Lac de Laffrey

We found a nice place close to one of the three lakes close to Laffrey, at 900m altitude.

Once arrived in the proximity of the Lake, i asked contribution to my friends to inflate the rescue tyre.

the best is coming with the pictures of susana's camera...(soon)

The look of susana is terrific with the tyre!

I saw some small fishes in the water, this indicates that the water is not so much polluted.
The water was slightly colder than in Le Paladru a week before and we had some clouds coming 1 h after we were installed.

Again a great afternoon making what children do ... hehe

Le lac de Paladru

Le lac de Paladru is the 5th biggest french lake (in water surface). It is located +/- 40 km north to Grenoble. I am not surprised that subaquatic archeology researches occur there.
Walking around the lake desperately to find a decent beach took us some time since it is full of private beaches...

http://paysvoironnais.info/fr/info_pratique/lacdepaladru_zoom.htm

Is it my rhinoceros skin and my 7 years old mental age that made me swim so much? (i expect some comments on it!!!)

jumping on the tyre.......................trapped on the tyre........coming back after the hard time!

not yet fully decided..............."how is it that i am not drown?"....the paparazzi having fun on us

The water was so warm that the fresh effect expected by swimming was limited. I still have this image of boiling water in my mind...
Susana and Ricardog were not as long as me in the water...

Funny animals happen sometimes on the borders of the lakes in France...

Like a good spanish friend said "Hola Ricardo tienes el pelo muy largo!!"

nice pony tail!....do you want to know what they are doing?

After moving so much, some noises were audible from the stomach area so we hunt for a small shop to eat a kebab and hot dogs...miam
What is the next lake we will go? ....Aiguebelette near Chambery?

A sunday in the swimming pool

Yesterday was a warm afternoon and i wanted to swim a bit at home

but i did not know the house keeper (old women) had invited some friends of her...

They were sitting behind the trees close to the swimming pool and

were half undressed taking sun bath !!!!!!!! (teets out)

I was walking to it thinking about the nice fresh water when i saw it from far... (my god!)
You know me... i am very shy !!

so i turned around and went back home...making no noise and walking on the toes ...glups. I am not sure they saw me.

It was so warm in the house that when i heard they were leaving some hours later i ran out of the house to dive into the swimming pool. What i did not know is that they were still discussing in front of the door... i then faced the group of women, fortunately they were dressed! One of them said: "look we freed the swimming pool!"
Very bashful i answeared: "oh, but there is enaugh space for everybody" as if it was not a problem... for a moment i was a bit scared that they would follow me back to the pool...
ouff ...they did not!

Sofia asked me if i had something to put on the blog about it...
hey!!! i am not making pictures of it!
I do not want to have some nightmares!

The storm (again a good one!!!)

What are the advantages of having your office window directed to the north ?
-it displays a magnificient landscape ...good;
-you are not exposed to sun radiations during the summer... good;

What are the disadvantages of having your office window only directed to the north ?
-you have no idea what kind of clouds are coming from the south!!... it is very bad when you go to work by bike!!!

Some explanations:

Trustfull seing the blue sky in the north i decided to go home that day. I picked up my bike and turned the corner of the building.... That is the moment i did the huge mistake. I saw the very dark clouds far awayand though: "mmmmuuh it it still far enaugh i have time to reach the house". Yep, but it was without being avare the wind was getting stronger and stronger, i was going towards the storm.....

***********Suite in the next episode! ********
hehe

Half the way home (exactly at the place where Sofia lived before in Fontaine), the rain begun, slowly stronger and suddenly heavier.... i had just the time to reach a bridge to protect myself.
we were 3 people stuck under that bridge... at least i was not feeling alone...

Flashes of lightnings falling all around us, heavy rain bumping the rocks around, thunder striking the highvoltage wires at less than 30 m from the bridge i was, strong wind blasts, hail (big balls of ice) ..... what an apocalyptic view....

After praying +/- 30 min there, a slight lull occured and the rain was lighter. So i decided to go. But again i had no luck and the storm got stronger a few minutes later....with no other bunkers nearby....
The hail begun bumping on my head, no hollow sound appeared, at least that comforted me .... ;)
My shoes were tranformed in swimming pool. I discovered it is very impermeable (or that the amount of water falling on it was bigger than the amound of water leaking from it.... must have been that!)
I finally reached the place, fortunately the electical portal was opened (there was an electricity cut!!!!) but both my flatmates were on the window seeing me arriving and laughing a bit!! they came back by car...
I just wang my tee-shirt and run to take a warm shower...haaaaaa

MORALITY:

In the future i will avoid to tell Sofia that i am going to the swimming pool when she says she goes to the beach in portugal.....

Visiting Sofia

I had to go to portugal for a conference and here is told the small story of the trips:
The day before my departure (saturday) i got the suitcase that a close friend (Susana G) could not take with her to Lisbon because she was already overloaded with her 5 bags of all sizes...

The arrival:

So i decided to inaugurate the tram line from Seyssins to the station of Grenoble. The thing is that i did not take enaugh advance to get to the bus on time. When i arrived to the gare routiere... the bus was just leaving in front of my nose.... thankfully i always take a bus in advance not to miss the flight. So i arrived in the airport of Lyon St exupery just 1 min before closure of the check-in.
The suit case of susana was then given to the company...
i got the flight and once arrived in Lisbon, i was a bit worried because the suitcase of my friend was not coming. This had to happen only when you have the bag of somebody else I decided to get to the Baggage claim office. There was only one person at the desk and it was 10 numbers before my turn (the football championship match with portugal was about to begin) ... i tried to call the poor girl that was waiting for me on the other side of the Douane but i must not have understood very well how a public phone works, because i did not succeed to call her.... almost 2 hours later i finally met her in the hall. I was not very proud of me...

Back from the conference:

The terrible group before the lunch of the friday evening, Sofia is very elegant!

The dinner on top of an hotel with a huge view on the see, unfortunately, the darkness of the night came very soon that evening...
Lets meet all again in 10 years?

In Santa Cruz:

Sofia invited me for a bit of beach time in one of her preferred place. We both enjoyed the time passed there, it was great and nice to relax after so much pressure on our shoulders.

A bit before 12h

watch-out Sofia, your bag behind!

The afternoon

Sofia told me that she was driving slowly and i asked then what it must be when she is going fast! it would be burning hell...? Actually, she drives safe and i was totally confident with her, but that was funny to bug her about it ;) hihi

It is Leonor that begun! not me!



Sofia did not forget about my birthday and i met her sister and husband .... how not to remark the little daughter, Leonor, she was as energic as a dislocated string jumping in all directions hehehe!
And she even helped me to blow the candles! I saw she was shy in the beginning but she played a bit with me after some time.



Leonor is super i had an idea of the behaviour of Sofia at that age according to her parents... no worries at all, my father told me i was insupportable as well.

It looks like they have the same nice smile gene!
Are they both chinese as well?

Sofia is a very exceptionnal women. She even can manipulate the mouse of her computer with her toes (or footfingers)!
(this picture would be perfect in respect to that if only Sofia did not hold the mouse in her hand... ups i must be french!)

the beauty ...............................................................................and the beast !

The departure: (snif!)

Just a bit before the last hugs...from the known planning, i will have to wait abit more than 2 months before i could bug her again...

did you remark as well that sometimes i am a bit distracted? again i forgot something in the place of my friend .... my swimming short...ups ... i have another but it is a bit annoying...

And the story continues...

i had the strange impression that football does not like me.... first there was the arrival of the portuguese football team in lisbon airport which worried a bit my friend since she kindly proposed to drive me to the airport. Fortunately they were gone when we arrived.

Second, the fact that i can not rely on this crap tram. I only needed it for few times only and it turns out that it was when there are manifestations or risk of popular trouble. so no tram circulation in the centre of the city. Yesterday i had to walk until the stop "Jaures" of the new line C leading to Seyssins... but it was fun because i was jumping from a bar to another to get the latest results of the match France -Italy... was all the time 1-1...

Arriving to seyssins i though the adventure was almost finished. But the moon was fully bright and a lot of strange animals are getting out of their lairs.... in the last dark (and freakening out) 50 m before reaching the house, i met a hedgehog (herisson)... this would be without interest if i was not wearing small summer shoes with a short and if the small excited animal wasn't coming quick to me.... glups, i ran away without saying good-bye and asking its name...

extenuated, the tongue brushing the stairs, i arrived finally to the kitchen to get a little thing to eat....then a guy i do not know got out of the rest room and disappeared, .... both the flatmates arrived to check if i was not a thief, their guest told them there was somebody in the kitchen, it was very funny!!!
i watched with them italy put a correction to france at the 5 final goal shots.

The conference in Aveiro 2-6 july 2006

Aveiro:

Guess where we went during the half day rest?

The dog story:

There was a dog playing the role of mascot of the congress . This poor animal wanted to play with some of the participants. One of them was presenting a poster but had not really the same point of view... So the kind dog managed to grap the poster on one side and the guy the other side ... it turns out that a part the poster's conclusions ended in the mouth of the dog which ran away... and dig a hole to put it in the earth ... after that, the dog came back to the poster area and grabbed the camera of the guy... the dog apparently wanted to put it as well in the earth. I missed some parts of the story but it is funny anyway.
sit...sit........ good dog!

WAF WAF!