The weather finally broke on Sunday – the heatwave ending with a day of rain – so we went on a drive into the Luberon.

We headed to Rustrel – where Cath’s parents lived for a couple of years many moons ago.

The menu in the one restaurant in the village caught my eye.

Particularly the plat du jour.

Lark with chips, vegetables and salad – but fortunately no head.

Now I’m a very keen birdwatcher but, I have to confess, if I hadn’t already eaten lunch, I would have given it a go.

UPDATE: 5 Septembre

Grâce à ce blog* l’accord entre Pernod Ricard et PSG est fini.

*Peut-etre c’est plutôt grâce à La Provence.

4 Septembre

There’s a bit of a to do in Marseille after Pernod-Ricard signed a sponsorship deal with none other than French footballing giant… Paris St Germain!

I suppose it’s a bit like the Manchester drink Vimto sponsoring Arsenal.

As reported in La Provence, the news has not gone down well with the locals.

The granddaughter of the Pernod founder Paul is also not best pleased.

Quand le business trahit ses racines, il abîme son histoire et prend des risques sur son futur.

Lorraine Ricard

And some pastis drinkers think the deal has changed things too.

Je ne boirai plus mon jaune de la même manière

OM supporters

When we left our old flat in Lyon we had to do an état des lieux to check everything was left as we found it.

Our landlord let me do it via video from Venelles. He said everything was fine and so I expected we would get our deposit back in the near future. Our deposit of €1750 I should add.

How wrong could I be?

My landlord sent me an email a few days later after he had done a further inspection.

As a result of these stains he said he was only going to give us back half of our deposit – €860.

We could not believe it as we had left the flat exactly as we found it and I wrote back to that effect.

Then I thought I would look back at this blog in case there were any photos when we did the original état des lieux that could shine some light on these tâches.

Unfortunately the état des lieux entry had no pictures of the back bedroom.

Then I looked at the day our white goods and a bed were delivered.

And what did I see…

I sent this photo to the landlord and said it was proof the stain was already there before we started living there and so we would be expecting our full deposit back.

Comme il était clair que vous étiez surtout préoccupé par les taches sur le carrelage de la chambre à coucher et que nous avons prouvé qu’elles étaient là avant que nous n’emménagions, j’imagine que cela fait une grande différence dans le degré de caution que nous allons obtenir.

And then waited for him to answer. And waited, and waited.

I sent some follow up emails with the help of my prof de français but never received a single reply.

Just when I was wondering what to do next – talk to a lawyer? – I got an email on 2 August saying we would get half our deposit back on 2 August and half on 2 September.

And after an anxious wait the second installment duly arrived in our account.

Full deposit repaid.

Vive le blog!

All the local groups in Venelles had a day to advertise their wares so we went to see what was on offer.

There were loads of stalls. Cath was keen to find a sewing group and she did.

It’s fair to say there are a lot of groups looking for new members in Venelles.

I got another letter from France Travail asking me to fournir quelques documents manquants.

Now on my last visit to France Travail someone told me that my espace personnel, which has been en cours de traitement for eight weeks, would start working on 28 August when it was time to actualiser my account.

But guess what? It didn’t.

So, another trip to France Travail was the order of the day.

This time I spoke to one of the technical experts and, after a bit of pondering and consulting, he discovered I had two accounts and one of them works!

So I was able to actualiser my account, fournir les documents manquants (but they weren’t actually manquants but we fournir-ed them anyway).

And I left hoping that I should be able to do all my future correspondence online.

After two days of the traitement choc it has worked!

The experts at Cash Piscine had done it again.

We managed to have a dip before a storm appeared to be rolling in.

We wanted to support one of our local vineyards – that’s just how community-minded we are – so we popped into Domaine de la Brillane – not half-a-mile from our house.

It is in a beautiful setting. 14 hectares of vines and they pride themselves on their organic approach to wine making – no enzymes, no yeast.

So we thought we better taste some.

They sell two rosés, one white and four different reds – that’s a lot of tasting!

We ended up buying a few bottles – the red is for special occasions.

I asked about la vendange – which they said they still do à la main.

I left my number in case they need some help for a day from a local resident.

Over the last few days, and then confirmed this morning, our swimming pool has turned green.

We don’t know why. Cath did some Googling but then we headed for the fount of all piscine knowledge Cash Piscine – armed with, as usual, a jam jar full of water from the pool.

After testing the water and showing the man some photos like this he asked some questions.

How many hours a day do you run the pump?

About nine?

Apparently you are meant to divide the temperature of the water in half and that’s the number of hours the pump should be running.

In recent weeks that temperature has been 28 or 29 degrees. Oops!

He diagnosed un traitement choc to prompt a deep clean of the system – and we have to leave the pump running for 24 hours.

Armed with this:

We got straight to it.

There is now a lot of scum on the surface and maybe the pool looks a little less green?

Do you remember this? Lyon is deserted in August.

So what is the situation en Provence?

There are certainly fewer people around in Venelles.

And some of the shops are closed – some with more creative signs.

After last summer’s trip to Sicily where I met up with a Euronews colleague, I didn’t expect it to happen again this summer.

So imagine my surprise when Cath and I went into Venelles for an aperitif on Friday evening at one of the two bars in the main square.

As we headed for one we heard a cry from the other where Cath’s sister was having a drink with a couple of friends.

So we joined them.

But then, someone else arrived at a neighbouring table.

My former Euronews colleague François Chignac.

It turns out this restaurant is run by his nephew and François was in town for the weekend.

He still works at the Green Cube – until November at the very least.

We had a chat and caught up on the latest news.

Comme le monde est petit.