Now you may remember that le cube vert where I work is for sale. Well now our flat is too!

The landlord is putting it on the market for €800,000. He says it is the street name that means he can ask so much for 100sq metres of flat.

As we don’t want to buy it there are three possibilities.

One – nobody buys it and we stay put til we have a bit more clarity about my job situation.

Two – a business buys it with us in situ and we carry on living here for the foreseeable.

Three – people buy it who want to move in. Then we have six months to get out and find somewhere else.

The landlord seems to think it won’t sell very quickly. I hope he’s right.

The Unbelievable Truth is a Radio 4 comedy show where panellists have to give a lecture on a topic which is entirely false apart from five hidden truths.

One topic on the show this week was the French.

I spotted one of the truths but here are all five.

• Croissants were invented in Austria. (This is the one I knew – hence the name viennoiseries for croissants, pains au chocolat etc
• In Paris it was against the law for women to wear trousers until 2013. Although not enforced, the law was still on the statute book. In theory women needed permission from the local police.
• There are no stop signs in Paris. There are only traffic lights. There was one stop sign at the exit of a construction site but it kept getting stolen for its novelty value.
• There is a word – bouleganisme – to describe violence breaking out during pétanque matches. It was invented by the press in 2007.
• The etch-a-sketch was invented by a Frenchman. Electrical engineer André Cassagne came up with the toy in the 1950s. In French it is l’ardoise magique.

There was a guinguette advertised in a street near our flat. But what is a guinguette?

So I guess une guinguette is a street party.

21 June – longest day of the year, Summer solistice, International Yoga day and also la fete de la musique.

Today was our first one in Lyon – as this time last year we were in Aix-en-Provence.

After a hard day at the office we didn’t venture too far. But we didn’t need to.

We celebrated with a kir in our favourite nearby bar. There was even live music in there.

Look at this grue. Not a dicky bird.

Unlike here – in summer they all seem to head off somewhere else. Somewhere cooler?

I spotted these local beers in a café in Croix Rousse. They had interesting local names.