There is one food-stuff that is everywhere in Guadeloupe – the lobster crayfish.*

*Merci prof.

Guadeloupe? Basse Terre, Grande Terre?

The French West Indies, the Leeward Islands, the Windward Islands, the Antilles, the Caribbean?? L’outremer?

It is all very confusing. At least one thing is clear. We are in France. Wait? What??

I spent a morning with the Caribbean’s leading birder – Anthony Levesque. He has seen more than 500 species and identified 50previously unseen in Guadeloupe.

So I couldn’t be in better hands. It meant an early start to beat the crowds at a couple of local beauty spots.

Anthony explained there is one bird endemic to Guadeloupe and only seen in Basse Terre and Grande Terre – the woodpecker. He said we had to see it.

As a patch birder par excellence he knew where to see them as he had seen them building their nest. And so…

After that we dashed around to see as many local birds as possible. We saw 29 in total. Anthony recognises the songs and knew where to look so we saw many amazing colourful birds including three types of humming bird.

The best for me was the chestnut-sided warbler – stunning.

But Anthony said the rarest bird we saw was the ringed kingfisher which flew high overhead. I also took some digiscoped pics with my iPhone. Here’s a selection.

It was an amazing morning – we also saw a Mangrove Cuckoo which was gorgeous. If you ever want to go birding in the Caribbean – Anthony is definitely your man. He also makes a mean coffee.

After 14 months at Euronews I decided it was time to have a proper holiday.

Holiday entitlement works a year in advance in France so I don’t have any to take until 31 May. But as we couldn’t celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary last year because of this rule, we have taken some in advance and jetted off to Guadeloupe – in the French West Indies.

I’m aware this blog is about life in Lyon but Guadeloupe is strangely still France so I’ll publish some updates and if you don’t want to see them – come back on 24 April where normal service will be resumed.

There is still rubbish on the streets of Paris!

But le jardin des plantes looks lovely.

Today was the 11th day of pensions protests in France and also the day the demonstrations reached Chez Nous.

We went out for an evening walk to see the aftermath. It wasn’t pretty.

We even saw a Macron ordure sign.

Who is this that I spotted in the Rhône this morning? Un castor? Ou un ragondin?

I followed him/her for a bit though he/she was very camera shy. And ducked under the water if I got too close.

I asked some French newsroom colleagues and they all think it is a ragondin – a coypu.

I’ve never seen one before, I don’t think.