Lardy

Lardy is a commune in the Essonne department in Île-de-France in northern France.

Inhabitants of Lardy are known as Larziacois.

Geography

The village lies on the left bank of the river Juine, which forms all of the commune's southern border.

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Lardy cake

Lardy cake, also known as lardy bread, lardy Johns, dough cake and fourses cake is a traditional rich spiced form of bread found in several southern counties of England each claiming to provide the original recipe. It remains a popular weekend tea cake in some of the southern counties of England, including Sussex, Hampshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire and Dorset. It is unrecorded in the south east counties of Essex and Kent.

Description

The main ingredients are freshly rendered lard, flour, sugar, spices, currants and raisins. Lardy cake can be eaten at any time of day as a snack, but is most commonly consumed in the afternoon with tea or coffee. Lardy cakes are very rich and sweet and eaten traditionally for special occasions, high days and holidays and harvest festivals.

The cake is made by layering thinly rolled dough with the other ingredients. As reported by the author Elizabeth David, a Hampshire cookbook advises that the cake be turned upside down after baking "so the lard can soak through." It is theoretically possible to substitute butter for lard, but as Elizabeth David puts it: "How could they be Lardy cakes without lard?". (English Bread and Yeast Cookery 1994 ed. Pg 462, footnote)

Hillclimbing

Hillclimbing (also known as hill climbing, speed hillclimbing or speed hill climbing) is a branch of motorsport in which drivers compete against the clock to complete an uphill course.

It is one of the oldest forms of motorsport, since the first known hillclimb at La Turbie near Nice, France took place as long ago as 31 January 1897. The hillclimb held at Shelsley Walsh, in Worcestershire, England is the world's oldest continuously staged motorsport event still staged on its original course, having been first run in 1905.

A very different kind of hillclimbing is done with offroad motorcycles going straight up extremely steep hills. The winner is the one which could climb the highest, or in the case more than one made it to the top, the fastest. This kind of motorsport, which requires skill as well as bravery, has a long tradition in the USA and has been popular in France and Austria since the 1980s. The Austrian event in Rachau focused on crowd entertainment, and inspired many similar events.

Kop Hill Climb

The Kop Hill Climb is a hillclimb in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire. The climb was originally established in 1910 but due to a minor accident involving a spectator on the public road that formed the hillclimb, the last competitive event was held on 28 March 1925. The RAC then banned all motorsport on public roads, making the Kop Hill Climb the last of its kind to be run on the public highways in the UK. Since 1999 Kop Hill has been the focus of an annual revival run as a non-competitive, charity event.

The Kop Hill Climb revival

The hillclimb was revived in 1999 by the Town Council and the Bean Car Club as part of the Risborough Festival, and has become an annual event again. Today, the Kop Hill Climb revival is run along non-competitive lines, to showcase cars and bikes dating back to the competitive era as well as more modern cars of interest and heritage. The event is run by Kop Hill Climb Ltd, a not-for-profit company manned by unpaid volunteers, which manages the hill climb event for the Buckinghamshire Community Foundation and raises money for local charities.

RER C

The RER C is one of the five lines in the RER rapid transit system serving Paris, France. It is operated by SNCF.

The line runs from the northwestern terminuses Pontoise (C1), Versailles-Château (C5) and Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (C7) to the southeastern terminuses Massy-Palaiseau (C2), Dourdan-la-Forêt (C4), Saint-Martin d'Étampes (C6) and Versailles – Chantiers (C8).

The RER C is the second longest line in the network, with over 187 km (116 mi) of route. Each day, over 531 trains run on the RER C alone, and carries over 490,000 passengers daily, which is 100,000 passengers more than the entirety of over 800 TGVs. It is also the most popular RER line for tourists which represents 15% of its passengers, as the line serves many monuments and museums, including the Palace of Versailles. Within the city, the RER functions like the Métro, but is faster as it has fewer stops. This has made it a model for proposals to improve transit within other cities. However some argue that the numerous stops, especially inside Paris, and combined with an old and fragile infrastructure, makes the line very slow and inefficient inside the Parisian section of the RER C.