The crowds on the hillside bayed for blood as half a dozen valiant Frenchmen took on the mightiest in the world – the Scots – and suffered a noble defeat. Highland? Agreed, all the competitors sported kilts. Games? It was more reminiscent of the Coliseum in Rome when gladiators fought for their lives.
Bressuire Château is the spectacular site of the biannual Highland Games when the people of Fraserburgh, Scotland, descend on the town to meet up with their counterparts through their twinning associations. This year the added attraction at the Games was the presence of Ryan Vierra, five times World Highland Games Champion, although the brave amateur French team didn’t stand much chance against the professional hammer flinger from the USA.

To twirling batons and the wail of bagpipes, Scottish and, for the first time, Irish Pipe Bands showed how marching in time should be done, led by the experienced drum major Peter McNamee, but Scottish and Irish dancing was noticeable by its absence. Master Baker Neil Allan and confectioner Mandy Whyte, of Murdoch Allan's bakery in Strichen, demonstrated Scottish bakery and confectionery products, and there were bars aplenty to quench the thirst.
A meeting between Fraserburgh Football Club and Bressuire Football Club is on the cards for next time. Meanwhile the French team has two more years in which to perfect their technique.

Every space of Ted Seth Jacobs 17th-century house ‘Mes Illusions,’ in Les Cerqueux-sous-Passavant, has been turned into a work of art with exquisitely painted trompe-l'oeil frescoes, paintings and drawings.

www.concours-geophiles.com