Les voilà.

Elles sont toutes petites et dures.

On verra comme elles goûtent.

Chez nous is the water potable?

That is the question that we are suddenly asking ourselves.

As the nights are getting colder, I was looking at an email the propriétaire had sent us back in May about how to get them to work.

And then I saw something that had completely escaped my attention.

Our water has a filtration system and those filters need to be changed every three months.

The landlord said he did it just before we moved in……five months ago.

We made a trip pretty sharpish to SCP – Société du Canal de Provence – to buy some new ones.

The vendeur explained how to replace them and, after a few false starts, I got the system working again.

The old cartouches looked a bit grotty.

The man at SCP said there is also a lightbulb that needs to be changed once a year.

Have emailed the landlord to see how quickly a return trip is needed.

Ce matin je suis allé à France Travail encore une fois pour un atelier sur l’offre de service de la modalité suivi – the follow-up service workshop.

Une conseillère nous a expliqué les service que France Travail nous offre.

Il y a l’emploi store, le sphère emploi et beaucoup d’autres outils pour nous aider

Et j’ai appris un nouveau mot en anglais que se utilise en français.

Relooking. Comme – on peut faire un petit relooking à votre CV.

As it is autumn, the fields in Venelles are getting ploughed.

As I passed this one I saw the farmer had company.

It was my old friends cattle egrets – les herons garde boeufs.

I had seen them in Parce de la Tête d’Or in Lyon and now in our street in Venelles.

They were a bit camera shy so soon flew away.

Cath chose a walk for this Sunday – in fact a pilgrimage – to a chapel on Mont Sainte-Victoire.

According to the legend, in the 5th century a hermit known as Servus Dei lived in a cave on the south face of Mont Sainte-Victoire.

Because he was popular with local Christians, the Visigoth king Euric had his ears cut off and then beheaded him.

A chapel was built and consecrated on the site by the bishop of Aix-en-Provence in 1001.

The chapel collapsed in 1993 and was rebuilt in 2001.

Interestingly in homage to Saint Ser the ears of all those who took part in the work were drawn on the roof.

It is quite a challenging walk up to the rebuilt chapel. But there are some amazing views along the way.

We eventually made it to the top.

Mont Sainte-Victoire is also the site of Bonnelli’s Eagles. We didn’t see any this time but I’m sure we’ll be back.

Le thermomètre dans la piscine dit 20 degrés alors, parce qu’il faisait beau aujourd’hui, j’ai pensé d’essayer une petite nage.

🥶🥶🥶🥶🥶

Je dirais que oui il fait un peu trop froid pour nager.

There was a big storm last night and when I got up this morning I saw something swimming in the pool.

Not une musaraigne (a shrew) or une souris (a mouse)

Un crapaud.

I fished him out with the net and watched as 30 minutes later he climbed out and… jumped back in the pool.

As the pump was on, I fished him out again and put him in the undergrowth.

Straight off the plane from Prague, we met up with a lovely former BBC colleague who was in Aix-en-Provence on holiday with his wife.

We went for dinner and I had my first café gourmand in a long while.

So here it is:

As you may remember, when I’ve been travelling recently I’ve looked for French connections in other countries.

I found some in Georgia and a linguistic similarity in Moldova.

So on my recent trip to the Czech Republic I was happy to see this shop in Prague.

I’m guessing it sells knick-knacks.

After a week working in Prague I went sightseeing-seeing and of course went to see the famous Charles Bridge.

I read a sign that said it was built by Charles IV and his successor and son, Wenceslas IV.

When I saw that Wenceslas had added his personal symbol of a kingfisher in a spiralled cloth, I wanted to see it.

And then I spotted it.

Best bit of birdwatching I’ve done for a while.