Hi all from Sunny South West France.

We are situated in a village called Laurede,the nearest large town is Dax, and we are an hour from Biaritz and Pau. so the Beaches and Pyrenees are 30 minutes and 1 hour away. I am in the Local cafe Post Office and Shop as my motherboard has gone pop and it being August in Frqnce not much gets done as it is Holiday month. One big shock about using this computer is the Keyboards are different, the Qwerty only operates in Uk and N.America so sorry for the spelling. I travelled down here in the Truimph Stag, anybody who knows about these wonderful pieces of British Leyland Enginering will realise this was quite a feat. I had an Auiminium Radiator fitted and it ran amazingly well. I did get a bit upset when passed by an Alfa pulling a Caravan but he was doing 130km at the time and expected to see him turned over up the road, does Barry get up to those speeds I wonder? Still, the car fits in well down here and causes quite a bit of head scratching and turning, and the hood has never been up since we came 1st July.

Life here is very peaceful and one gets use to the reduced shopping hours, banks open on Sat a.m. and then not till Tues and close for Lunch for 2 hours not bad eh Roger? (R Graves also takes 2 hour lunches (web master)). Shops also close for Lunch including Supermarkets, unless in the largest towns, so one adjusts your shopping habits, most Restaurants close on Sun Night and Monday as well , but pizza Restauants keep open, pizzas are very populer over here.

The season of Fetes in this area is very much with us in July & Aug , the sense of pride in ones village or town is very strong, Our village has a population of 250 but still a fete lasting 3 days with street bunting, lights, lots of meals and rides and beer anand wine. All of them are wrapped around the Course Landais which is a Bull or Steer competition, each village has its own ring and the bulls are let in with the horns taped up and the Men have to get out of the way at the last moment with as much style and as close to the bull as possible, while others jump over the charging bull doing somesaults. In our local town they even had bull running for the adults and calf running for the children from as young as 7. They even had the children in the ring trying to get the rosette of the calfs ear, even calfs to me could hurt a 7 year old child and 2 children did get mown down and passed out of the ring, seems health & saftey hasn't caught up over here. Last night we went to the Grandaddy of Fetes at Dax this lasts all week and the real Bullfights take place every day with all the Big Names from Spain, we went to the arena last night, it seats 3000 and saw a Display from the Camarguie in S.France they were all horeseskills with Bulls at some of the Time. But for us they had a girl no older than 7 riding side saddle at tremendous pace around the ring,then standing up behind her father on his horse with bulls in the ring, she had no hard hat on and just hung on to his neck amazing that they are allowed to do it but nobody seems to mind. Tonight the fete finishes with a huge Fire work display by the river, watched by 20,000 people and us. There is much drinking, bands everywhere and yes not a hint of bother or trouble from anybody, but being France ,there is a freedom about where to releive oneself so a odour or urine needs ro be avoided at times .

We have as neighbours the Foster Family, maybe the older people will remember Kate and Ralph?, well Miles the Grandson has setteled down here and does building work to supplement the Golf and now John & Cheryl have moved over here, so Miles is very useful for getting things done and the odd golf lesson .

Hope all is well with Rotary? Time for Lunch and a swim. We are in between families coming out, so this is siesta time, grand children do keep you very busy.

Au Revoir

Roger & Anne B