Last week I read about the Dubai chocolate craze sweeping the world – and the UK in particular.

Bars limited to two per shopper reminded me of toilet paper in Covid times.

Then today while shopping in Aix les Milles, I saw this:

So obviously we bought one.

And then did a taste test.

And it was quite nice – but certainly not worth flying to Dubai for.

Think I’ll stick to French chocolate.

Having lived in Venelles for almost a year now, I thought it was about time I joined the local pool.

Le centre aquatique Sainte Victoire is in a gorgeous setting – with a view of Sainte Victoire thrown in for good measure.

It is a 50m outdoor pool and I was a bit slow after such a long-break.

But it was great to be back in the water.

Our French family came round for lunch on this bank holiday.

Cath had organised an egg hunt in the back garden for Alma and Iris.

We made a guide to aid our two little chasseuses.

I think it was a great suc-eggs.

Over the Easter weekend we went to confession in French, Good Friday Mass and a packed Easter Sunday service.

During my confession the priest, Père Noel, allowed me to say the Act of Contrition in English because the French version was so long.

At today’s Mass, in the sermon, when the priest was describing Peter’s laboured run to Christ’s tomb he told the congregation that a child in his previous parish had described Jesus’s disciples as nuls.

Père Noël said he was inclined to agree with him.

When it came time for Communion , he told us there were extra Eucharistic Ministers – whom he called distributeurs – which I thought were cash points.

Cath noticed all the distributeurs were men. I told her to tell the priest that she is an official cash point and so could help out in the future.

Happy Easter.

During an evening out in Aix with some old friends, the forecast strong winds wreaked havoc during our apéro.

Two umbrellas flew out of their moorings and this one was wrecked by the wind.

Within minutes the waiting staff had removed them all.

Happy to say, our drinks were not affected.

We went back to the library in Venelles with our great nieces Alma and Iris.

Among the books we looked at, I found this one about Lyon.

It mentioned la fête des lumières et les bouchons – with saint-marcellin and tarte aux pralines roses highlighted.

It also talked about La Croix-Rousse, les canuts and les traboules.

It made me feel a bit homesick.

Last night our car was covered in a yellow dust so this morning I decided to clean it.

But when I went to have a look a couple of hours later it was covered again in this infernal yellow powder.

This is not the same stuff as Saharan sand that blows in regularly leaving everything orange.

This jaune nuisance seemed to be everywhere – on the patio, other cars, on the roadsides. What on earth was it?

We suspected pollen – from the mimosas? From anything yellow in fact.

But then we remembered.

If there’s one thing in abundance round here it is pine trees. And they have caused problems before with their needles.

So we went to examine some of them and their budding pine cones. And guess what came out?

So we are now pointing the figure of blame at the pine trees and their pollen.

No more car washing for the time being.

We decided to go on holiday for a week to Porto Venere. It is a really beautiful spot – handy for the Cinque Terre and not to far from Genoa. The weather was gorgeous too.

But driving back from Monte Rosso, while exiting a roundabout in Lerici, someone drove into the side of our car.

Fortunately they stopped and were happy to exchange details. But it meant my first encounter with some new French vocabulary.

Firstly both parties fill in le constat amiable d’accident automobiie. There was a carbon copy underneath so I was able to give the other driver un exemplaire – a copy.

Then I had to ring our insurers and explain that we had been involved in:

Un sinistre – an accident
Our car had sustained some éraflures – scratches
L’enjoliveur – hubcap – had been damaged.
And there was un petit accroc – à little tear – in the tyre.
I have done everything I need to do so far but I’m sure there will be some more new words to learn in the coming weeks. I wonder if I’ll have to pay une franchise?

Il y a déjà un ans que j’ai quitté mon poste comme rédacteur en chef chez Euronews.

Et je dois toujours attendre pour un changement de mon visa.

Je vais les envoyer un autre courriel pour demander combien de temps il faut attendre normalement – parce que six mois me semble suffisant.