Update: - third baby born

Apologies to my readers for the lack of updates.  Our third son was born a couple of months ago and I have been distracted from this blog by the various things to do at home and work.  Mireille Guiliano has explained how French women are good at making choices.  In her case, she chose not to have children in favour of having a career.  Later, she chose retirement and writing over her role as CEO of Veuve-Cliquot.  In my case, I wanted to continue expanding the reach of my magazine and my family, meaning that my blogging about how wonderful French women are has taken a back seat.  This is not to say that I will never write any more blog posts though: - I am hoping to write some more when I have some more spare time and creative energies.

I don't tend to write much about family matters.  Bilal was never a controlling man, but he is a very private man, so out of kindness to him, I run topics that concern him or our children by him before I write them.  He is happy for me to talk about our fast-growing family, as he is very proud to have had a third son so quickly: - he is very much a man who is still in his prime.  Let's just say he is not slowing down!  He is also happy for me to talk about him being hip-hop.  However, he jealousy guards our sons' privacy and wants this to continue until they are old enough to decide for themselves how much of their lives they want to expose in public.  Therefore, all I will say about our third son is that mother and baby are both doing well, plus the father and the older two sons.

I have various things to say regarding news articles.  For instance, the LGV Nîmes-Montpellier will open to passenger traffic on the 8th of July (it opened to freight traffic in December 2017), with Montpellier's Sud de France station also entering service that day.  However, Bilal is disappointed with the fact that in the interim, it will not speed up his train journeys to visit his homies in Seville: - he loves to take our sons on the train to Seville to visit his homies (I come along when I am able).  Only a few passenger trains (not tending to cover this route) will use the station each day in the interim.  This is because it is not possible to use the new line to serve Nîmes until Nîmes-Pont de Gard station is complete.  Also, the current lack of an extension of Line 1 of Montpellier's trams to Sud de France station limits the station's usefulness.

Also, there are the French railway reforms that were recently passed.  Reforms of SNCF are badly overdue: - its workers are all too often unionised and entitled, causing the organisation to be bloated.  I am hopeful that the reforms will lead to lower taxpayer subsidies and lower ticket prices.  However, the main problem with Emmanuel Macron's ways of doing things regarding railways is his lack of enthusiasm for building new LGV routes.  François Hollande pushed back the LGV Montpellier-Perpignan and his successor looks set to push it back even further: - this route will also reduce the train time to Seville for Bilal.

There was the famous incident of Mamadou Gassama, the Malian immigrant who climbed up a few flights on the outside of an apartment block to save a baby boy in danger of falling.  There is no doubt that this man's actions saved this boy from extreme danger, though from rumours I have heard, it pales in comparison to some of the things Bilal did while growing up in La Savine.  I mentioned in a previous post that he saved a child in danger of drowning: - if the rumours are correct, this was among the tamer examples of things he has done.  Still, Bilal and Mamadou Gassama put many native-born Frenchmen to shame in terms of what they will do to protect the vulnerable.

Loads of things to catch up on, but hopefully, I will write some more posts when I have time!