Today, Absolutely Nothing Happened!!

I think this photo captures the mood of the day!

Aujourd'hui, il'n y a rien faire!!

Apparantly we share this kind of diary entry with that obtuse French King, Louis XVI who on 14 July 1789 used the word "rien" in his diary to describe his day. Pity he didn't notice that Parisian mobs had just invaded the Invalides and stormed the Bastille to commence the French Revolution.

This bit of trivia, which I found after reading my Lonely Planet guidebook got me to thinking. I wondered what else has happened on this day in history? A quick internet search pulled up some interesting results. Oh sure, the roman empire commenced on this day in 27 B.C and in 1957 the Wham-O company in the US, invented the frisbee, but actually 23 January throughout history appears to be an exceedingly dull kind of day!!

So with the rain falling steadily on the roof, we felt justified in keeping with history and having a dull kind of day too!! My body is thankful for the rest and it also gives us an opportunity to catch up on the french homework, house-cleaning and accounts. Oh what fun!!

While we managed to fix the camera we've really not been inspired to take any photos! So I'll confess to borrowing from the internet a little.

French Observation for the Day

The Great French Tong Conspiracy - Tongs!! An essential kitchen utensil wouldn't you think? Well for over 2 months I have been doing without tongs when cooking. I have been chasing steaks around a slippery fry pan with a fork and trying to flick string beans out of the pot with a spoon! Surely the food obsessed French would use tongs??? Well an in-depth search of the utensil section in Carrefours revealed only 2 types of tongs. Normally at Carrefours there is 5 of everything, and 500 different brands if you are talking about cheese!! One pair of tongs was long handled for the BBQ and the other had fancy silicon tips. Both were breathtakingly expensive. Consequently, I will be continuing my dexterous use of cutlery for the remainder of our stay.

So what gives? I will need to ask Liz or Marie for an explanation about the great French Tong Conspiracy!

And that's all for today. Fingers crossed that the rain will turn to snow overnight and we'll have some good skiing tomorrow.