Travail
Despite the words ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘enterprise’ being words or terms used globally, it is very much a French word. The French also invented bureaucracy and produce it in abundance, after wine and cheese it is probably thier biggest output. Now when I think of names like Alan Sugar, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Anita Roddick, I think of real entrepreneurs, but now I can officially add my name to this list of entrepreneurs. OK so I don’t have the same notoriety and never intend to, but in France I am because I climbed the Mont Blanc mountain size of bureaucracy (which none of the forenamed mentioned did) and set up a business enterprise in France.
No I have not set up a computer company, record company or a novel line in cosmetics, but instead I have registered a small property and garden maintenance company. The range of work covers property renovation, mainly internal work such as internal walls, plaster-boarding, fitting doors and windows, floors and externally patios, decking, fencing, grass cutting and general gardening. So quite a variety which is nice which means I can be normally be indoors during the extremes of weather and outdoors in pleasant weather, which fortunately we get plenty of in France.
The variety of work to-date has covered a one off cut of grass right up to a near complete renovation of a barn. You can see some of the work I’ve done in my portfolio on flickr.com. I am very fortunate to work with a friend of mine, Neil. Now in my working career I have been very fortunate to have worked with some really great people and Neil is one of them. In addition to working with me he also runs a camp site, Chez-Rambaud, which he set up with his partner Nicky.
We have our own separate businesses and we do work on our own projects, but a lot of the time we work together as our combined skills cover a bigger cross-section of work.
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Lanterne Rouge
A friend of mine recently asked whats this name ‘Lanterne Rouge’ all about. Well literally it translates to ‘red light’ not the red light found in seedy areas of towns and cities such as Amsterdam, duh!. In the case here it is the prestigious title given to the last man in the overall classification to finish the ‘Tour de France’ each year. The French almost hold as much respect for the last man in the tour as the first man. Why not? he’s done the same distance, probably gone through more pain and by the time he crosses the line in Paris he has been on the bike the longest. A special idiosyncrasy of the sport!
I guess when I was younger there was that dream of being the ‘best‘ at something, normally a sport, running, football, boxing, cycling, the list goes on. Of all of these cycling has been the one constant, so if I could have been the best cyclist around I suppose winning the Tour de France would have put me pretty close to that dream. Well the years roll by and priorities change and rather than being the best I think more like the old cliché – ‘its the taking part which counts’. Yeah, sure as cyclists we’d all love to win ‘Le Tour’ but just to have competed and finished would be more than enough, hence Lanterne Rouge!
Lanterne Rouge is primarily about cycling, but other things in my life are included as there are many hours in my life when i’m not on the bike, (then I’m just thinking about cycling)! Well for those who maybe interested, friends, family this is a little about what I’m doing and life in France generally.
Question – Guess who designed this shirt, look closely?
Answer: Paul Smith – OK not me, but along with the same name we both share a love of cycling.
Paul, I love the blog mate. Gave me a big smile to see you again. Speak to you soon, keep it up.