Autumn arrives early

Yesterday's entertainment is backblipped. No shows today so here's a soundtrack: Mathieu Saglio and Anna Colom with Divina Tormenta. I love this album.

I slept quite badly last night and woke up very early. I was feeling bright enough to do Wordle in two though, and got to the swimming pool early for another glorious swim. There were more people today, so after my swim I sat in the shade and chatted with Ingrid for a while before going back in to cool off.

Fun fact: over breakfast I read an article in Libération from which I learned that France has the highest number of private swimming pools after the US, despite a much smaller population. There are 3.4 million, one for every 21 people. They only account for 0.15% of French water consumption, but of course they are not evenly distributed. On parts of the Côte d'Azur there's about one for every four people and on the new estate Sue lives on, every house has one. So it can have a significant impact. And there are currently villages that are having to be supplied with water in tankers. Makes you think, as you splash about in the municipal swimming pool.

A quiet day at home with a longer than usual afternoon siesta. I went for a short walk in the late afternoon and was rather startled to find some of the plane trees already turning golden, with drifts of leaves on the ground. It's only mid-August! Another sign of drought. As was my putting the watering can under the spout on the fountain and leaving it there, intending to water our tubs later. Three hours later there was about a litre of water in it and not even a drip coming from the pipe.