French Life-expat France

Yesterday was the first proper outing of 2008 for our cycling group, and despite the impending danger of snow the six of us set off courageously into the countryside. The wintry weather held off and a good time was had by all.
It constantly amazes me how much there is to discover in the lanes and [...]

During January and February the weather can be a bit, well, unappealing, and I get most of my pleasure by staring out of the window, looking miserable, and making life miserable for the rest of the family. Mrs B will tell you I always get my pleasure by being miserable but it’s not quite true…
Anyway, [...]

This week I’ve been engrossed in watching the mountain stages of the Tour de France so I haven’t done a lot of blogging or website stuff. When I’m not watching the race I like to go out on the bike myself and pretend that one day I’ll be able to cycle so casually up big [...]

Because I am planning to spend much of this week and the following couple of weeks watching the Tour de France, you might not hear much from me. I thought I would throw together a few pointers in case you feel inclined to watch a bit of the race yourself:
- The Tour de France is [...]

Yesterday being Sunday it was bike-ride day.
Each week the other members of our little cycling team come up with a route a little bit longer and a little bit tougher than the one before. I have no say in the matter because they have lived here all their lives and know every road, viewpoint, [...]

Good to see that this year’s Tour de France will be following with the traditions of the past - that is to say, with the drug and doping scandals of the past - it has just been announced that Ivan Basso, one of the favourites for this years race, has been banned from competing for [...]

A bit of a problem today - the old PC (the one the children seem to spend all day downloading viruses onto) - has given up the ghost. That must be the third of our bits of bad luck, after the swimming pool liner and the tractor.
Still I suppose I should be pleased that this [...]

The cycling season being well and truly back underway, I’ve been trying to get myself out a bit more often. My sexy new bike - a Specialized Allez Elite 27 if you’re interested - is a pleasure to ride, although I’m not sure that having a carbon-fibre seatpost really adds that much to my speed, [...]

I’m a bit stressed out at the moment, which is why I haven’t posted for a while. Lack of focus, legs like jelly, staring sadly out of the window, you get the idea.
What brought on this terrible state of affairs? Well, my hardy bicycle seems to have decided it wants to stay in the shed [...]

Well, happily or unhappily I didn’t do my ‘big challenge’ with the cyclists this morning. Seems there was a mix up over dates, and the event is next Sunday. Fingers crossed for storms, then.
Instead I just went with the usual crowd, but I can’t say it was a rest and relaxation morning - 80 km [...]

Well, 24 hours after Mrs B and the girls abandoned me I am still alive and kicking, and so is the cat, so things must be going OK. However, I’ve just had a bad experience that I thought I would share with you, so we can all learn to become better people together.
I have been [...]

The first part of this entry was made on 26th May. You might like to read that first if you have not already done so.
Two weeks ago, when I wrote about cycling lessons, I claimed there were only a couple of lessons to be learned if you wanted to be the next Lance Armstrong - [...]

With the onset of spring the amount of cycling I’m doing is ever increasing. Completely against my will, but as I have described before, all of us who cycle together on a Sunday sneak off on other days of the week for a bit of quiet practice. There is no choice, since as soon as [...]

Despite the impression you will have from earlier cycling posts I have made, I do actually get on my bike reasonably often. Now that spring has arrived, and is almost immediately being pushed aside by summer, I am getting out more often.
During the week, when I have a chance, I go for a nice quiet [...]

You will know from earlier posts that I am a born-again cyclist, and that me and my bike are kitted out like NASA Central so that I can monitor all aspects of my well-being as I cycle along - lung capacity, skin temperature, wind speed and so on. But there is one last aspect to [...]