I woke up this morning to a sight I haven’t seen in the last 20 months of living en Provence.

De la neige!

It went down to -5c last night but we weren’t expecting snow.

It didn’t hang around for long- not sure we’ll see it again this winter.

Now just waiting for the swimming pool’s ice cover to melt. That might take a while longer.

Our landlord told us we needed to provide him with une attestation de ramonage for his and our home insuramce.

So I called Luberon Ramonage and they came round to sweep la cheminée.

It wasn’t Dick Van Dyke who turned up but a young man with a big hoover.

He did a bit of hoovering and then went outside and sent a drone up to have a look at the roof and the chimney pot.

He then said the chimney hadn’t been too dirty and issued the certificate.

Good job too as it is -4 outside and having a fire is essential.

As he left I shook his hand in case good luck does indeed rub off*

*See Mary Poppins

It was King’s cake time again and guess who found la fève this year?

Which meant I got to wear la couronne again.

I know there has been a cold snap in a lot of places but it must have been cold here because when I got up this morning I was greeted with this site:

The swimming pool had frozen over. I had never seen that before – not once last winter as far as I’m aware.

Ignore the leaves at the bottom of the pool, I hadn’t got round to cleaning it.

To see how thick it was I prodded it with a stick. I don’t think it would hold my weight but it was certainly a full covering of ice.

Apparently I need to run the pump a bit more to stop it from breaking.

At least someone was enjoying the ice.

Our regular grey wagtail a fait un peu de patin à glace.

While having breakfast this morning I heard an ominous thud. It could only mean one thing. Another bird had flown into the window.

Sure enough when I went over to the window I saw this.

Last time it was a smaller bird – un roitelet triple-bandeau – a fire-crest.

As before, I kept watch in case the neighbour’s cat put in an appearance until the robin had recovered and flown off.

To celebrate the new year Cath and I went for a meal at L’Incontournable in Aix-en-Provence.

There was a set menu for St Sylvestre and we kicked things off with une coupe de champagne.

After a couple of starters we had a palate cleanser – a granite. I liked the way the French for palate cleanser is une parenthèse glacée.

The desert was based on the famous local sweet un calisson.

A lovely evening. We will be back.