ATYPICAL SUMMER

Alternate periods of glorious blue skies and surprising cloud cover have typified the summer days this year. Amazingly intense electrical storms occurred during the month of July on up to four separate occasions .......... instead of the usual once, for a break in weather mid-August. As an advantage to all this, we were spared nights of stifling heat, and more play was found possible during the less oppressive late afternoons. Play on the covered courts gave occasional distressed participants describing sauna-type conditions inside, but in general our two 'bubbles' were in good use.  As an illustration of the overall lower summer temperatures, the swimming pool must have only rarely reached 24C; a facility well-appreciated anyway by the more aquatic members. The restaurant was giving good service throughout these months; staff, members and visitors benefiting from this well-situated terrace and well-proven cooking by Manu.

Now we are in mid-September and the weekly stages-activities of the teachers and visiting children are long time over.  New lessons and training sessions are in progress which I will illustrate by photos of a particularly active training session witnessed yesterday. An outside training expert was in control of a select number of Academy-level students, along with their teacher Mathieu showing an excellent example: the energy expended was exceptional!  First is Diegori flashing past:

next Nikita side-stepping on the service-line:

and Mathieu on the base-line:

John-Thomas sprinting along:

Dacha side-stepping with Damon on the base-line

All this activity going on simultaneously at great speed..........

A well-earned rest was eventually needed:

............ before the next storm brewing-up, apparently!

A happy international group working on their physical condition before the next tennis sessions.  So we have here a teacher from Corsica with students from Guadeloupe, Australia, Latvia and France, training hard together while all we others enjoy this environment in our own ways....

Happy days in the Vignal!