Catching up in the heat

 I had planned something more connected, but in this heat I'm throwing together a collection of impressions from the past two months, mainly in pictures

Much of our interest over the past few months has been taken by cport, mainly cycling with the Tour de France closely followed by the World Championships.  This historical picture of the Tour show just how little protection cyclists had in the old days - even now with helmets, falling off results in serious scrapes and bruises, sometimes worse.  W followed the Tour avidly, the Danish Jonas Vingegaard an impressive winner over near rival Pogacar.  The women's Tour is a shorter week of racing in which the Belgian  Lotte Kopecky led almost all the way only to lose out to predictable Dutch strength on the final climb.  Then the World Championships in Scotland (Kopecky finally triumphing both on the road and on the track)  with some excellent mountain bike races and our first taste of BMX in all its forms.  We watched all of this on French tv and were treated to the full extasy of French commentators when the men's racing team had a clean sweep of the medals.  We were delighted to watch Tom Pidcock, who made a decent showing in the Tour, won the men's race comfortably.

Our Facebook posts have been enlivened by frequent Peanuts cartoons - here are a couple of nice ones, the second recalling M's work as a therapist!

To my surprise the Saffron Walden Old Scholars' Facebook page has provided much interest - the school site has now begun to be turned into housing.  I have even reached a state of amicable rapprochement with a tormentor from yesteryear  I did not like school at all at the time but have fond memories of some staff and contemporaries  I found this old Eastern Region map showing the Saffron Walden branch and  Ashdon Halt just beyond from which I and friends once nicked a very large station sign!

The British press has been full of stories about sewage in seas and rivers  But is too often negligent.  Maybe things are as bad in France but I doubt it.  I despair of responsible government in the UK.   Brian Bilston is on the mark....

So  here is a more hopeful poem

... though I had to when I discovered how much dust coated some of our books yesterday...

And to finish a few pictures which reflect our French life.

And a couple of funnies