Le Grand Crew

So it is the 14th July and I am in England. The night boat awaits so at least I will be under the French flag before midnight. As it stands this morning a Frenchman - Tommy Voeckler is leading the Tour de France. Please oh please all you other riders - let him stay in the yellow jersey tonight. He won't win the tour but he is an absolute gent and a courageous rider. He will give every gramme of his soul to fight today as the race goes into the mountains. If there is any justice he will stand on that podium tonight. Already I am filling Rosina's cottage with sounds of La Marseillaise. My edition is by La Garde Republicaine and has a real shouty urchin vocal by Mireille Matieu. A while ago there was a suggestion that the blood soaked words of the French anthem were watered down and made more PC. I think the sight of the guillotine being erected finished all that nonsense.


And now my special revelation. Anyone travelling on the overnight boat may notice a car with a bike on top - well actually it's a tandem. Gilles is something of a cyclist and I am something of a woman who rides about on a bike. Have you ever seen bored looking males in Lycra loitering about at the top of hills as you sweep by in your car. Then as you descend the hill you see a beetroot coloured female about a mile behind slogging along in the lowest possible gear. Now I can tell you that just as she arrives exhausted to join her mate, he will give a peeved "OK then!" and shoot off. The tandem is heaven and is such good training for him! The great thing is that we chat all the time. If you wanna test your relationship - get a tandem. I won't go into the history of the bike here, but it is considerable. The next project for it is a non fiction book called "Le Grand Crew." Geddit?






Emma thinx: Chain him up - he'll love it.