les Davey de France

So, a hard brexit will result in my no longer being able to drive in France. Here's how it goes. At present, as someone from an EU country, I don't have to exchange my driving licence for a French one. I can drive with my UK licence. In the case of a negotiated exit from the EU this is expected to continue. However, a hard brexit will mean that I will have one year before I need to exchange my licence for a French one. We expect to leave France to live in the UK in 2025, so that means lots of administration for the sake of driving occasionally in France for five years. Then exchanging it again on our return to the UK. I won't bother.

We just got back from a visit to Inverness. A friend of UFM who hosts a UFM prayer group in her home suggested we stay at her place while she was away. We jumped at the chance. I've visited Inverness twice, I think, in 2005 and in 2012 - so I was due for a visit. In addition Pat has never been to that part of Scotland. Not only that, but a church in Inverness has partnered with us since 2005, so it was especially good to spend some time in the city. We walked in the woods and beside the waterfalls and alongside the loch. We spent some quiet moments surrounded by nature. We visited Inshes Church and Smithton-Culloden Church. We also went to Dingwall for the Tuesday morning of the Northern Convention. We met old friends and made new ones. We ate traditional British food; supermarket Indian and Chinese meals, steak and ale pies (Pat was disappointed but I do not ask much of a pie) and a couple of times at Wetherspoons. We flew to Edinburgh and hired a car. I hate hiring cars a...

there are four manifestations (demonstrations) in the centre of Bordeaux today: velorution  campaigning for more use of bikes, a march against the closure of a Ford factory, a march for the climate and... the gilets jaunes are back in business.

Tram C, out of service between Gare Saint-Jean and Quinconces since the massive deliberately-started fire of the end of May which destroyed almost 400 vehicles parked on four levels, and in the meantime replaced by the equally appreciated and regretted ‘buses de substitution’, will begin running again on 28 September. We are overjoyed.

So how long should I carry on rubbing this stuff in morning and night? I know, the interweb will tell me. Ha! Some hope! The websites say things like, rub it in morning and night. Continue until the scar is well-healed. It may take two years for the scar to lose all its redness. TWO YEARS? I decided to ask for a second opinion at the pharmacy. After all, they sold me the stuff. This créme cicatrisante, how long should I use it for?  What have you got? The one you sold me. But which one, cicacrème, crèmocique, crèmcica? The one with copper and zinc in. OK. That one. Well you need to use it till the scar is well healed. Yes, but that means what? Till it's no longer red? Or what. Because it'll stay red for a long time. It depends on the person. Yes, but two weeks? Two months? Two years? A lifetime? What did you have done? This. It was a sebaceous cyst. So just the skin, but well opened. Well your scar will never disappear completely. Look, here's...

The fireworks for the 14 July were cut short by a fire on the boat they were being launched from. It did give us all a good view of the fire-boats in action, but the town hall felt that we had all been short-changed so they arranged for another show for the 14 September, when Bordeaux this year celebrated the grape harvest. (I tell you, it's one fête after another just now!) This time the show went off as planned. We had a small pizza-party at our house, followed by a nice evening walk through the building sites down to just this side of the Pont de Pierre.

So, remise en selle, cycle paths etc... It's all part of a fiendish plan. This week is the week of alternative mobility, when all over France cities try to stop people driving into them. In Bordeaux this strategy includes things like: attractive park and ride places with low prices for a car-load of people punitive car parking charges in the city centre exorbitant fines for illicit parking a vigilant band of enforcers but also: encouragements to walk - for example there's an app now that will count your steps and award you a free drink when you've walked a long way to get it encouragements to cycle Yesterday en route (by "bus d sub" *) to church we saw the Vélo-tour stands all down the Quai des Sports and then we saw people with eccentrically adorned cycle helmets riding gaily down the cyclepath. One was dressed as a Roman Centurion. On a bicycle. We get sicked into these programmes without realising it. Poor saps. * The "bus d sub", or...