Entartainment in the village

Wandered up to Villeréal this morning for some bread as you do in France. Wondered why there seemed to be few parking places even for this time of year, lots of people heading towards La Place du Libération where the church is. Aha, I thought, wedding, special service, funeral? No, none of these quite a crowd had gathered in the square and all looking towards the bell tower of the church. All that could be seen was a taught wire from the balcony of a house some hundred metres away.

There was quite a buzz and air of expectation and some excitement too amongst the children present. Suddenly there was a loud and long drumroll, the throng hushed and looked towards the balcony as an amplified voice addressed the crowd announcing Casse Cou Charles (Breakneck Charles) and asking for silence. Charles then began to walk along and upwards on the wire towards the church bell tower, slowly, cautiously and without the help a balancing pole. The wire started at about five metres above the pavement and the other end was some thirty metres above the ground.

Charles was proceeding gently and unsurprisingly the crowd gasped when he appeared to loose his footing but he soon recovered and was soon happily on his way again. Some tense mintes later he was approaching the bell tower when his scantily clad assistant appeared there and urged him on, the crowd were still watching with bated breath. Suddenly he ran the last couple of metres and gained the safety of the ledge on the tower much to the delight, relief and approbation of the crowd. Having taken the applause he then climbed onto a rope suspended out from the church by a gantry and proceeded to slide earthwards pausing on route cling by one hand or invert himself in a star shape and other acrobatic feats. Finally he gained the ground and was applauded long and loudly with shouts of 'Bravo, bravo!'

We thought that this was the finish of his show but not so. He disappeared into a house and reappeared on the balcony brandishing a bicycle. Well I say a bicycle but somewhat incomplete, it was not fit for road use as there were no tyres on the rims! After a number of extravagent flourishes to get the crowd going again he set the bicycle onto the wire, grabbed a balance pole, mounted the machine and laboriously began pedaling his way up the rising wire towards the tower. There were several obligatory wobbles en route as well pauses to demonstrate his agility and balancing skills. His piece de resistance halfway was to stop and slowly, very slowly stood on the pedals and proceeded to perform a 360° turn whilst still on the bicycle - result? More applause of course!

Finally he was welcomed at the top onto the arms of his delightful assistant accompanied by further applause. We were wondering just how he might absail down the side of the church complete with bicycle, no easy task perhaps. Not at all, he replaced the bicycle onto the wire, mounted with his pole and began to ride downhill; Now I've seen bike wire acts before and without exception the return trip has been made backwards but this was the exception. Having had some mandatory wobbles and stops to show some more balancing feats he eventually regained the safety of the balcony amid an absolute thunder of applause.

That was it, entertainment over. The next obvious thing to do was retreat to our favourite café in the other village square under cool stone colonnades and enjoy an fresh strong espresso. A nice way to end a short trip to the village ...