Back to France

Monday the 22nd August was another grey day in my village of Vif, 18 kilometres south of Grenoble, but my wife had told me that it had been raining heavily in Grenoble. It was only later when reading the news on the BBC website that it became apparent how much it had rained in the Alps. Mudslides caused considerable damage around the village of Domene on the edge of the Belledonne, with gardens filled with mud and bridges washed away. Only 20 kilometres away in Vif, it hadn't even rained.

The above picture was taken from the http://news.bbc.co.uk website and shows the road in front of the bakery in Villard Bonnot. I guess they didn't have too many customers that afternoon.

Even though Lance Armstrong has left the sport, it seems that the French press is chasing him with doping allagations for the Tour de France in 1999. I am sure that the subject is not finished in the paper as they have also made comments about other samples that have tested positive for EPO.

On a more positive cycling note, this weekend was one of life's stepping stones for my daughter. It was the first time she had pedalled a bike, and for an hour she rode around in front of the house on her new bike. At the moment, she only uses her left leg but it's a start.

At two and a half, language must be a confusing thing to try and grasp. She spends three days a week with the nanny in French, and the rest of the time with us speaking English. Although we can understand her French, shes has come back speaking more English from two weeks in England and Wales on our summer holiday. Expressions like 'il est big', 'more de l'eau' and 'c'est un bird' are frequently now appearing in her vocabulary. It's as much a challenge for us to understand which language she's speaking as for her to say the words.

It won't be long however until she's correcting my bad French and asking why I speak French with a silly accent.