A Happy Birthday Card

Niall and Antoinette gave me one of the best birthday card ever. I made a timelapse movie of it.

I hope it works - blogger is really haphazard at the moment 

An Interesting Day

I had my first proper day out yesterday. 

We started with lunch at Au Bon Coin in le Petit Pressigny. We've lived here for over 15 years, and never eaten there before. Which is a mistake, because it's an absolutely typical French Workers Restaurant, with 4 courses for 15€90. Everything was tasty and well prepared, and a convivial time was had by all.

After lunch I  drove us to Tours in the Cactus so I could relocate Claudette to Amboise for tomorrow. We then drove the cactus home, for a total of 180km.

No pictures, but here's some theme music:

Once Upon a Time in Loches -- the Liberation of Loches 6 September 1944

 

"This new occupation of Loches extended over ten days during which the Germans progressively left for the Eastern Front. The residents of Loches witnessed an incessant stream of German trucks. The whole time the Germans were fleeing by any means possible, including by bicycle. Loches didn't immediately believe in the Liberation.

On 2 September 1944 the last German soldiers left the town. On 3 September a car full of maquisards entered Loches, surrounded by delighted Loches residents. Nevertheless, the town did not feel free, the painful memory of 20 August still remained present in everyone's mind.

On 5 September the rumour of a parade leads to a crowd forming in the Town Hall Square. The different maquis groups met there to work out who would do what in the parade to come and to make sure that Lecoz did not participate. An exchange with a prisonner was enough to avoid this undesirable presence.

On 6 September 1944 the liberation parade took place. The different maquis groups paraded in Loches, surrounded by flags and onlookers. But the enthusiasm was not quite so strong as on 16 August. The first 'liberation' of Loches had left the residents cautious. After an assembly in Place de Verdun there was a call to arms and a speech by Raymond Mallet. Friday 15 September an American jeep arrived in Loches with a Major Knapp on board. Everyone saw that as a sign of the real liberation of Loches and the announcement of the end of the War in the Touraine."

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This poster is part of an exhibition in the Chancellerie on 'Loches in 1944' https://www.ville-loches.fr/expositions-article-3-10-56.html

Duralex

Duralex International is a French company based in La Chapelle Saint Mesmin in the county (Fr. département) of Loiret, which manufactures tableware from toughened glass. The business was placed in receivership in April this year. At one stage owned by the famous glassworks Saint Gobain, they were also affiliated with Pyrex.

Established in 1927 near Orléans by the vinegar producer Dessaux, the glassworks was sold in 1930 to the perfumier François Coty, who used it to manufacture perfume bottles. 

 

Duralex Picardie glasses in our kitchen.

In 1934 the business was acquired by Saint Gobain and in 1935 the factory employed 575 people. Saint Gobain had just invented toughened (tempered) glass, and the factory was put to work making headlights and windscreens for cars. In the 1970s the factory produced sanitary ware and in the 1980s they were making the doors for washing machines. 

At the same time, from 1945 onwards, the factory was making tableware. Their small round Gigogne glass was launched in 1946 and it became a cult object. The nine faceted Picardie glass was released in 1954 and became even more iconic. Generations of pupils in school cantines remember comparing their 'age', by checking the number on the bottom of each glass. The 'youngest' had to then fetch the water jug for that table.

The markings on one of the Duralex glasses in our  kitchen.

These numbers, from 01 to 50, represent the number of the machine the glass was made on. It allows the factory to quickly identify a machine with a problem and fix it.

The 1960s were a golden age for the factory, with these two products known world wide. In 1965 an advertisement for Duralex won best publicity film at Cannes, and MoMa in New York and the Elysée Palace in Paris were selling the glasses in their gift shops. At the time the factory employed 1500 people.

The decline began in the 1970s and Saint Gobain sold the business to an Italian glassmaker. In 2004 the company was sold to one of its executives, with investment backers. Within a year he had filed for bankruptcy and the business was bought by their biggest customer, a Turkish wholesaler. He promptly asset stripped the factory, left it in even more debt and disappeared back to Turkey. Half the machinery and stock is missing and there is a European arrest warrant waiting for him.

After a year a Franco-British industrialist, Antoine Ioannides became president of the company and he and his brother invested some tens of millions of euros. Things were going well, and then there was a serious problem with some specialist equipment after a new furnace was installed. The business was insured but claiming the money was taking years. And then Covid hit and the principal end users of their product, cafés and bars all over the world, were all closed. It was the killer blow and the Ioannides decided to sell to try to recup some of their investment.

The business started winding down but they could not completely close down the furnace for technical reasons. It limped on with a skeleton staff. Finally in 2020 it was placed in receivership. 

Then International Cookware (Pyrex) stepped up and took over. But in 2022, after becoming the Maison Française du verre, they got caught out by the hike in energy prices. This time the furnaces were shut off, for five months, and the 250 employees put on chômage partiel (a government scheme which means that employees are paid 80% of their wage by the State, to ensure a business in temporary difficulty doesn't close permanently with all employees becoming unemployed).

In March 2024 the company was taken over by New Duralex International. They were promptly asked to pay the 'rights to pollute' fee that was associated with the previous management. Within a month they'd asked the court to proceed with receivership. 

Last month the local authority offered to buy the land and buildings of the glass factory, in order to help the employees buy the business as a workers co-operative (Fr. Societé Cooperative et Participative). The workers have 6 months to get something together to save the company and their jobs.

Entree libre

Some shops in France have a little sign in the window or hanging on the door that says 'Entrée libre'. Anglophones think to themselves 'free entry'!? WTF, it's a shop, of course it's free entry if they want any customers!!

But 'free entry' in the sense of there is no entry fee would be 'entrée gratuite' in French. 'Entrée libre' actually translates as 'enter freely', as in - 'come in, feel free to browse...'. And the implication is that there is no obligation to buy.

It's a hangover from the days when you did not enter a shop unless you had a firm intention to buy something. The shopkeeper would let you in and out usually, and upon entering you would discuss your purchasing requirements with them first, before being shown a selection to choose from on the counter. Or you might have a list, which you handed over and the shopkeeper gathered the items for you. Shops were often set up as a small space with a counter at the front, with all the goods in a storeroom behind. 

It started to change in the 1960s, but prior to that the relationship of customer to merchant had hardly changed since medieval times. There was an expectation that you chatted with the shopkeeper, exchanging pleasantries and news. If you wanted to browse you went to the market rather than a shop.

An Update on My Health

Two weeks on from having my prostate removed and things are improving. All my stitches have dissolved and I no longer have any dressings on my wounds. The nurse still calls every day to administer my anticoagulant injection, and do my weekly blood test.  The catheter came out just over a week ago, so I am retraining my bladder. Getting out of a chair, sneezing and coughing are still a challenge, but the "Protections pour fuites" are working, and lasting longer.

Yesterday I even went for a walk. It wasn't a long walk compared to my normal efforts in July, but it was a walk in some considerable heat, and afterwards I really knew I'd done it - very tired and needing a lie down. 

So, all good, and getting better.