And that’s in the shade!

That’s August for you – no demand for these electric scooters.

Last month it was our neighbour the orange cube that was getting cleaned.

Today it is our turn. I’ll leave it to you to decide which approach is more effective.

Back from our holidays and back to Lyon. I had been told it is empty en Août as everyone takes Les Grandes Vacances. But wow – it is empty. Like a city after a zombie apocalypse would be, I imagine.

And the shops are almost all closed.

Nous nous reverrons en Septembre.

J’ai commencé lire un autre livre en Francais. Il a reçu des bonnes critiques dans le Times alors j’ai pensé pourquoi pas le lire en Francais au lieu de la traduction.

J’essayerai de lire un chapitre par jour mais il y a une chose que rend ça plus difficile. C’est la punctuation francaise.

Regardez ça. Le premier point et sur le deuxieme page.

Alors, on y va. Je me relance.

We have gone on holiday to Sicily and yet – even on the Italian island – there is a Euronews connection.

My talented colleague RuthWright – who runs the Green and Travel areas of Euronews – lives in Sicily. As we were in the area we popped in to see her and her husband Ettore.

Ettore runs a yoga and kite surfing centre and we had a lovely dinner with some yoga enthusiasts.

It is an idyllic spot for a bit of yoga so do look up Floripa if you want to practice your yoga in a gorgeous setting in southern Sicily.

So we have taken a two week holiday in Sicily with our eldest son Matthew joining us for a few days.

In France les grandes vacances are a very important rite.

In 1936 a leftist government, Le Front Populaire, signed into law the first French paid vacation – les congés payés. All paid workers got two weeks paid holiday. For the first time.

Nowadays workers are entitled to five weeks congés payés. At Euronews it is paid in arrears so last year I had barely any holidays.

So this summer – like the rest of France – we took two weeks off and headed for Sicily.

Bonnes vacances a tous.

Les jeux olympiques auront lieu à Paris. Si vous voulez des souvenirs, ils sont à vendre.

Cet homme pratique son swing sur un bateau dans la Saône.