Report 31 August 2014 Comrades! Boris has found his way to Incheon. Kim Jong-un want to know, “Why wasn’t I told???”*** Under
wonderful grey skies in South Chosen, all is well. Boris is taking photos of view from hotel window. Nothing strategic in photos. Distribute this notice to all party members! Keep vigilant! Viktor *** (Kim Jong-un is big fan of basket ball and television show, Number 96) 
Feeling a little better this morning but still rather tender, had small croissant for breakfast as we needed to travel via Tournon to collect my jacket which had been placed in a wardrobe rather than with the rest of my stuff. Traps for young players I guess but good that the lesson has been learned early in the holiday as there will be no going back once we are in Russia. We went off to Valence TGV station and had a coffee whilst waiting and took a nice photo of the family. Good single seat in the train facing forward so, although no good for photos at this spread, they is a brilliant view of the countryside. Sun is shining with just a few clouds, perfect summer’s day which is likely to change overnight as I go further north. Also noticed something different to home, we have a pet cat at one end of the carriage and a dog at the other, totally under the control of the owners, sorry, that was two dogs on the train, and as we are about to get out there seems to be a third dog on the train – nearly more pets that people.
Still suffering from dinner and spent most of the day in bed. Went off to the local lake up in the mountains but as I was so uncomfortable, was transported back home and they went off to the 30th birthday sans me. I will have a few dried biscuits for dinner and pack the bag so I can head off to Paris, Riga and Moscow tomorrow. The big journey is about to begin.
Pierre & Sylvie’s home in Grenoble
Onion festival day outside the window early morning. Had a little bit of fun with the guy selling mops etc outside the window and tried to get him to wash the 1st floor windows of the flat but to no avail. Did a walk around some of the markets but they had spring up all over town and time was not on or side. Started to head of towards Grenoble top stay at Pierre and Sylvie’s 2nd house but will have dinner in town with an old friend of the family. I ended up having unskilled cod and shell fish. Not sure what it was but I ended up incredibly bloated and have not eaten for the last 24 hours – proves you can’t trust a Frenchman.
Slept in rather late, think exhaustion probably got to me but certainly feel much better than I did when I arrived. Went for a stroll around the city and found out where we would be playing petenc this afternoon. Collected Romane from kindergarten and home for lunch. Romaine had her afternoon sleep them off to petenque where the the French were soundly beaten by 3 points
Mathilde, Julien & Romane in Tournon
24 August – Getting out of mascot was pretty pain free and there was plenty of time to spare. Good flight to Abu Dhabi where we enjoyed temperatures up round 39 which would have been great if not just coming out of negative numbers at home.
25 August – Caught the TGV to Valence 
with just 7 minutes to spare due to the plane arriving in Paris about an hour late and mine was the last piece of luggage to hit the conveyor belt. Bus took just over the hour to get to Gare de Lyon rail station which was just excellent as the driver assured me I would be there on time. Had to get the tickets reprinted as the carriage number could not be read. Train reached 297 kph and yet the view from the window was quite easy – will be interesting to see how the Sapsan from Moscow to St Petersburg fares. No point taking photos out of train window due to the speed – image is just too blurry at this speed but the fields are very green and lush.
Train travelling at 297 kph – hard to take a photo
Russia – September 2014 – overall travel map
With Ian Parminter
Comrades There is a rumour that a fellow, named Parminter, is trying to disguise the fact that he really is Boris …….; You must Beware!