In the train to Germany, ICE-cold or almost, but much more livable than at work, i.e. home. The second (or already third?) heat wave is on, but 34° C doesn’t feel this bad anymore, nor do 29° in the apartment. I’m working hard on Lucca, now two months into the game I have full ownership and feel the impact I’m having, which is highly rewarding and makes me throw in a lot. Probably too much, but it’s for a good team and a good cause. Next week I will be off, at the cottage, which is why I’m fetching my parent’s car in Germany (and Max with it, who’s spending the entire week in his favorite country). Due to catastrophic Deutsche Bahn, I not only had to buy a new ticket for Max’ cancelled train last week, but am also running 50 minutes late, which will cost me most likely most of tonight’s world cup quarter final of France facing Morocco. Germany got kicked out early, as usual, but France is quite a pleasure to watch, so no hard feelings. Topped by the Tour, which crossed the Tourmalet today and will see most likely Pogi ride it home again, except if I’m going to push him off the bike when he’s cycling nearby the cottage in one week time…

It feels like back in the pandemic days, when life slowed down due to shutdowns everywhere, just that it’s hotter. Much hotter! 37°C today in Pantin, 37° tomorrow, 39° Wednesday and 38° Thursday. Things are cooling up for the weekend, with 31° on Saturday though. We had troubles surviving in our new but poorly insulated apartment with 27° inside while it peaked at 33° outside last week, so we fled to the cottage on Sunday morning! It’s pretty impossible to accept this lack of competency when it comes to building houses, not sure where all this will lead if not to chaos and drama. Anyway, now I’m working in comfortable conditions, temperature wise. But since nothing comes for free we now have to deal with energetic Effi, who obviously cannot go to Kindergarden nor join the kids for swimming in the river. Good times anyway, and we won’t return to summer in the city before Thursday.

Cycling weekend done! I discovered the beautiful Cantal but suffered a lot from a pneumonia, as I just learned from my doctor. Still, it was fun to roam around the département with our Blacksheep van and the Gleïzes brothers. Climbing the impressive Puy Mary twice was definitely the highlight, this former volcano is standing high above everything else, the Tour de France will get there too on this year’s Bastille day. Now I just hope to recover from fatigue and everything else, summer is already here with the second heat wave striking our region. I even ordered a mobile air condition to hopefully make our apartment livable again during extreme heat. Pretty sad that our very recent building is such a fail insulation wise, and unfortunately I believe that this applies to most modern buildings…

June is here, the best month of the year! And a new record at the horizon: we’ll be returning yet again to the cottage the upcoming weekend, it’ll be the seventh time over the last eight weekends! With May behind, I also hope that all my coughing, headaches and other physical annoyances will stay behind me. Just like last year I struggled a fair bit and had to pause any physical activity for weeks. Restart is today, with the heat wave behind us I hope to get a grip again on fitness. The cycling weekend in the Auvergne with the Gleïzes brothers is approaching, while my 48 hours Burgundy loop moved back into “a crazy idea” state. Back to work, beta.gouv is driving my days with loads of janitor work on the Lucca application. This week will be my last with TopScore, while the Indian software shop NexTurn seems to do its best to step into Mike’s, Wojtek’s and my shoes it just seems that they’re way too big for them. Time will tell, but chaos seems unavoidable. Good luck to the communities, which I served starting with FFindr back in 2007 and which will have to do without me once again. It was a pleasure, and I’m going to miss the Ultimate Central world almost as much as my TopScore colleagues!

Ciao Torino! Already back on Frecciarossa from our four day weekend trip to this uncharted Italian city. With the big kids at home, Mathilde and I only had to deal with Effi aka Topolina, which was quite a heavy lift by itself. I cannot remember when I last slept through the entire night, and she’s specially tough on sleeping when away from home. Anyway, away from home it was and we had a good time nevertheless discovering Torino. Hosted by a true Airbnb and a perfect host Didie, we started all our four days at the same infinitely delicious place to get a coffee and some Italian sweets for breakfast. The Torino Exposed photo festival happened to be on, guiding us to some worthwhile exhibitions. The Fiat car test track on the top of the Lingotto building was probably the most stunning, combining industrial culture with some art and breathtaking views on the snowy Alps. Public transporting back and forth, enjoying ice cream here and there, watching the highlights of the ongoing Giro at night, and being worn out by Topolina’s infinite energy. Good days, good memories nevertheless. It’s Italy, impossible to not enjoy yourself here.