Thursday

I am sitting in the athletes village in our tent that we share with Belgium and Poland. The heavens have opened up and we have heavy rain, thunder and lightening. Our session has been postponed until 7 pm tonight which totally stuffs our day up however we are feeling very smug as we went to the beach yesterday. Originally we were going today but as we needed to move from one place to another and get scutineering etc done so we changed plans.
It was lovely. We left Pau about 2.30 and were on the Atlantic coast swimming just after 4pm. There wasnt a cloud to be seen, the water was warm and lying in the sun very relaxing. About 6.30 we wandered down the beach from Anglet to the Grande Plage ( big beach which was actually small) near the old part of Biarritz and found a cute Pizzeria overlooking the coast. The Gibbs seniors and Kidda eventually found us and we had a fab dinner overlooking the beach. We splashed out and had drinks and yum dessert and it was all very pleasant. The sun was a giant fireball, setting and we stayed to watch the last rays diasppear before we headed back to Pau. Unfortunately I have left the cable for my camera behind so will update photos later.
This morning a 7am start to pack up from our lovely cottage at Clos Mirabel and headed to the course by 9am for the 10am session of full runs to find the postponement due to the bad weather. I guess the organisers dont want anyone taken out by lightening.
I dropped off the team and Kidda early and backtracked to a boulangerie I had spotted near the course,for the six baguettes to keep the troups fed after the session. Dedided to be like the locals and had une pain au chocolat et un cafe. Had the smallest cup of coffee ever and sat at the eating bar like the locals... seems an early morning ritual in France.
Currently kids gone for a speedy flat water session in the rain while I stay dry in the tent. No sign of the rain abating so possibly a day for school work. Yeah right!