The weather finally broke on Sunday – the heatwave ending with a day of rain – so we went on a drive into the Luberon.

We headed to Rustrel – where Cath’s parents lived for a couple of years many moons ago.

The menu in the one restaurant in the village caught my eye.

Particularly the plat du jour.

Lark with chips, vegetables and salad – but fortunately no head.

Now I’m a very keen birdwatcher but, I have to confess, if I hadn’t already eaten lunch, I would have given it a go.

UPDATE: 5 Septembre

Grâce à ce blog* l’accord entre Pernod Ricard et PSG est fini.

*Peut-etre c’est plutôt grâce à La Provence.

4 Septembre

There’s a bit of a to do in Marseille after Pernod-Ricard signed a sponsorship deal with none other than French footballing giant… Paris St Germain!

I suppose it’s a bit like the Manchester drink Vimto sponsoring Arsenal.

As reported in La Provence, the news has not gone down well with the locals.

The granddaughter of the Pernod founder Paul is also not best pleased.

Quand le business trahit ses racines, il abîme son histoire et prend des risques sur son futur.

Lorraine Ricard

And some pastis drinkers think the deal has changed things too.

Je ne boirai plus mon jaune de la même manière

OM supporters

When we left our old flat in Lyon we had to do an état des lieux to check everything was left as we found it.

Our landlord let me do it via video from Venelles. He said everything was fine and so I expected we would get our deposit back in the near future. Our deposit of €1750 I should add.

How wrong could I be?

My landlord sent me an email a few days later after he had done a further inspection.

As a result of these stains he said he was only going to give us back half of our deposit – €860.

We could not believe it as we had left the flat exactly as we found it and I wrote back to that effect.

Then I thought I would look back at this blog in case there were any photos when we did the original état des lieux that could shine some light on these tâches.

Unfortunately the état des lieux entry had no pictures of the back bedroom.

Then I looked at the day our white goods and a bed were delivered.

And what did I see…

I sent this photo to the landlord and said it was proof the stain was already there before we started living there and so we would be expecting our full deposit back.

Comme il était clair que vous étiez surtout préoccupé par les taches sur le carrelage de la chambre à coucher et que nous avons prouvé qu’elles étaient là avant que nous n’emménagions, j’imagine que cela fait une grande différence dans le degré de caution que nous allons obtenir.

And then waited for him to answer. And waited, and waited.

I sent some follow up emails with the help of my prof de français but never received a single reply.

Just when I was wondering what to do next – talk to a lawyer? – I got an email on 2 August saying we would get half our deposit back on 2 August and half on 2 September.

And after an anxious wait the second installment duly arrived in our account.

Full deposit repaid.

Vive le blog!