The never-ending story

All artisans, shopkeepers and other small businessmen in Cormatin are united in their "union", the ECCA. In the middle of the village there is a big sign, where all members of the ECCA are described, and where they can be found on the maps of Cormatin and of its surroundings.
This sign is (in theory) renewed once every two years; some businesses are no more and new ones have joined the ECCA. We are waiting already over two years for our name on the notice board, but some people are not as patient as we are. The man who collects signs by the dozen (see my previous blog) had a new sign made and nailed it on the board only a few weeks before the whole thing would have been renewed by the ECCA.
But that is not all; when one leaves the parking area of the château in Cormatin to take the D981 direction Cluny, one finds on that corner a few other signs. And lo and behold, Wolfgang had managed to put signs up there as well!
The count in the previous blog stalled at a meagre 13; this has in the meantime increased to 15 (sounds like I am talking about a death toll!).

It looks as if the number of signs Wolfgang employs is higher than the maximum number of customers he can attract yearly to his beer bar!

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One cannot get lost here!

When finally, after having been for sale for a couple of years, the restaurant “Aux Berges de la Grosne” along the D981 was sold to Wolfgang Schmidberger, who turned it into a pub “Le Papyllon” serving special beers, we saw with great amusement and amazement how the signs with the name of the pub seemed to multiply themselves. It started off with a blackboard showing in chalk the opening hours. Slowly more signs appeared, telling what he sold, showing the opening hours, guiding people to the parking and the entrance, etc.

All signs were enamelled, colourful and all located on his territory, hence fixed with bolts to the walls of his property or put on poles in his garden, parking area and terrace. In a word, once you have found Le Papyllon, there is no way to miss it anymore!
How successful a pub specialised in foreign beers can be in an area where even the dentist asks you to rinse your mouth out with a Mâcon Village, is a good question. My experience with this pub is, that on one of the two occasions I sat down there to have a special beer the owner brought me a beer I had not ordered.

He sells (his words) 100 different beers, price range over € 5.00 a bottle. His excuse? The brand I ordered and the brand I got stood next to each other in the fridge. And was I finally offered the beer I ordered?

No, he took € 0.10 off the bill, because the beer I got was that much cheaper than the one I had ordered.
The pub, or better the owner, has another minus point. He does not really get many customers, and it seems that he cannot stand being alone. Hence whenever clients come in and sit down at the table, he joins them at the table and in their conversation. That maybe fun if you know the guy well and if you really like him, but if you want to sit down quietly with your partner to enjoy some peace and quiet with a special beer, this is not really what you want.

His attitude was extensively discussed during a meeting of the guitar festival in Cormatin, where more than one present there came up with the same experience.
What is a blog without statistics?

Photo 1 : sign on the Voie Verte inviting cyclists to stop here.
Photo 2 : sign at the entrance of the parking area.
Photo 3 : three signs visible from the main road and from the parking area.
Photo 4 : three other signs visible from the main road.
Photo 5 : four signs along the main road and on the door; the three signs fixed to the pole were installed in 3 phases. First the middle one, then the top one and the bottom one came last.
Summarising: Wolfgang obviously thinks that he needs twelve (12) signs to attract his beer drinkers!

The overabundance of signs around Le Papyllon invites me to pass by there as soon as possible...



One cannot be accurate enough. When recently we returned from some friends we approached Le Papyllon from a different direction. And lo and behold, Wolfgang had managed to mount another small sign on the back of a big one that was already there! And that gives us :
Photo 6 : small sign fixed on the back of the one on photo 2.
This brings us to a grand total (for the time being?) of 13...

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