IN 1967 a young Breton schoolboy was shocked as he watched televised pictures of the Biafran war in Nigeria.
These pictures triggered a dream in the young Jean-Marc Le Bail to find a way to help African people. In 1978 he built his own house and joined an ecological society which supported third world projects.
Much planning goes into the Tour and here is the 2008 routeTHE Tour de France starts from Brest, in Brittany on Saturday, July 5 and finishes in the usual spectacular style on the Champs Élysées, Paris, on July 27.
FOR biking enthusiasts the time to become passionate about the cycling championships has come round again.
Semur en Auxois, Cote d’Or, which staged the 7th stage of the 2007 Tour de France, is the venue for Les Championnats de France de Cyclisme sur Route (the French road cycling championships) which comes to Burgundy for the fifth time.
The championships run from Thursday, June 26 until Sunday, June 29, in Semur en Auxois itself and surrounding villages. This being the last chance for the professionals to achieve their best times before the Tour de France which starts on July 5.
THE Irish town of Dún Laoghaire (pronounced dun Leary) has turned to the Côte d’Or to help support its plans to erect a statue to the High King Laoghaire (Ard-Ri Laoghaire), the eponymous founder of the ‘dún’ (stone fortress) that gave its name to the town.
The town is looking to the statue of the Gaul leader Vercingetorix, which stands on the battle site of Alésia above Alise Sainte Reine in the Côte d’Or, Burgundy as the inspiration for its own.
The proposal is gaining support from Dún Laoghaire’s county council, as well as members of the local community association, led by chairperson Michael Merrigan and even the Dún Laoghaire football club whose emblem is the sacred Black Bull of High King Laoghaire.
The statue would stand in the town centre and be ready in time for Ireland’s national commemorations of the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Irish Free State.
DANCE is an expression of emotion, passion, expression and love of the art form.
And it doesn’t come much better than watching a group perform at such a high standard as that of the contemporary Dancetheatre David Earle.
The group are making their second performance in France, the last being in 2006 and they are presenting a powerful and unique project of dance to music of composers persecuted, banned, isolated, imprisoned or killed in Europe between 1933 and 1945.
I WOULD imagine many of us have moved home at some time or another and for varying reasons, writes Coral Luke.
Whether it be for work, to have more space or as an investment, you decided a move would be a pretty good idea.
But for some people a move is often undertaken in response to a negative situation rather than a positive one, and usually it never solves the problems that they believed would disappear in a new environment.
MOVING home with an older child, secondary school age of 11 upwards, is always a worry. When it is to a country where the everyday language is not the mother tongue it can be particularly stressful for the parent and for the child.
WHEN my daughter was planning to relocate to France we discussed the best way to prepare her children, then three and five, for the move.
WITH access to the internet French families are now able to research the fate of their ancestors who may have died by the guillotine during the French Revolution.
The site, Les Guillotinés, allows families to log on and uncover the appalling injustices carried out over a three year period; from 1792 to 1795.
FOR this section of education I am concentrating on the basic set up of the French state education for nursery and primary school pupils. Later I will look at secondary education and further education as well as alternatives to the state education.
As parents we all want is best for our children, whatever country we live in. We all hope they will do well, thrive, gain qualifications and be set up for life.
Moving with children inside ones own country is hard enough but moving to a different country, where they possibly don’t even speak the same language, is another matter all together.
