Bastille Day Celebrations with Barton and Guestier

Kinara v Vintry

Peter, Evelyn and chief strategist Stephen

This year the Bastille day Petanque tournament was hosted by Barton and Guestier in the lovely gardens of the Raddisson St. Helans.We were the defending champions and missing the main man Gerry (I would say that!) due to Cork week so I was promoted  to the first team and was feeling the pressure. This was not helped by the fact that Stephen had had a party the night before and we were feeling a little bit "tired and emotional".

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud suggests pleasure to many but to Team Vintry it conjours up deadly fear as their teams are the standard bearers of this competition .We managed to beat them(just) in last years final so we were suitabley unimpressed when we drew the formidable opponents of Stephane Robin ,his son and a very brave employee in our group this year.In fact most of  the people in our group were excellent and it was a pleasure, after years of persisting at this tournament,to finally realise that we are not bad either. Speaking of bad ...Hollands of  Bray spring to mind.They reminded me of the lads on our team when we  first started out with this tournament..creating mayhem and comedy with every throw of the boule with the hope that the chaos would destabilise the opponents, and speaking from experience this worked for us for many years.So keep it up lads!

Peter tries in vain to save us from defeat to Dax

Anyway we won our group, so we still cannot dine in Guilbauds  for fear of death, and next thing we get Dax in the semi finals.Disaster(!).. because Dax is my favourite restaurant (sorry Stephane). So I quickly realize that  if we beat them I cannot go there again, except in disguise, and if we lose I will get indigestion every time I go there.
Need I say more ...I need to find a new  favourite or to invest in a large box of antacid tablets.

Speaking of antacid we had a lovely sparkling Chardonnay from the Loire, produced by Barton and Guestier which we tippled on throughout the day, for which no such tablet was required  despite the party the night before!
It was a real quaffer and I was seriously  impressed with it  as were my team mates .

Congrats to Barton and Guestier and all the team in Gilbeys as the total event raised €1000 euro for the Irish Wheelchair association.

Jusqu'à l'année prochaine!

Evelyn

The Vintry