What's Landis playing at?
In 2006, Floyd Landis won the Tour de France. A month or so later he was stripped of his title after a urine sample tested positive for synthetic testosterone - a performance enhancing drug that is banned in the race.
Since then, he has devoted no end of time trying to prove his innocence - he has made numerous television appearances, including one where Lance Armstrong telephoned the host to show support for him. He's spent something like £1.4million in the process , with about half of that coming from his fans from
In May 2010, he admitted to taking performance enhancing drugs. What's more, he's also implicated Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer and David Zabriskie. Now, either they have done something totally wrong, bringing cycling, especially American cycling into disrepute. On the other hand they could be innocent and Landis is just digging himself further into the mire.
No ash here!
Following on from recent travel problems, I expected some sort of farce on our trip to and from Marseille last week. On the way there, one train was delayed because of a national rail strike and in the Lyon area, loads had been cancelled but fortunately nothing to delay us at all. Then came the return journey...
0940 Marseille St C - Lille Europe
1535 Lille Europe - London St Pancras
Two trains to travel all the way from the far south of France to the heart of London (and a few steps to Kings Cross for Doncaster) with just one change of train - this being at the same station - you just have to go through security and passport checks. It's a great journey - stunning scenery and much more sociable than flying.
The day before setting off home, I went to Marseille St Charles to find out if the train would be affected by the strike and I was told by a member of staff there that the train would normally.
The following morning, we arrived at the station and Jem spotted that our train wasn't on the departure screen. Quizzing the staff, we were told we'd have to travel via Paris. I found this a little strange knowing how busy Paris was, but we boarded the train.
Arrival into Paris Gare du Lyon was punctual, but it took an age to get to Gare du Nord as the RER (Paris suburban network) was on strike too.
Paris Gare du Nord was mad. No, that's an understatement if there ever one! The station was rammed and everyone seemed to be queueing. I was glad we had tickets.
I was directed by a member of staff to join the Business Premier queue to exchange my tickets, but when I got to the front of the queue, was told that there were seats available, but only full fare Business Premier ones and the First Class tickets I had were not exchangeable (even though they are!). As I was not prepared to pay another 250 quid or whatever each, we boarded another train to Lille Europe to try and make the connection we should have made, however we weren't scheduled to get there until 10 minutes before the Eurostar left. Generally not enough time, but they could have flexed the rules a touch...
With an hour and a half to kill in Lille, so there's only one thing... Head for a bar!
We were thankfully permitted to travel on the service running two hours later, but even then we were only guaranteed a tip up seat. Wine service was slow too ...
Time for a break!
Jemma was in the second week of her Easter Holidays, I had a few days off work and it was cold in Doncaster. Off to the sun!
I was actually a bit worried as the weather forecast at one point wasn't so good for the south of France, but closer to departure time, it picked up a bit.
Wednesday
Within a few hours of leaving home, we were speeding along in a TGV heading for Lyon. It's a couple of years since we've been to Lyon - it's a really nice city and a convenient stop off on the way to anywhere else further south. It also has a number of brew pubs...
Ninkasi
Still there at Gerland and still brewing beer. Nice and sunny outside but all the tables were took up by stoooodents.
Brasserie Georges
Also still there and probably will be forever. Enjoyed a home brewed beer while we waited for a table, before being alerted by an electronic device. We both enjoyed a hearty meal of choucroute before staggering back to the hotel.
Thursday
Decided to visit Lyon's other place for brewing beer - Café Chantecler. After being sat outside for about 10 mins with no sign of service, I wandered inside for a menu, only to find that there were no house brewed beers, just the bog standard commercial tripe. Still no service so we cleared off and went back into the city enjoyed lunch at 'Le New's Cafe'. Definitely worth another visit!
Time for a beer before moving on to Marseille...
By the time we arrived at the hotel in Marseille, got ourselves sorted and had a pre dinner drink, it was getting late. On the corner of a square behind our hotel was a 'Le Peano' - an absolutely wedged pizza restaurant so we thought we'd give it a go. The food, cooked at the front of the restaurant in a wood fired oven was excellent. An interesting touch was the 'huile piquant' - spicy oil for drizzling on pizza or paste. Many restaurants have this, but Le Peano's was in old plastic Coke bottles with a hole in the top for pouring! One table of customers were bemused by this and the lady, not realising what it was tipped it up and covered her top in oil! All of this was presided over by the owners - 'Nanette et Roger'.
Friday
The original plan was to go to Aix-en-Provence, but as the weather was so good, we decided to hang around Marseille and head towards the beach later on. Lunch was at Le Plat Provencal, just down from Le Peano which was fine - nothing great, but not poor either.
After lunch, we caught the bus along the coast to the Prado beach area but unfortunately, the clouds started to get darker so we settled for a drink at one of the trendy beach side cafes.
Dinner this evening was to be at the highly recommended Le Femina. Marseille has a long north African tradition, and this is one of the finest examples of their food in the area. Service was good, portions were huge but there was one downside - payment. My card was refused. I went to the bank - it wouldn't let me get the funds out. I have a second bank account that lets me use a Maestro card abroad and I just top it up with the funds that I need for the trip. It was only later that I realised that I'd not transferred anything into it before this trip - oh dear. The guy in the hotel was very good and just told us to pop in again. I tried a few times and they were closed. I've tried calling with no response so it looks like I'll have to shove some cash in an envelope.
Saturday
A visit to Aix en Provence. Didn't really do much apart from wander round, stopping off at cafes and had a ride on 'Le Diabline' - a sort of round town tour on an electric vehicle. A very nice city - well worth a visit. A bit of a shame we didn't arrive earlier as the market was just packing away.
Our evening meal was at a new restaurant - Le Catering. Food and service was excellent - well recommended.
I have lines...
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
I must update my blog more frequently.
etc
Free sat nav for the Nokia E71
At last!
Nokia have released the new version of Ovi Maps for the Nokia E71 and navigation on it is totally free!
Visit http://maps.nokia.com/ovi-services-and-apps/ovi-maps for download options.
I want to be in Provence
I want to be in Provence.
The soft, white rock throwing out heat:
Pastis tumbling over ice cubes.
In Provence.
Your clock
Happy New Year!
I'm a bit late, aren't I? Well, I've been doing stuff, ok?
Many people make resolutions at the beginning of a year, but I generally don't as I don't really see why you should wait till a certain day of the year to decide to do something - just get on and do it.
This year though, I've trying to do something and that's waste food. We don't tend to waste that much food anyway, but we do throw stuff out and that is wrong. So, after hearing something on the radio (I think it might have been from lovefoodhatewaste.com) I decided that we ought to cut down. It
So - nearly three weeks into the year and out of the food we've bought this year, all we've thrown away is a few slices of mouldy bread and a two green, sprouting potatoes.
A good way to use up bits and bobs of things is by making soup. You don't need a recipe - just chuck your left over veg (cooked or raw) into a pan and pour in some stock (I use either Knorr Chicken Stock powder or Marigold Bouillon. Give it 15 or 20 minutes cooking time or until the veg are done and then whizz. When it's whizzed, you might need to add some water or a bit more salt and pepper and it's done. Simple. The last one I made? Bacon, celery and spinach - and it was delicious!