After buying a bike from leboncoin I was keen to go on a cycle ride. I decided to take a daytrip along the piste Roger Lapébie; a cycle track running for almost 60 km from Bordeaux to Sauveterre-de-Guyenne. I planned to go halfway, then turn around. The half way point was a place named Créon. … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: October 2013
Bordeaux wine review #1
Its been a long time coming but here is the first – of what should hopefully become many – wine reviews, here on drinking it all in. Château de l’Orangerie 2011 Bordeaux It was a warm Friday evening and I was in Carrefour looking at the red wines. This particular bottle had caught my eye … Continue reading
Mon nom est Christopher mais vous pouvez m’appeler Christophe
Today I received a letter from the bank: Bear in mind that in order to get a French bank account I needed a lot of paperwork. I had to give them a photocopy of my passport, my contract of employment, previous bills, etc, etc… and in all of these documents my name is clearly … Continue reading
French lesson number 1 – Sauf vélos
I believe the only way I would ever learn a language is the full immersive experience. Hence why I moved to France. Being surrounded by the language means new words crop up everywhere. In Bordeaux this sign is very commonplace… … and being a cyclist I am happy about that. ‘Sauf’ means ‘except’ and is … Continue reading
FIP / a fantastic French radio station
In my opinion FIP is as close to perfection as radio stations get, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. You can listen to it here… just scroll to the bottom of the page and écouter direct. The songs never seem to have much in common, except that they are all interesting and top quality. … Continue reading
J’ai l’esprit de l’escalier
Everybody must have been in this situation; you are having a conversation (or argument) with somebody and only once the conversation is over do you realise what you should have said. Here is an example of what I’m talking about: This is how I feel after almost every interaction that I have in … Continue reading
French test number 1 – Buying a bike from Leboncoin
Once I’d found a job and a place to live the next thing I wanted to cross off my list was getting a bike. I had seen some nice simple singlespeed vélos in a shop called GoSport, but they were a bit pricey. So I looked on the French equivalent of Gumtree; a site called … Continue reading