Jenga, a beer fridge and L’entente cordiale

It was a very hot evening in August, the cicadas were almost deafening and though after 9 o’clock the temperature was still well into the 30’s.  We were on a campsite in the Ardeche in the SE of France.  My wife, two daughters and I were sitting outside our caravan making valiant attempts to firmly anchor our table in order to play Jenga.  Our activities gained the attention of the French family next to us.  They probably thought “le Roast beef” next door are just as strange as everyone says they are, as we pegged down and fine-tuned the table.  With the table secure we got the Jenga blocks out and proceeded to build our little tower.  Their sideways glances were becoming less furtive and more obvious.  As our level of hilarity increased they were now openly watching all we did, laughing as we laughed.  At the end of the game we gestured to their daughter to come and join us.  She was about 11 or 12, the same age as our eldest daughter.  She obviously wanted to come but was a little reluctant so dad came with his chair and was also invited to join in. They had not seen the game before and were fascinated.  The daughter quickly got the hang of the game, whilst dad just watched and mum took the opportunity to potter around their caravan. 

As we played and the laughter increased I asked our guests if they would like a drink.  It was at this point that the esteem of the English hit an all time high in the eyes of Monsieur.  How was this achieved?  I offered him a beer from my “beer fridge”- our “3way” chest fridge left over from our trailer tent days.  It now went with us in the car boot and on arrival lived in the awing or under the sun canopy.  I explained that the beer fridge was an essential bit of kit because my wife insisted on filling the caravan fridge with ephemera, such as salad, milk, butter and other incidentals i.e. more food.  He was very impressed by my logic and said he had the same problem.  He went to get Madame to show her how “sophisticated and civilized” British campers were (his words not mine), insisting that a beer fridge of his own was next on their caravanning shopping list.

The two families got on very well for the rest of our stay, with the girls all going to the pool and “l’animation” together and further evenings spent practising our grunting, pointing and “Franglais”. 

Moral     -     if you want to encourage the “Entente Cordiale” while camping in France all you need is are Jenga blocks and a beer fridge.

Carl