While staying at La Tour Blanche in Forest-Montiers we
noticed that there is not a single restaurant or bar in the little village. A
lot of houses are empty. According to Wikipedia 547 people live here. But that
was in 1999. It must be much less nowadays. It’s a typical situation for the
north of France. Of course you can find enough places where you can eat or
drink in the bigger towns like Rue, Saint Valerie sur Somme or Abbeville. We
thought there would be more than this. Exploring a region is something we
always like to do.
So we drove on a warm and sunny day to Ponthoile. It seemed
even smaller than Forest-Montiers. In the middle of the village you can see 4
different roads, they lead to Forest-Montiers, Morlay, Nouvion and Noyelles. Very cleverly at that spot is a building that reminds of an inn, a
public-house. Nowadays you can get your petrol over there from an ancient petrol
station. There’s plenty of room in the building so there’s also a bar and a little
shop where the local people do their shopping.
After getting some petrol we decided to sit in front of the
building enjoying a perfect draught beer. You could see that the elderly lady
behind the counter and bar was very experienced as a bartender.
She was very friendly and we almost felt tempted to stay
inside. But the weather was so nice on this wonderful day in the spring of 2009
that this would have been a shame to do.
While we enjoyed our beer, people who came on bicycles
followed our example. They sat down with a lemonade, spoke a sort of Flemish
and went again very soon. On the right we could see the graveyard where a few
people were taking care of some graves. An official looking man was walking
around with a bundle of keys that would have made a warder jealous. He checked
the doors of a sort of shed that was next to a perfect lawn. On that lawn we
saw two elderly couples laying in the grass.
A man from that company walked over with two empty beer
glasses. Before he could reach the building a car stopped. The driver let the
engine run and a woman ran inside and came back within seconds with a few
packets of cigarettes. She jumped in the car and they drove away. The
bartender/shopkeeper must be very efficient. The man went in the building and
came back with two filled glasses and walked back to his company. I have never
seen this before. In the Netherlands you would get plastic cups, they would never
trust you with glasses. And I couldn’t imagine that this would happen in the UK
either.
After four more cars with men behind the steering wheel and
women who ran in for cigarettes, the man came back and delivered the glasses to
the bartender/shopkeeper. She obviously knew who to trust.
When I wanted to pay, a woman and a girl came with a car and
went into the shop department.
They didn’t need to wait a long time, they were served very
quickly and yet in a very friendly way.
I had to pay for the petrol and the beer so decided to pay
with my credit card. The lady frowned when she saw the card and sighed. She
messed a bit with the machine and nothing happened. She wiped my card, sighed
and tried again. But nothing happened. She said a French word I didn’t know.
Probably not a very nice word.
From the back of the building an elderly man and a younger
woman appeared. The man took the card from her hands and also the machine and
then I had paid within seconds. The lady said that she was never going to get
used to this modern paying. Why did people not pay with proper money? The girl
and the man laughed out loud. When we left the lady was still shaking her head.
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