C’était l’heure d’aller au veto pour voir comment va Ula.

Le veto a pris du sang et Ula a saigné beaucoup alors ils ont mis un pancement.

Here’s a date for the diary – next Monday is the Fête de la Saint-Jean.

Not sure what it is actually but it is worth going to see at 5 o’clock next week.

Cath’s niece Hanna came round for dinner on Saturday and her partner Olivier is a dab hand at all things technical so I asked his advice about how to use the pool cleaner.

He gave me a tutorial and then proceeded to clean the pool. He showed me how to clean the filter and by the end, the pool was looking good.

So good in fact that Alma wanted to go in and join the inflatable phoque we had bought for her.

When we got up on Sunday some of the dirt had resettled so I put into practice what I had been taught and rehoovered the pool.

Afterwards it looked so inviting that I went in for my first swim.

The pool is only about six metres long so I just did four lengths to test it out.

I think if we stay on top of the cleaning it will be a very welcome way to stay cool in the summer.

It’s that time of year when football displays pop up in the supermarkets and shops of France.

And then this in our local paper – the war of words is hotting up.

Much like in Lyon the chocolate shops are getting in on the act.

I see from a friend in the UK that Sainsbury’s campaign didn’t get off to the best start.

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Monsieur mollets himself will indeed be able to enjoy a lot more barbecues this summer.

When I’m outside our new house I can hear les bruants zizi singing all around me.

But so far I haven’t actually seen one.

The Merlin bird app confirms they are bruants zizis – the French name being a description of its song.

It is a lovely bird and one I have never seen before.

In English they are cirl buntings. I hope to have a photo of one for you before too long.

We are slowly getting to grips with looking after the swimming pool. But we have noticed that when we do the water quality tests that the chlorine seems a bit low.

We went to our local piscinerie(?) to ask for some help. The man asked us if we’d brought some of the water with us. Errrr, no.

So on Wednesday we returned with a jamjar full of l’eau de la piscine. It was trés limpide.

The pisciniste(?) did some checks and said it was all fine – not much chlorine and the ph was a bit high.

Then I showed him the chlorine tablets we’d been putting in.

Apparently for a pool of our size they are not big enough.

Not. At. All.

So we can back and plopped them in the skimmer baskets.

Let’s wait and see what effect they have.

This is the fountain of Roi René.

The statue is of René of Anjou. Who he?

He was born in 1409 and lived until 1480.

He was also King René I of Naples.

René was no friend of the Burgundians who held him prisoner for 10 months and then a further two year spell after angering Philip the Good.

He took part in negotiations with the English at Tours in 1444 during the Hundred Years War.

He retired to Aix-en-Provence and the statue shows him holding a bunch of muscat grapes which he is said to have introduced to Provence.

On my birthday it was time to collect our new car.

At the lovely Renault garage in Aix we were treated well and Sebastian in particular explained our new car in great detail.

I noticed one thing – the number plate was different from what I had been expecting.

A minor point I thought until later that evening when I realised I had insured a different car – one we were going to buy until someone beat us to it. Which meant I was driving an uninsured car!

I would have to ring the insurers in the morning – but when I went outside to check the number plate I discovered we had a pneu crevé!

How to get a flat fixed on a Saturday en Provence?

I inflated it with the sealant provided and drove to a nearby garage….just in time for them to tell me they were closing.

I rang another garage who offered me an appointment at 6pm!

They assessed what was wrong and told me I needed to two new rear tyres as I had ruined one by driving go on it when it was flat. I hadn’t realised that I had.

€250 later I was worried that it had been my fault – maybe my driving on French roads was the reason for the puncture.

This wasn’t helped when a former Euronews colleague messaged me to say: What is it with you and flat tyres? – I think referring to this.

So I asked the technician whether it was my English driving that was responsible.

No, there was une vis embedded in the tyre.

So it wasn’t my fault – I’ll take that as a win.

I was looking forward to la récolte des cerises dans notre cerisier.

But when I went to pick them, someone had got there before me.

They had either been pecked or nibbled. I only managed to harvest two!

On Saturday morning I looked out of the window and I saw le voleur.

J’ai vu un geai des chênes dans le cerisier avec une cerise dans le bec.