Monsieur Martinez has come round every morning this week so far to sort out a few issues – a leaking sink, a shower head that didn’t work and a shower door that didn’t shut.

He managed to fix those easily enough. But then it was the turn of la piscine.

M Martinez arrived this morning to demonter le moteur – he agreed with the other pool experts that the pump was the problem.

After an hour or so he called Cath out to have a look at the pool – the wall returns (just had to Google that) where the water is supposed to jet out.

The débits were no longer pas terrible, they were forts, très forts!

Cath asked what the problem had been and M Martinez pointed to the two large pine trees towering over the garden.

Apparently the pump had been full of pine needles – les aiguilles de pins. M Martinez cleaned them all out and now it was working.

I’ve just got to learn how to clean the bottom of the pool now.

Our vegetable garden is getting a bit bigger.

After two-and-a-half years of flat living it has been great to be able to semer some graines des tomates et des potimarrons.

We also bought some plantes de poivrons rouges.

In notre jardin there is also un cerisier and les cerises sont murs.

Alors j’en ai mangé une.

Our son Matthew became our first overseas visitor to the new house.

The weather wasn’t great but it was lovely to see him. He was a surprise visitor at my belle sœur’s birthday celebrations.

We also took him for a stroll around Aix.

And we also went to La Ciotat.

And we saw them installing some lights for an upcoming festival.

Who knows? If the weather improves Nathan might come over before long.

We have been en Provence for two weeks now and most days it has rained!

And I mean really rained.

We bought these two sunloungers for the back garden but so far have not had much chance to use them.

Not that I’m expecting any sympathy.

Living in Venelles is very different from Lyon life. There we lived right in the city centre, there were hire bikes, the Metro, trams and hire cars.

In Venelles we are much more out in the sticks and you really need a car to get around.

So we bought one!

This Clio will be ours next Friday. A hybrid automatic it should be easy to drive around.

Just got to pay for it now.

We noticed that our pool was not as clean as our neighbours and as piscine novices we called in an expert.

Enter Davide – from doctopiscine. He knew the pool and began to run some diagnostics.

As he was examining the performance of various bits he kept saying: Pas terrible. And I thought – great it’s not bad.

But of course I had forgotten that pas terrible doesn’t mean not bad but rather not great.

He said we needed a new pump which cost about €500. He taught me a new word too – les debits sont pas terrible – the water flow.

He spoke to our landlord who didn’t seem to believe him. He then popped around and said, in his opinion, the pump was fine.

He then cleaned the pool manually and I told him he had another company coming to have a look the following week.

He said if it needed a new pump he would replace it but Cath had her doubts as to whether this was true.

To be continued.

This morning an excited shout from Cath alerted me to the presence of un écureuil rouge outside our front door.

It was a skinny little thing that moved fast from branch to branch. Hope to see it again.

I’ve been looking forward to seeing some great birds now we have moved south.

The day I came to sign le bail I saw a crested tit by le portail.

The Merlin bird app has heard cirl buntings in the garden so I am hopeful I might see one soon.

And then, as we were driving less than a mile from our house this amazing bird flew past – blue with an orange back.

It was too big for a beater so I wondered if it was an escaped bird.

When I got home I looked it up and it was a roller or un rollier. What an amazing bird!

In an attempt to attract a few more birds to our garden I bought a bird feeder and filled it with sunflower hearts

I hung it from le figuier and now we wait for the birds to find it.

The house also comes with une piscine. Now while I love swimming I have never had to manage a swimming pool before and this one looks like it needs a bit of work doing.

It is a bit dirty so I tried to use the pool cleaner to suck up some of the dirt – but it didn’t seem very powerful.

Also the filters in the pool don’t seem to be very effective.

We seem to have everything we need to clean it – a pool cleaner, a net and a big pole.

But I think we need to get an expert in to have a look at it and see if it needs a service.

Our neighbour’s pool is immaculate – but my hopes were raised when he seems to have the same tools for the job as us.

Let’s hope I can learn how to maintain it quickly – before it gets too hot here.

Apres deux ans et trois mois à Lyon c’était l’heure de quitter la ville et voyager au sud.

Pendant que nous buvions nos dernières cafés dans notre resto preferé, j’ai pensé aux choses que j’ai appris.

Comme je suis journalist, voici les dix meilleurs choses, a mon avis.

• Lyon est une très belle ville. Avec sa rivière et son fleuve – la Saône et le Rhône – il y a beaucoup de belles endroits.
• Notre Dame de Fourvière est tellement belle et la vue de la colline est superbe.
• Lyon est la capitale gastronomique de la France. Et ça ç’est merité. On a mangé des repas superbes dans la ville. Et pas trop chers non plus – La Rive Gauche, Brasserie des Brotteaux et Le Zeste Gourmand sont tous nickel.
• Boire un coup sur les pêniches – c’est tres relaxant.
• Trouver des traboules – c’est un bon jeu.
• Le parc de la tête d’Or – superbe
• Les magasins sont independentes et uniques. Moi, j’aimais Legend.
• Place Bellecour et Place des Terreaux
• Il y a presque toujours une braderie de quelques part.
• L’histoire – des romains aux Nazis – il y a beaucoup de choses à apprendre et visiter.

Vous êtes d’accord? Dites le moi.