You hear a lot of English spoken in the Intermarché at Le Lavandou, mostly from now to the end of summer though it never completely goes away.
And in the car park, the British stick out a mile even with or without GB number plates. They're the ones observing the clearly marked one-way system. Maybe some of them read Salut!, too.
For the purposes of this little competition, France is the haystack and a combination of English speaking customer, Salut! reader and the former petite presse - now much grander presse - at Intermarché is the needle.
In a shameless but harm-free act of promotion for a friend's new business, I shall mark today's opening of Marie-Noëlle's greatly expanded shop - it's hers, not the supermarket's - and, faute de mieux, Salut!'s own expansion (reaching the magic figure of 62,228 hits at around 10.34am French time) by offering a small prize.
An appropriate book - I will announce which book later - will be sent to the first person who approaches Marie-Noëlle and says something like: "You play badminton with Colin Randall." Then give her your name and address.
The book will have a distinctly French flavour but may not be worth a special trip from Orléans, say, or Montpellier, Paris, Grenoble or Antibes, let alone Britain, Switzerland or the Americas. There is no closing date, or at least none I can think of for now. Save for members of the Randall family, no one - not even my former allies over at My Telegraph - is excluded.
In the time-honoured tradition of British newspapers running their own competitions, I could even add "no purchase necessary". But I am not sure what Marie-Noëlle would have to say about that.
Best grab a Var Matin and hand over a euro - not forgetting to collect 15 centimes in change - or choose from the rather more expensive English titles as you establish your credentials.
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