>Lucky. My wife and kids are in France for the school holidays at the moment, coming back tonight. Nowhere near this bridge, though- they're just across the Swiss border from Basile. Apparently they attended a circus yesterday which preserves and breeds 5 of the known remaining 200 Siberian tigers. Got to hand it to the French, they do an awful lot of stuff right, even if it is popular in some circles to jeer at them!

When I was in France this summer saw what in England is never seen any more - a circus cage truck going through the town, blaring out ftrhe venue and time of the circus, with lions prowling up and down in it. Bizarre in this day and age.

As for tigers: saw a prog. recently about Americans and unusual exotic pets. One guy has 3 tigers: 2 at the bottom of his garden and a cub that's his house pet (for now!). He even has leopard spots tattoed on his shoulders. The thing was, there are thousands of tigers held in the US, as pets, in zoos, etc. - far more than exist in the wild.

School starts late in NZ doesn't it?