a little self indulgent >> more france stuff

yes I know you are probably a bored of france but it is one of those days, it has been sunny and warm. so late this afternoon we got the camping stuff out to make sure it was all ok and pitched the two tents we are taking in the front garden.
I know we are not going to france for over a week but carol is getting excited, she still only has a few shifts left.
I am on summer break but still have to write the september's surfing article for Go2 magazine, before we go as it has to go to press early-mid august. the august issue is out and a good one .
I am also playing around with another project a complete re-design of an academic web site, the deadline is september so still early, and I am still thinking about it.

any way these three pictures will hopefully sum up a part of our next surf trip to south west france (basque country).

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track map >> bank holiday

the tracking system I use on my surf98 tells me so much. just looking at this screen shot taken on Friday pm I can see that it must be a bank holiday weekend certainly a weekend as no one from cornwall has even looked in the last 10 minutes as the map shows.
in days passed people would drive down from all over the UK on the off chance of surf but now with all the surf forecast and report sites like mine you check on-line first.
on the subject of bank holidays I will not be updating this blog until tuesday next unless I can't help my self.
the surf98 forecast website of course will be updated as usual.

vw camper >> for me surely not!

I know that I have mentioned vw campers negatively before and as I child I spent hours and hours in one touring around europe. I must have been through france countless times on the way to spain or italy before I was even old enough to drive never mind leave home. for that experience I am extremely grateful to my parents. but sleeping in one even as a small child for any length of time is not that comfortable.
found an interesting article on guardian unlimited detailing the vw campers that I know about.

the vw camper is still inextricably linked with both surfers and surf wannabes. as an adult I have never really wanted one, preferring to have a big car with the idea that a big car will probably be more fuel efficient, time effective, and more comfortable on all the long journeys we actually do than a vw camper, however looking at these pictures I could change my mind! well I would have to be very rich as well, and that is hardly likely.

anyway carol pointed be in the direction of this website verdier really worth a look if only for the flash work and the music.

france >> the french >> design

really is just a short post today as the pictures will hopefully talk for themselves. recently I was in a well know discount store in our city and I was very tempted to but for £3.99 a printing set that was french designed, (made in china I expect).
it had all the alphabet and most associated symbols and a kind of composing stick to place rubber movable type in order to create your custom made personal or business letter head. self load as far as ink as each time you put in back in its self contained holder it would reload the letters. a bit like the ones you can get in most stationers like the one (left) but its packaged in french. so to my eyes it looked cool.

back to the reason for this post I received a very welcome letter this morning from france nothing that unusual but it was from a place in france that we are planning to visit and stay (with my faamily). I noticed the use of a hand stamp as well as the signature of the camp-site owner.
I really liked and thought I should have bought the £3.99 french printing set it had rubber pictures/graphics as well, I bet if I go back it will have sold out.

I just thought I would share the letter stamp and the post mark as I like that too! in case you are worried we I do not go caravanning! we are taking two tents.

john bull printing set
rubber stamps
french postmarks

dijon mustard >> toilets

my earliest memory of dijon was as an eight old child driving with my family through france on the way to a wedding in switzerland in a white vw camper (left) it was 1969.

dijon was the place that for the first time I saw squating toilets, (or turkish toilets as the french call them) still popular in many areas of france, indeed across the world just not on the UK. you needed to squat on two foot shaped raised areas and complete your toilet functions into a hole. at eight in a different country I was bemused I thought I had walked in to a strange sort of shower, my mother explained and I had no trouble with the idea or their use ever since.
the experience has always made me think well of dijon as it was also that I had some what was loosely called french mustard perhaps a strange thing for an eight year old to be trying I don't think so.
I will search out dijon mustard where ever I am. luckily for me my father in law lives just south of dijon so if I can't get my favourite mustard he will bring me some on his regular visits to us. this year I will be able to buy it from the makers as we plan to visit in the summer holidays.

every year for the past five I have been part of a group of teachers who take forty, year nine students to the ardeche river and the mediterranean for a nine day water sports trip as part of their activity week within term time.
every year so far at some point I have had to explain to a handful of students what the 'strange holes' in the toilet block floor are. I think it is odd that the current generation are still as surprised by them as I was in 1969.

I still love dijon mustard though, so perhaps things don't change!