Tour de France 100

Alice and I went to Laval to see the twelfth stage in the Tour de France. It was a great experience. We parked a few blocks away and followed the crowd of people as they lined up along the street waiting for the cyclists. The riders had left an hour and a half earlier and were still going strong as they whizzed through the town.

The overall leader in the race is in the yellow t-shirt.

Chris Froome of Britain riding for team Sky was in control as he passed by surrounded by his black jersey and blue helmet team mates. He is in the center of the picture above. The German rider, Marcel Kittel, would take the day's win when they arrived in Tours 4hours and 49 minutes after a 135 mile race.
It was cool being there to see the one hundredth Tour de France and following it on French TV. It will wrap up with a final stage of the race that ends in Paris on the 21st of July. And yes there's even an app for that.

Toilet Paper Rolls

Since we've moved to France we have discovered many differences in U.S. products and French made products. One of the funniest and remarkably enough, hardest to rationalize is the disposal of toilet paper rolls.

Now it clearly states on the roll that it can be discarded directly into the toilet, and even has a little picture to illustrate it for you. But this is something that I got in trouble for as a kid in the states, and had it drummed into me time and again, "You don't throw things into the toilet!" Especially after my father had to deal with a clogged toilet due to little green army men or toads. So I first put one in a glass of water to see what would happen (always the scientist).

Dropped into glass of water.

Five seconds after being dropped into water.

Ten seconds after being dropped into water.

It dissolves remarkably fast! Now for the actual drop test into a real toilet.

Drop and flush, no problem. But it still feels wrong. Am I gonna get a spanking for this?

Seafood in St. Malo

We took our daughter, Jayna, to the port of St. Malo this week to enjoy the fresh seafood. We ordered an appetizer of scallops followed by the Royal Deluxe plate for two, but it easily filled all three of us. There was lobster, two crabs, a dozen oysters, a pile of whelks, clams, cockles, snails and two kinds of shrimp. It took us two hours of cracking, digging, dipping and munching to finish this amazing and delicious meal. We loved it!