All the local groups in Venelles had a day to advertise their wares so we went to see what was on offer.

There were loads of stalls. Cath was keen to find a sewing group and she did.

It’s fair to say there are a lot of groups looking for new members in Venelles.

I got another letter from France Travail asking me to fournir quelques documents manquants.

Now on my last visit to France Travail someone told me that my espace personnel, which has been en cours de traitement for eight weeks, would start working on 28 August when it was time to actualiser my account.

But guess what? It didn’t.

So, another trip to France Travail was the order of the day.

This time I spoke to one of the technical experts and, after a bit of pondering and consulting, he discovered I had two accounts and one of them works!

So I was able to actualiser my account, fournir les documents manquants (but they weren’t actually manquants but we fournir-ed them anyway).

And I left hoping that I should be able to do all my future correspondence online.

After two days of the traitement choc it has worked!

The experts at Cash Piscine had done it again.

We managed to have a dip before a storm appeared to be rolling in.

We wanted to support one of our local vineyards – that’s just how community-minded we are – so we popped into Domaine de la Brillane – not half-a-mile from our house.

It is in a beautiful setting. 14 hectares of vines and they pride themselves on their organic approach to wine making – no enzymes, no yeast.

So we thought we better taste some.

They sell two rosés, one white and four different reds – that’s a lot of tasting!

We ended up buying a few bottles – the red is for special occasions.

I asked about la vendange – which they said they still do à la main.

I left my number in case they need some help for a day from a local resident.

Over the last few days, and then confirmed this morning, our swimming pool has turned green.

We don’t know why. Cath did some Googling but then we headed for the fount of all piscine knowledge Cash Piscine – armed with, as usual, a jam jar full of water from the pool.

After testing the water and showing the man some photos like this he asked some questions.

How many hours a day do you run the pump?

About nine?

Apparently you are meant to divide the temperature of the water in half and that’s the number of hours the pump should be running.

In recent weeks that temperature has been 28 or 29 degrees. Oops!

He diagnosed un traitement choc to prompt a deep clean of the system – and we have to leave the pump running for 24 hours.

Armed with this:

We got straight to it.

There is now a lot of scum on the surface and maybe the pool looks a little less green?

Do you remember this? Lyon is deserted in August.

So what is the situation en Provence?

There are certainly fewer people around in Venelles.

And some of the shops are closed – some with more creative signs.

After last summer’s trip to Sicily where I met up with a Euronews colleague, I didn’t expect it to happen again this summer.

So imagine my surprise when Cath and I went into Venelles for an aperitif on Friday evening at one of the two bars in the main square.

As we headed for one we heard a cry from the other where Cath’s sister was having a drink with a couple of friends.

So we joined them.

But then, someone else arrived at a neighbouring table.

My former Euronews colleague François Chignac.

It turns out this restaurant is run by his nephew and François was in town for the weekend.

He still works at the Green Cube – until November at the very least.

We had a chat and caught up on the latest news.

Comme le monde est petit.

I learnt a new word today when I saw a huge grasshopper in the back garden. Une sauterelle.

I have seen lots of small brown ones when walking over the grass but this was a big, bright green one.

It’s interesting to see the same scams exist in France as they do in the U.K.

This is a classic:

Cath used to get these in English.

Safe in the knowledge that my children’s French isn’t this good I know I can safely disregard this one.

J’ai lu un autre livre de Laurent Mauvignier.

This one is set during the Algerian War, 1954-62.

Like in his other novel, Histoires de la nuit, as described in its review in the Times, the sentences are long, very long sometimes, light on punctuation and circle round their subjects in snaking coils.

They call it modernism.

It wasn’t as good as Histoires de la Nuit but still enjoyable.

I learnt a few new words – not least Harkis.

These were Algerians who worked for the French army.

When the war was over, many of the Harkis were abandoned and killed by the Algerians who saw them as traitors.

Coincidentally, we came across this plaque honouring the Harkis on a trip to Fuveau.