The day of our déménagement has been fixed – for Thursday 9 May.

Just like when we moved in the landlord insists that everything has to go out through the window.

This time, we were both mightly relieved to see the panneau arrive telling people they can’t park outside on the day of our move. When we moved in, our removal men decided it wasn’t necessary and were lucky to get a spot outside the house for la grue.

It meant everything had to come through our neighbour’s flat. Hopefully it will work better this time.

We have begun packing up a lot of things and cancelling utiilities contracts – je veux résiliér mon abonnement, s’il vous plait.

As my two years in Lyon draw to a close one thing I didn’t do too much of was swim.

The main pool in town – la piscine du Rhône – is a fantastic Olympic-sized outdoor pool right next to the river but it is a madhouse in the summer so we only went a couple of times.

But it is much nicer outside the période estivale and since leaving Euronews I have had a bit more time on my hands so I bought a 10-swim card and have made the most of it this last month.

As today was my last swim I went for a 2km swim – 40 lengths of the pool. It was sunny when I started with swifts swirling around overhead. It really is an idyllic location for a pool.

It was a good send off and a reminder that I must join a pool in Venelles – even if the sea won’t be too far away.

As we got back to Lyon I dashed into this supermarket which is open late into the evening.

As I got to the counter to pay there was a customer talking to the shop assistant and I heard him say Fulham!

I jumped in of course saying that was mon équipe.

The customer then said Fulham were 10th and I said no they are 14th. In fact they are 13th but I was closer.

He then said they were une petite équipe – but he was just trying to see how I reacted.

That is my second Fulham encounter in the 6eme in recent months.

They can’t be une petite équipe quand même.

Before returning to Lyon there was time to drop in to see Iris. She is getting bigger but is a lovely, peaceful baby. She let us both have a cuddle.

It was time to head back to Venelles to clean our new house ahead of the removal date and to hopefully get some broadband fitted.

We took un aspirateur, une pelle à poussière, une serpillière, and lots of cleaning products to tackle a house which is really quite dirty.

When we arrived we spotted this at the gate.

Then we got to work, cleaning the walls, toilets, bathrooms, bedrooms, stairs, windows, kitchen – the lot – even la piscine.

The weather wasn’t great – it was chucking it down all day. So we concentrated on putting some elbow grease into years of limescale in the toilets and rubbing dirt, grease and crayon off the walls.

It now looks a lot better – even though some walls are still a bit of a mess because of bad paint jobs in the past.

Unfortunately the broadband wasn’t sorted – the technician came but a mix up with where to connect the cables meant they have to come back next Tuesday.

At lunchtime we went to a lovely bistro in Venelles and I celebrated our hard work with a lovely desert.

We were in our flat when we heard some loud music coming from the street outside. When we opened the window we could see some sort of march taking place.

We went out for a closer look and Cath worked out that the flags were Armenian and that it was a march of remembrance for Armenian genocide memorial day which commemorates the victims of a series of massacres and starvation by the Ottomans in 1915.

The next day I bumped into them again on the Presque Île.

We spent the weekend exchanging emails with Facebook support groups and trying to source the drugs that might save Ula’s life.

The British short hair breeder was a huge help and managed to source some tablets to hopefully start Ula on the road to recovery.

I then ordered the liquid medicine from someone in China and, convinced I’d fallen for a scam, we waited.

In the meantime we attempted to shave Ula’s sides to make the injections easier to give.

The drug she has to have is GS-441524 and is very effective in treating la pif.

We gave Ula the first of the pills and then a lovely woman in Lyon from the Facebook group came round to show us how to administer the injections.

It isn’t easy – Ula doesn’t like it at all. Normally a placid cat she turned into a growling, snarling, biting one when we try to give her the medicine.

Our first attempt on our own was a bit of a car crash, the second time a bit better.

We have to get better because she needs the injections for at least a month. The total treatment lasts 84 days!!

Wish us luck.

On Friday we rang the vet because we were worried about Ula. She had stopped playing and her sides were quite large.

I thought she was just putting on weight – as she loves food – and was less interested in playing because she was getting older.

The vet initially gave us an appointment for Monday but then rang back asking if we could bring her in straightaway – never a good sign.

When we got her to the vets he examined her and then said he wanted to keep her in to run some tests.

There followed a few anxious hours before we went back and were told she most probably had feline infectious peritinitis – in French la pif.

The vet explained that in France there is no authorised treatment and that without it Ula would die quite quickly.

However he also revealed that there are Facebook groups of fantastic volunteers who help you source the drugs you need on the black market and then help to teach you how to inject them into your cat.

And that if Ula gets the treatment she has a great chance of getting better.

So we left sad but with some hope and a lot of research to do.

As mentioned, I headed to Aix-en-Provence to carry out les états des lieux in our new home.

As I waited for the landlord to open the portail I heard a crested tit singing – and then saw it right by the front gate. I think I might enjoy living in this part of the world.

Then it was time for les états des lieux. You might remember I had to do it when we moved into our current flat in the 6eme.

This one was similar – everything was in a bon état – but the house is in need of a good clean. I think Cath and I will come back next week to do that ahead of the actual removal date.

Les états des lieux done and le bail signed, the landlord handed over the keys and the blipper for the gate.

I headed back to Lyon to sort out a removal date.

I had to travel down to Aix-en-Provence to see the landlord again to sign le bail and do the état des lieux.

This time I caught the train and saw something I’d never seen before. A lot of children being shepherded on to the train ahead of everyone else.

When I eventually got on I was greeted by this:

So it turns out it is this service offered by SNCF for unaccompanied children aged between 4-14. You can find out more about it here.

I’m not sure why it was so in demand on the 18 April but as you can see there were plenty of kids travelling between Lyon and all stations to Marseille.