Politics

President Sarko has returned from his US holidays, flashy image intact. Paris Match is in the news for photo shopping his midriff spare tyre; teachers are getting ready to return to work and to face a reduction of 12,000 people in the Education department and Sarko will now face up to making all the changes he has promised. The Left is in disarray and their battle to find a leader and a political direction is about to start.

Here in the South, things are starting to warm up around the Rugby World Cup. There is lots of positive publicity on the power of the All Blacks. France is quietly confident after winning two warm up games against England, but they are wary of the pool games as they are in the pool with Argentina and Ireland - the pool of death! French rugby has quite a few south sea islanders playing professionally (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga) and so there are footy jumpers etc starting to appear in shops. Cannot say Yvonne is wildly enthusiastic about being here for the event but she is slowly getting used to the idea. She likes the idea of moving camp so is looking forward to our next two gites and the change of scenery.