It's been another one of those weeks!

The weather here still hasn't broken despite the fact that they keep predicting rain. It's been incredibly hot, something which generally only starts around mid-July but it's been going on like this for over a month now. Tuesday is Bastille Day and I'm pretty sure many of the fireworks displays will be cancelled because everywhere is like a tinder box. They'll still go ahead in places like Annecy of course, because they have the lake, but I do hope people are sensible at private gatherings. As always I'm still on about three showers a day and feeling pretty lethargic, but in the end, as long as the essentials get done, does it really matter? I heard a strange puffing sound out back the other day and when I looked out my bedroom window they were inflating a bright red hot air balloon in the field behind me. Thinking I'd got time to have a quick shower I didn't take a photo immediately but when I got back to take a picture it'd already gone. Crikey, I didn't know they were that quick!

I had a phone call from the garage to say that my new car has already arrived and when did I want to pick it up? We've agreed on 20th July so that I can get the payment through tomorrow and have my insurance set up too. Thankfully I'm not so hot that I'm not on the ball though because when they sent me the final settlement figures I noticed that they hadn't taken into account the initial €1,000 I'd already sent them!! Anyway, I stopped in at the garage to drop off all the paperwork and decided to pop over the road to see what number the bus stop opposite was, just in case I had to drop off my car and leave it all day. While I was trying to figure out timetables with a Moroccan woman who was sitting there, it turned out that there were no buses that day (great - live in the country they said), so as it was hot I offered to drive her and her daughter home - after all, it couldn't be that far! Anyhow, we got chatting and I asked her how she'd ended up in Bonneville, and that was when she more or less gave me her life story about how she had to get her and her daughter away from her violent husband!! Crikey, I'd met this woman five minutes ago and it was only a 10 minute trip to her home, but in that short space of time we'd both agreed that she really had done the right thing to dump the guy and run!!! When I say people seem to end up telling me their life stories, as you can see, I mean it!

At the weekend the kids took the littles into Geneva for them to swim in the lake. I can't really say there is a "beach" on Lake Geneva (unlike many places in France) but everyone seemed to have had a great time all the same!

"Tonton" (uncle) André with Elynn
and his gf M with her little one!

Last Thursday I also took another day trip to the Jardins Pétrifiants in the Vercors. Because of strict distance regulations there are only so many km the drivers can cover in one day but luckily enough there seem to be quite a few interesting places in the local area anyway. The gardens were lovely but again it was very hot, so often uncomfortable. I met a couple of women who asked me if I'd been on the Lake Garda trip and as so often happens, you end up yacking away like old friends more often than not!

The above three are google
images because I just couldn't
do it justice with my iPhone!

After the gardens we stopped off at a lovely restaurant for lunch, although to be honest I wasn't keen on the food for once! Still, I didn't have to cook it and I certainly didn't have to wash up so I'm not complaining! I think the real reason we went to this restaurant though was because it was just a short walk down to the river, from where we could see the houses built into the side of the mountain and which are still inhabited!

After that we had a one-hour boat trip back to the gardens before making our way back home. Would I go there again - probably not - but was it worth the visit the first time - most definitely!

I began to notice that my computer had started playing up a little while ago, so quickly ordered a very cheap one from Amazon Germany "just in case" and man am I glad I did. I had to order from Germany because I've used a Swiss German keyboard for the last 40+ years and I couldn't find my way round a French keyboard to save my life. Anyway the other day my old computer decided it no longer wanted to hook up to the internet, so I had to quickly switch to the new one because I desperately did not want to lose all the work I'd done for the old fogies club. Problem was, my new computer didn't seem to like Excel, so I was hopping back and forth from one computer to the other and virtually pulling my hair out. After a few days of piddling around though it looks like I've got the new one up and running (and which I will back up on a regular basis) and I'm getting back to knowing where the French accents are! I suppose it's like anything new, it takes a while to get it figured out, but given that at the same time my A/C unit in the bedroom went on the blink and a few other things decided to die on me, I decided to take a couple of "sod it" days and just sit in the garden and read. Oddly enough, taking "sod it" days and/or just sleeping on it very often seems to solve the problem!

I've got Charlie overnight again on Wednesday and my lovely new neighbours (who invited both sides round for a BBQ last night) were telling me about the different kids' activities they'd been to today up at La Clusaz - my favourite ski resort. If everything works out I'll take him up on the cable car to the Plâteau de Beauregard but if it rains I guess it'll have to be the indoor swimming pool rather than the lake after that. All depends on the weather of course and if Charlie's up for the cable car (I don't think he's been in one before)!

Plâteau de Beauregard!

Oh, and just to make Dave jealous, the Tour de France is coming through here again in a few days. Well it always does come through here anyway, it's just a question of how close. I'll have to look it up and see if I can get up there to get some pictures!

And finally (and I have no idea why this popped up on my Youtube stream), there was a short video of a French committee meeting where a lady representing the Ecology Party was tabling an amendment to something or other. When the Chair tried to give her the floor he got a fit of the giggles and very soon the entire committee was in stitches. At first I couldn't see why it was so funny (although watching someone giggling helplessly is funny anyway), but it turns out Mrs. Ecology Party's name was Ms Woodburn (or Bruhlbois in French) - and everyone just collapsed laughing! Just for once it was worth watching a French committee meeting in action!