Training and Exercise

Our friends at VinEcole are registered to teach the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses that are one step down from the onerous Master of Wine qualification. Back in December I decided to do the three day intermediate course which they are holding in the first week of February.

It's a proper course complete with an exam at the end that you have to pass to claim any sort of qualification. I thought it would have been very useful for our own wine tastings at 42rvh as well as being something I just really wanted to do because of my interest in the subject.

It was, therefore, with great disappointment and sadness that I phoned Emma at VinEcole this morning to tell them that I wouldn't be able to attend - I just can't justify the cost right now - so it will have to wait until a later date when they run the course again.

One piece of good news is that, as a registered French business owner, I am encouraged to do regular training and can get assistance from the government for any training courses that I attend. As the WSET course qualifies, I will make some enquiries so that I am prepared when I can finally afford to go on the course.

Hopefully, I won't have to wait that long. We are still getting plenty of hits on the website and a steady stream of new bookings is encouraging. In fact I have some guests arriving tomorrow for four nights - not bad for mid-January - I just hope they bring some big jumpers and woolly socks with them. I haven't told them yet that we are mostly going to be eating hot soup.

Talking of hot soup, I found the leftover onion soup from last week in a tub in the freezer and had that for my lunch today - delicious - thank you Debrah.

I also took my bike out for the first time in who knows how long. No, it's not a new years resolution - just something I have been vowing to do again for some time and there seemed like no better time than this afternoon - it was dry and sunny if a little cool.

I did the circuit along the river - down to the road bridge on this side, then across and back along the far side until it brings you out under the Cité, back over the 'pont vieux' (old bridge) and through town to home - about 4 miles in all.

The river was very high as you'd expect at this time of year with all the water coming off the Pyrenees and the riverside path was full of couples walking dogs and groups of ladies out for their afternoon constitutional. Everyone gave me a 'bonjour, in that charmingly polite way that the French speak to strangers doing the same thing - be it walking into the same shop or partaking in afternoon exercise.

I passed the mule and the donkey and the ponies and the llamas and got an extremely close up view of a hawk and a jay and nearly ran over a red squirrel - it's a proper little nature trail down by the river.

I expect I will pay for my exuberance with some aching muscles tomorrow.