England

Our first visit back to the home land after two months living in France. We had to drive the long drive (it is a very long way) leaving Grenoble on Tuesday evening after Marion finished work. We drove almost 5 hours and stayed the night in Troyes. The next morning early we started again and found the most amazing boulangerie (much better than any we have discovered so far in Grenoble) and with this breakfast fuel we motored on through the morning up to Calais to get the Eurotunnel across to Folkstone and endure the horrible English roads. We finally arrived at my parents on Wednesday afternoon almost exactly 24 hours after leaving our home.

The rest of the week we visited family and friends in Wallingford and around, went for a bike ride, did a pub quiz, a morning coffee, trick-or-treating with the kids’ friends. We watched rugby on TV (England narrowly losing to the All Blacks), ate delicous food we cannot get in France and then it was time to leave and return by airplane to Grenoble. Taxi to Luton, flight to Lyon, bus to Grenoble, walk and then tram and then walk and back to home. Exhausted.

French Lesson

Yesterday I had a french lesson at Alliance Française. Currently I am in A2 (after enduring a first lesson in A1) and we’re currently doing Future Simple, as well as comparatives, ‘y’ and ‘en’ pronouns. Stretching my comfort zone and more homework to do but I feel as if I am learning and that is good! Talking of this we also had to give a presentation using the future tense about a holiday and the activities that we’ll do on said holiday.

Weather

The weather since arriving back in Grenoble has been considerably more cold than before we left, especially in the evening and mornings. A harsh difference but one that is still +7°C above the usual maxium for this time of the year and +4°C above the usual minimum. The weather is will become colder and colder still next week. Time for the scarf, hat, gloves, and chocolat chaud!

Reading

Reading: I finished reading “Walking the Great North Line” by Robert Twigger, started and am about half-way through “World Without End” by Jancovici - Blain. An illustrated guide to the climate crisis which is thoroughly disturbing and frightening, makes me want to do something right now about the global heating / environmental catastrophy that is currently cooking the world.