It is if the chocolate shops are anything to go by.

This weekend in the centre of Lyon there was another braderie and this one was a biggie.

Lots of shops were selling discounted goods. In Place des Jacobins it was all about the plants.

Then there was a food and drink area. It was nice to stand in the sun and have a Corsican style pulled-veal roll.

And a local beer.

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.