The Intrepid Rosbif launches on You Tube!

Just click on the title to go direct to it, until I figure out how to take you there by clicking on the You Tube logo. It's probably extremely easy to do, and I promise to try.....

Anyway, from small acorns, this You Tube channel will hopefully soon contain a worthwhile collection of gems from this side of the water.

Amourous coach fails to charm the French

"Don't worry about it, I'm in love!" was the essential underlying theme to Raymond Domenech's post-humiliation apologies to the French public after France's 2-0 defeat at the hands (feet?) of the Italians on Tuesday night.

The embattled coach, already driving the Swiss mad with his paranoid antics back at team HQ, was interviewed minutes after his team's untimely exit from the competition, and immediately began pouring bucket loads of salt into open wounds.

Appearing relaxed and grinning casually, he congratulated this promising young team (!) and then appeared to mumble a wedding proposal to his girlfriend Estelle Denis, a young TV presenter with, until then perhaps, her whole life ahead of her. What Miss Denis finds so appealing about Mr Domenech is open to speculation - perhaps his sense of humour? It was a moment that David Brent would have been proud of.

Romantics as they are, perhaps the French will forgive Mr Domenech's ill-timed outpouring of devotion. But it occured to me that if Steve Maclaren had taken the stand on the BBC as England failed to qualify, and announced 'Look, I know it's all gone a bit pear-shaped, but then at least I've pulled', then he would have been on the next flight to Azerbaijan.

Weather sends a shiver through alpine economy

With memories of a bumper winter fading, empty terraces, torrential downpours and March-like temperatures are busy keeping the tourists away, according to today's Dauphiné Libéré.

The paper carries an interview with the somewhat inappopriately names Mr l'Heureux (President of a syndicat for hotel owners and the like), who bemoans the beginning of the summer of discontent.

"The worst start in 26 years," he gripes.

Add to the weather the weak Swiss Franc (which encourages the Swiss to stay at home), the weak pound against the Euro and the storm clouds of recession dissuading the usually travel-mad Brits, never mind the French and their unresolved problems with the pouvoir d'achat, it's not shaping up to be the best ever.

Harbingers of doom may take some cheer from an improved forecast for the end of this week and even if the bad weather continues, the silver-lining is the air quality, which owes it's unusually good readings to the unseasonal conditions.