Without a 9-5 job or children at school how can we tell that c’est la rentrée à Venelles?

Of course it’s the return of the lunchtime queue at our local boulangerie Lavarenne.

It is the time of year for all the associations of Venelles to come together and attract new members.

From dance classes to tennis to archery (tir à l’arc) there was lots to see.

A couple of things caught my eye. To say playing table tennis you can say faire du ping.

And despite Venelles being quite a small place, some people are passionate about it getting its own railway station. 3,200 of them so far.

We didn’t add our names to the list.

We made a swift visit to the UK to see Matthew on his birthday and help my brother celebrate his 30th wedding anniversary.

While walking around central London we stumbled across this bottle of wine outside a restaurant.

It was a nice reminder of our French home.

We heard an unusual bird call in our driveway so I turned on the Merlin app which identified it as a bee-eater – un guêpier.

We couldn’t spot it though but suddenly there were five of them flying above our heads.

The next moment there were 15 and then about 20 guêpiers spent the next 30 minutes circling our house and, I guess, feasting on bees.

They didn’t stop for a moment so you’ll have to forgive the quality of the photos.

Our son Matthew was visiting and we saw that they was un marché nocturne at Cucuron so we went to see what it was like.

There were a lot of stalls and food trucks and beer tents.

And plenty of things to buy.

There was also a games corner where Matthew and I had a go at this:

And there was hoopla for some smaller children.

It was a popular evening and it was good to see a small town so full of people on an August evening.

I went to Aix to meet up again with some fellow entrepreneurs.

As it was Thursday it was market day which meant some pretty impressive displays.

This one reminded me of a day in Limonest when we had bumped into a man with a lot of garlic.

But there was a lot more on show here.

I have thought over the last year that this is perfect territory for a hoopoe.

I’ve seen them in Tuscany, Naples and in the Camargue a few weeks ago.

But I’ve often wondered why they are not here.

Well wonder no more.

This huppe was actually in our neighbour’s garden but I’m claiming it.

It was using its long beak to dig worms out of the ground.

And when it heard a noise, it raised its crest.

Such a lovely bird.

Is Canadet masculine or feminine? And what about Réparade?

Both are place names near us.

If you look carefully at the road signs they can help you out.

Le Puy Sainte Réparade (f)

Saint (don’t you dare pronounce that final T) Canadet. (likewise, m)

Today we went to un immobilier in La Ciotat – one of the places we have thought about buying a house.

We had lots of questions and Samuel at Le Castel had most of the answers.

We explained we wanted a house within walking distance of the town centre with a bit of outdoor space, possibly with une piscine or if not piscinable.

We also want the house have l’égout – connected to the main sewers – no more fosse septique.

Samuel had a house he wanted to show us so off we went.

The house itself wasn’t quite right and the asking price was a bit high so it was a no. But hopefully Samuel will have some other good properties for us to visit in the near future.

Next stop some more questions for un notaire.

My sister and my cousin were on holiday in France and they stopped by to see us.

We met them in Marseille and went up to Notre-Dame de la Garde, known locally as la bonne mère for the best view of the city.

And then we went to Puyricard for an apéro before dinner back at ours.

There was even time for them both to try out the pool.