Well, we are back in Barcelona in the real world, one with the hustle and bustle of people but more importantly one with communications. We have been for a short break with Chris and Gwen in the French Alps on the Pass de la Croix Fry in a log cabin with no computer links, no mobile reception, no television and no radio. But with stunning, stunning views across valleys and mountains.
Whilst we were are up in the mountains the Ruby World Cup is due to start, the Cricket Twenty20 world cup will get underway, England are due to play Israel and Russia and Arsenal will go to White Hart Lane to stuff the Spurs. And that’s not to mention keeping up with Lewis Hamilton in Italy and Belgium. So the first task on arrival at the cabin is to tune the TV to Sky Sports and find out what’s going on.
Well definitely not the TV that’s for sure, there is no signal and sure enough there it is in the small print that the TV is only there for the video machine so instead of watching England and Russia we can probably watch Die Hard 23 or more probably seeing as Christine and Gwen will do the choosing it will be Gone with the Wind.
But never say die all we need to do is pop out to the local village look for the crowd of Brits in Union Jack shorts and T-shirts pop in the bar and watch the games on big screen TV with a pint of lager. Sounds OK, perhaps we would have preferred to sit at the cabin with a glass of the local wine but the pint and the big screen will do.
A tour of the villages of La Clusaz, Thones, Le Grande Bornand and Manigod produce no sign of Union Jack shorts or indeed any Brits of any description and certainly not a bar with a big TV screen. How do these people keep track of England’s progress in Euro 2008 I wonder? How will they know if Lewis wins the F1 driver’s championship. Do they not want to watch Arsenal stuff the Spurs? I suppose, seeing as they are of course all French without a smattering of English between them just maybe, as hard as it is to believe, they don’t care about England.
So for a few days here we need to forget the outside world and enjoy the local community and that is of course not difficult to do. Plenty of wine, nice lunches at local cafes, a few walks and in the pitch black of evening enjoy a lovely dinner on the balcony under the stars spotting lights in the valleys.
All is going well, the area is beautiful, that is until I try to re-arrange the shape of a particular mountain with the front of the hire car which naturally comes off in a worse state than the mountain. Fortunately no one is hurt although I did notice Christine checking our travel insurance policy shortly afterwards probably checking to see if the pay out would cover the cost of the coat she had spotted in Annecy.
The car hire company wants me to report the incident to the local police, so I arrive at the local Gendarmerie to naturally find no one who speaks English but by sign language I get the message to come back at 2.30. I arrive back and get shown into the office of a young Gendarm who says “Hello”.
Excellent someone who can speak English, I say “Hello” and continue talking, after a few words he puts up a hand in the ‘stop’ sign and says “Hello”. I again say “Hello” and start talking again. Once again the ‘stop’ sign and “Hello” is repeated by the young Gendarm. I quickly realise that his knowledge of the English language stops at Hello and as my French is not much better. We have a problem. But all is resolved with the magic of modern technology.
Here I am sitting in a Gendarmerie in a small French village in the Alps typing into Babel Fish Translation site on the internet changing English to French with a French Gendarm on the next computer doing the opposite. We can now understand each other.
“I have damaged a hire car” I say.
“Is any one hurt?” he says
“No” says I
“Was anyone else involved?” he asks
“No” I say
“Why are you here then?” he says
“The hire company says I have to report it” I comment
“We don’t care, go away” comes back the answer. I little abrupt I thought but put it down to the translation program.
In the end he rings the hire company and sorts out my problems. We shake hands, say ‘hello’ again and I am on my way to continue a very good break in the mountains.
We arrive back in Barcelona and start catching up with everything we have missed and find out that The Arsenal did in fact stuff the Spurs and Lewis is still the leading F1 driver. Unfortunately we did not do as well at Twenty20 and certainly not as well in the rugby. But all is well the kids are back at school, Alex and Dave are both busy working, no problems until Dave breaks the news. The Bodega is shut for a holiday. Time to go back to England for a break I think
