Bonjour

Had the inspiration to head up to the main house on the farm we are staying on and sitting in their garden using their internet. Kelly been for a run and her and Alana been in the pool at 9am in the morning. Carl, Malcolm and Jonathan (coach) had an early seeion at Pau naturel course. Everyone paddling at midday before we drive to Seu.
Session last night in St Pe, all went except Alana who had not had a rest session. Kelly did C1 until we fix her boat in Seu tommorrow. I stayed behind and cooked roast pork, apple sauce, gravy the lot with bread and butter pudding with choc chunks and 'past their use by date'  nectarines sandwiched between - good experiment and used up stale french stick, and went down really well with icecream. Think everyone preferred to the French experience the night before and were pretty happy when they walked in from the river at 9pm.
As I sit in the garden there are Shetland ponies walking around as pets and one is beside me munching hydrangeas from a tub by the front door- tres cute!
Demos at Seu at 6pm and opening ceremony at 8pm so hope to get there to give the team a taste of the big race experience. The GPS says a 4 hour drive so another adventure for the troops.  have to get going to clean our gite before we leave- to save 75 euros  so is worth it.

Hot and Sunny in Pau

Limited internet has meant no blog posts but here goes....
Sitting in McD's, all on laptops. Week has been great in Pau. Our farmhouse(gite) very cute and only 10 minutes to courses in Pau. Team have paddled Orthez, Pau naturel, Pau artificial and St Pe. Had two sessions on artificial course and apart from Kelly getting a hole in her boat everyone has loved the challenge The stadium has been open one year and today had an interview for a French newspaper and a local mayor was present. We got a very good rate to paddle there- 6 euros each and there were only our 5 boats and about another 5 French paddlers.
last night had dinner at a typical French restaurant- had the set menu which is better value but was interesting. Had things like duck gizzard salad, so proved a challenge for everyone, but we decided we needed to experience local cuisine and as I said you can have pizza in any country.
Had a BBQ at our house, collected wood and it was the real Mccoy- no gas there!
Tommorrow we head to Seu to watch seniors and Jane and Callum race and get the World Cup experience.

Nous arrivons Pau

Left Foix after a full day with Kidda coaching his last session in the morning. Still very cold but the sun was trying to peep through. Gibb seniors arrived as we were leaving so a quick hello and we were off to Pau. The trip took about 2 ½ hours and we arrived at 7.30pm. Jonathan Marc our French coach for the next 10 days was already there and our French farmhouse (Gite) was open. It is so gorgeous- a converted old stable with stone walls, tiles floors and chunky beams, we instantly felt at home. I had pre cooked a spag bol earlier so dinner could be relatively instant.


A plan for the next four days in this area and then in Seu , was sorted in conjunction with the plan that some of the athletes have from Thomas. There are lots of options and they will paddle at Pau artificial and natural course, Orthez and St Pe. We may also have a trip to the beach at Biarritz as we awoke this morning to blue, blue skies and even had to lash out with sunscreen.

We have no internet at our gite as it is out in the country, but Jonathan assures me the French team just sit in the car park at McDonalds and use theirs. I write this from the riverside in Pau in anticipation of uploading outside McDonalds later.

A typical day

Our day goes like this.... breakfast, to river 9.30ish for morning session at 10.30, home via supermarket for French sticks, treat (pain au chocolat or pain au raisin, 1 each), cheese, ham  etc for lunch and dinner stuff.
Lunch, video review then  3-4  hours to kill... either trip to handy man store for boat kit out stuff (glue, hack saw blades etc) some have a nap, school work , sorting photos, communication facebook etc.  They have paddled two sessions a day everyday so the week has flown.
I do dinner dinner prep so it is mostly ready when we get back. Back to river 4-5 ish, home 7ish then dinner, maybe more vid review depending on sessions.
Tommorrow will be a big pack up to move to Pau and meet up with French coach Jonathan. Kidda flys to Nottingham- luckily Andy our host will drive him to Carcassone airport as we are going in the other direction. Sandra and Malcolm will take Jane and Callum to Seu and we meet up again Friday night.

photos

Today after training most of team had a visit to a market about 45 minutes away. Was a real French market with lots of produce for sale.  Boys cooked a fantastic dinner tonight- it was actually a recipe from Lachlie Milne paddler  from AIS.

Still cold, have fire going again and hope it stops raining soon as we have lots wet washing hanging around.

Selection photos from Foix