactly the same game as I had left behind in London - a bunch of middle-aged clodders ambling around an uneven field in pursuit of a ball. Except here there are floodlights and a spectacular backdrop of a medieval village framed against the looming mass of the Luberon mountain. The only spectators are the villages's two churches, their bell-towers glowing orange in the dusk.
Wednesday is a fun game, the real thing is Friday nights, when they play in the local Provence veteran's league. To be considered for that I have to serve my apprenticeship, and then somehow displace a proper local. My legs have long gone, but so have everyone else's.
A nice place to run around - Maubec FC headquarters:
I could read this as a hobby. It makes me laugh. I hope it's supposed to
Posted by: dinah dufton | April 24, 2006 at 12:44 PM