If you didn’t like the idea of jumping in La Saône to stay cool, why not try this?

These people prefer to dip their toes in the waters of Le Rhône.

Qu’est ce que c’est l’optimism? Regardez ça.

Un panier de basket. Mais c’est un panier de basket sur une peniche sur la Saône.

Once again it’s that dilemma of how do you stay cool when the weather is hot.

It was 27 degrees when I went for a lunchtime stroll along the banks of the Saône.

These guys had the right idea.

It was clearly the weekend for les braderies – clearance sales – in Lyon.

First up quite a posh one outside the shops in Avenue Foch.

Then a more car-boot sale style one in Cours Franklin Roosevelt.

Even the library was getting in on the act – but the queue was too long on a hot Sunday.

So after two visits to the tax office it was finally time to fill in my first tax return in France.

You have to wait til May after the first year you’ve been here but getting appointments at the tax office is hard. So I took a phone appointment and a helpful woman gave emailed me the forms I needed to fill in and with some directions.

But there are a lot of forms.

There are also lots of hard words to understand. Foncier, hébergement, viagères.

But with help from my French teacher and my colleague Javi – who warned me that if I didn’t tell them about my British bank accounts I would be fined €1500 per account.

But that meant another form to fill in – actually another three forms.

Javier also showed me where I needed to write:

Le journalisme ayant été en 2022 mon activité principale, régulière et rétribuée, j’ai déduit 7.650 euros des salaires imposables, tirés de ma profession, au titre de l’allocation pour frais d’emploi des journalistes

Which has hopefully saved me a few quid.

Then it was off to the tax office to drop it off.

Let’s hope I haven’t made any mistakes. Or if I have that they are gentle with me.

It was my second birthday in France and for the second time, I was late leaving work because of a big staff meeting. But when I dashed home Cath had prepared a kir royale.

And then it was off for a meal at Le Zeste Gourmand. A five minute walk from our flat and the food was amazing.