When the band I played with in England rehearsed, we met, practiced, maybe had a cup of tea and went home; it was usually over by 10.30. Things are very different here. Last night’s rehearsal started early, at 8pm, because Marc, one of the guitarists, had an early start today; for the same reason it was held in his bar in Riscle.

We sat around, chatting and having aperitifs, for the first hour or so, then practiced a couple of numbers, till Marc’s wife set the tables and brought out plates of melon. This was followed by the most enormous mushroom omelette I’ve ever seen, plenty for all ten of us, with bread and salad. We then did some more practice, before adjourning again for dessert, followed by a bit more practice. Very civilised! We even met our objective of finishing early, so I was home not long after midnight.

It transpired that the reason for Marc’s early start was a trip to Lyon to take part in the national Lyonnais boules championship; the Lyonnais version differs from normal boules in that the boules themselves are bigger and the rules of play are more complicated, but please don’t ask me how! This contest is a big affair, leading on to the world championship for the winners; Marc was world champion in 1976 – quite a claim to fame!

Over the last two days the photovoltaic men have made good progress, solving the problem of our less-than-square garage roof and fitting the panels and the connecting boxes and onduleur that feed the electricity into the grid, in the garage. There are just a few roof edging tiles left to fit now, which will be done next week, as it started to rain again this afternoon.

Nick and Kieran have demolished a section of wall in what will be the kitchen in the new house; this is the part they enjoy most, the rebuilding of the new bit of wall won’t be done with quite the same degree of enthusiasm. They’ve also widened the hole for one of the windows; a very un-standard window, so Nick’s going to build the frame for it himself.