I was in a reunion today about Euronews staffing for the new newsroom in Brussels.

We have been looking for an English speaker with the right to work in Europe who wants to work night shifts only.

A tricky problem I’m sure you’ll agree.

One of my colleagues called it a search for un mouton à cinq pattes.

A very rare beast indeed.

As my job at Euronews is about to end, Cath and I headed south to look at houses for rent for the next few months.

Based on our last experience of French estate agents we didn’t have huge expectations.

And the very first agency we walked into used an expression that I hadn’t heard since our original search for a flat two years ago.

Le marché est tres tendu

French estate agents

Tres tendu – very stretched, of course it is.

Our hearts sank.

We then visited agents in Aubagne, La Ciotat, Aix-en-Provence and Éguilles. Most weren’t open, or the person in charge of rentals wasn’t available or they didn’t have anything.

Of course we needed to have our dossier ready but even then it needed to be studied – in some cases before we were even allowed to see any properties.

Toute cette paparasse!

Everyone trying to do anything official in France

So we ended the weekend without setting foot inside a single place! We did walk round the outside of one though.

There was one upside to the weekend – apart from the glorious weather…

And there will soon be another reason to hang around.

Alma will soon be une grande soeur.

As it was Palm Sunday we wanted to go to Mass. There was a church in Allauch with a Mass at 1030 so we headed off to church.

But we were in for a surprise.

It was so busy that we couldn’t get into the church where it was standing room only.

So we went for a coffee instead in a lovely bar in the town square.

We wanted to go and have a look at the lovely port town of Cassis while we were down south and as we were driving there, Cath remembered that a certain Fulham legend lived on the road we were driving down.

And she hadn’t misremembered. Chez Jean Tigana has changed a bit since we last drove past.

There was a full showroom, presentation room overlooking the vines – all very impressive.

Afterwards we carried on into the little port which was as beautiful as I remembered but very busy.

Possibly helped by the staging of this Olympics event that we bumped into.

One thing I noticed while in the south was the serious attitude to boules among Provençal players.

It was a very serious business and they also used a little addition that I haven’t seen in Lyon.

It was a magnet on the end of a lead that made picking up the boules much easier.

You can buy yours here.

We spotted a boules tournament going on in Place Maréchal Lyautey.

There were plenty of matches going on. And the rain largely held off.

As ever, if you are unsure what time of year it is, a quick look in the windows of the chocolate shops around Lyon will give you a good idea.

This year both 1 April – le poisson d’Avril – and Easter come at the same time.

So therefore lots of chocolate fish and Easter chicks, hens and eggs are the order of the day.

During a walk around Parc de la Tête d’Or we came across this lovely initiative – tulips to fight cancer.

So we obviously bought some.

Quand tu penses qu’il n’y a vraiment plus aucun espoir….