CANAL +

TODAY WILL GO down as either the best day since we've arrived in France or the worst. We got satellite television installed today. That means more sports for me and more cooking shows for Kerri. It also means two news channels in English (CNN and BBC) which will be nice.

We really haven't watched much TV since we've been here except for a bit of news in the morning and an occasional show in the evenings. That has the potential to change now that we have more options. But you can be sure that if our TV time increases we will rationalize it by convincing ourselves that it is helping us learn French.

After a quick run through the channels, here are the ones that look good so far (and trust me, I can make a judgement about a channel -- and be right, mind you -- in about 3.4 seconds).

• Eurosport 1, 2, and 3
• Canal + Sports
• CNBC Europe
• Cuisine TV (Kerri will love this channel -- gets all the popular TV chefs but in French)
• L'Equipe TV
• CNN and BBC
• Meteo France (all the weather)
• if there are some other that you can recommend -- let me know!

So far my favorite part about the 'sportscenter' style show on a channel called L'Equipe TV is that after the NBA highlights they list how every French-born player in the league did that night. With the exception of Tony Parker, that makes for a lot of lines that look like this: Minutes: 12, Points: 2, Rebounds: 1, Fouls: 4 (come on Kevin, that was for you!)

CJS