As it’s mid-October it must be time for the festival des courges encore une fois.

Parc de la Tête d’Or houses a huge variety of squashes of all colours and sizes to add a real autumnal feel to the place.

There are also plenty of games for les gones to enjoy.

Like last year some of them made their way home with us.

As Euronews presses on with its new operating model – interviews for new roles have taken place and our Spanish language team are about to move to Madrid – we are back in the news with the unions continuing to be unhappy with the new owners and their plan.

You can read more about it in Le Monde here.

I know Euronews management disagrees strongly with this account but I feel I should refrain from commenting . However I will highlight something I disagree with.

Describing the Green Cube as a high-tech building seems a bit far-fetched.

This is how we are attempting to tackle our current pigeon problem.

Also some of the comments on a similar article in LyonMag are a bit mean.

Not the greatest photo, but I saw my first kestrel in Lyon today.

Buzzards by the bucketload but kestrels, not so much.

And I learnt a new word in French – une crécerelle.

Feels like a good time to quote my favourite poem – the Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins. – which contains French words.

I caught this morning morning’s mignon.

Kingdom of daylight’s dauphin

Gerard Manley Hopkins

I remember in May when I saw all the outside seating areas being erected outside the bars and restaurants in the sixth arrondissement.

It made me think that summer was on the way.

So now in October I see the signs that – despite the lovely sunny weather we are currently enjoying- winter is surely just around the corner.

On a school outing au bord de la Saône this school group stopped to look at and discuss something.

They were looking at the Green Cube of course and talking about its design which the teacher said meant there was lots of room and lots of natural light inside.

I didn’t feel it was my place to disagree.

You might remember the mammoth task I had to undertake to declare my earnings to the tax office in May.

Well, having thought that they must have lost my dossier as it has taken so long to hear back – I finally received an email informing me to check the government website.

And when I did – amazingly I discovered the tax office owed me money!!!

Thank you again to my French teacher and colleagues who helped me fill in the form correctly and helped me to avoid paying any unnecessary taxes.

I checked I had understood everything correctly with Euronews’ head of the pay department.

“They are the experts,” she said. “You should trust them.”

Oh yes, I am happy to trust them on this one.

With our eldest son in town we went to Avignon to meet up with his French family.

Avignon was of course home to the papacy in the 14th century. So we had a wander round the gardens of the enormous papal palace.

We also saw the bridge from the nursery rhyme.

Sur le pont d’Avignon,

On y danse, on y danse

Sur le pont d’Avignon

On y danse tous en rond

As mentioned, we were not alone. There was a little chatty girl with us.

Alma is now 22 months old and babbles away in French.

She has formed a very strong bond with Cath and Matthew which was lovely to see.

On a lazy Saturday afternoon we spent half an hour watching rival sporting events taking place in Place du Maréchal Lyautey.

One group were playing Molkky- a game involving skittles and throwing stick that we bought our eldest son for his birthday. He confirms it is a very addictive game.

The other group were playing the more traditional French pastime of pétanque. Both games seemed keenly contested.

Everyone’s favourite chocolatier and tea room Bernachon is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

That’s a lot of chocolate to have been sold and devoured by customers in Lyon and Paris.

According to the website, it all began in 1953, when Maurice Bernachon wanted to transform raw cocoa beans into chocolate.

He did a pretty good job and I highly recommend a trip to Lyon’s most famous chocolate shop.

This week it was the turn of the All Blacks to make their presence known in Lyon.

The pubs were full of rugby fans – well actually they were watching the Ryder Cup.

The game went well for the fans. Very well. The fans will be sticking around as their next game is on Thursday against Uruguay.