22nd July

Turtle doves appear to be in every tree around the garden, real rarity in the UK, must be down to the lack of intensive farming here. Getting a lot of horseflies in the house, guess it is due to the sheep and cattle housed nextdoor, they are annoying the dogs.


The heatwave has returned with temperatures in the low 30's and predicted to hit 40 by the end of the week. It has been to hot to do much other than walk dogs early in the morning and late evening, catch up on some reading, online French course and drink vast amounts of green tea.

I have also had time to reflect on the differences I have noticed between here and the UK, I know I have only been here a week and I am still on an initial high and this is rural France but here goes:

1. Much less traffic on the roads
2. Better behaved traffic ( The French have a lot of unmarked police cars and hidden speed cameras).
3. I haven't had to pay to park anywhere yet
4. People are friendly, if you walk into a cafe everyone says hello.
5. People are proud of their communities, I think down to the autonomy of the local mayor.

6. This is an interesting one, I have always been a classical music fan and listener to Radio 3 and occasionally classic FM. I am now listening to the French equivalent. They play mainly the same composers (not heard Elgar yet!)| but different pieces of their repertoire. This must reflect the national taste I guess, it is great for me as I am hearing lots of works I don't know.

7. Much of the food in the local supermarket is locally sourced and I haven't seen a straight banana anywhere.


Finally a couple of photos I took whilst walking the dogs.Was in a bit of an artistic mood, but they also show good nature conservation practice of leaving fall trees to decompose naturally, giving a home to all sorts of invertebrate life such as beetle larvae. Stag beetle larvae for instance live in decomposing wood for up to 7 years before emerging, our habit of tidying up is why they are now so rare.