British Airways, not my favourite airline!

On the way to Sommieres yesterday, we popped into the Cave Cooperative in Carnas to taste their award winning Merlot. I had been told that it should be in bottles by now. It was, and at 4 euros a bottle it's very good value. We'll let it settle and taste it soon, but at first glance it looks good.

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England beat Paraguay 1-0 yesterday but it was very unconvincing. This was not a World Cup winning performance, but then from England, it rarely is. I'm depressed and finding it hard to write this. When will I learn?

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There I was sitting in Windsor in 2002 thinking that the major difference between an Englishman and a Frenchman was their language. Having just read the book 'Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong', by Jean Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow, I now realise how naive I was. This book is essential reading for any Anglo expat and for anyone with just a smidgeon of interest in France and its people.

Then, over breakfast this morning, Pauline mentions that her parents, as German nationals, and when they lived in Germany (they have subsequently lived all over Europe, but mostly in the UK), had to elect to not pay part of their income to the German Protestant Church. I was so flabbergasted at this notion that I asked her to repeat and explain what she had just said. It transpires that 'the German church' is heavily involved in welfare matters and gets assistance from its citizens by a deduction from income. This was such an alien concept. It's starting to dawn on me that there is an awful lot more than language that separates European countries and it's no wonder that a united Federal Europe might just be a pipe dream (not that I subscribe to the notion anyway).

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I have occasionally, in the past, had a rant at British Airways and today is no exception. They run a service between London Gatwick and Montpellier but in summer months only. How they expect to develop a client base for this route escapes me, but anyway that's what they do. Many times in previous years our visitors, who have used this route, have had to experience long delays. I know, because I do the pick up and drop off. Today was no exception. James and Pauline were phoned last Friday to say that due to technical problems with the plane, they had been moved from this morning's flight to the afternoon flight. I ask, what technical problem cannot be fixed in 2 days, and I suspect that the real reason was that the morning flight was empty (as it was coming out) and that they had lots of room on the afternoon flight. Ok, not a major inconvenience but a downright lie, nonetheless, and basically an insult to the intelligence of their passengers. So we arrived in good time to check in for the afternoon flight to be told that the estimated time of departure had been moved back a further 3 hours. What is it with this company?