It's been a sporty weekend these last couple of days.

We managed to get two hours of tennis on both Saturday *and* Sunday this time round. The courts aren't always easy to get during the weekend, but this time we were fairly lucky. Especially as Sunday's courts were in the jardin du Luxembourg, which is always great even if a bit public. Our tennis is improving quite nicely at the moment though, so it wasn't too humiliating, although I'm sure nobody is that bothered by our performance. Actually my ground strokes really suck, but my serve is getting better and better. I'm one of those terrible tall big guys who can do nothing but smack a full strength serve - it's pretty much if you can return it, then you'll end up winning the point. Unfortunately everyone I play with is quite used to my serves, and they usually return them (which is why I mostly lost today!). Still, things are going well, my serve sounds more and more like a cricket bat than a tennis racquet, and I'm starting to get control of my forehand and backhand...

All this tennis was in blistering 30 degrees heat (86 degrees F?), and we were practically sliding around in sunblock. Hard work, but not at all unpleasant (actually it was gorgeous!!). There must be something in my past, but I always get nostalgic about tennis in such conditions - the stark black shadow you cast while holding a tennis racket must remind me of a lot of holidays I guess. I tried to take a photo, but you can't get a really sporty shot while holding the camera!

While waiting for the courts to be free we of course lounged around in the sun. The green metal chairs at jardin du Luxembourg are very comfortable, although the sandy floor can be a bit of a suntrap. I noticed that the ducks had the right idea, and they had all taken refuge in the shadow of a statue. I hope you can make it out in this pic (yet again, a camera phone picture, so not too great as usual);

The other sportiness of the weekend was of course the great English football team winning their first game in the world cup. We watched it at the British Embassy, since the beer there is super cheap (thank you British tax payers!). I think I'd prefer a pub really though, but we have plenty of friends there so it's as good as anywhere else. On the way to the Embassy, we could hear a huge amount of chanting going on down some of the metro tunnels. I figured that it was the English fans on their way to whichever pub (my favourite place for this kind of event is the Freedom pub - last world cup you could hear the chanting way down the Champs Elysées).

However, it turned out that they were Toulouse fans on their way to the Stade de France. They were playing Biarritz in a final to decide the winner of their rugby champions (Top 14) league.

They poured onto the same train as us, and were incredibly friendly. It was a bit alarming that they were all jumping up and down together, which made the train bounce probably a bit too much. At one point the driver stopped the train to announce that he wouldn't go any further if everyone didn't calm down a little bit. Bizarrely, the moment the driver started the announcement over the tannoy, everyone *did* stop singing to hear what he was going to say! They then booed a bit, but fortunately we started moving again.