High summer in Lunel

Blog posts often seem to follow an important event or memorable outing, but it seems good now and then to mark humdrum routine and the lazy, hazy days of summer.  All around we see evidence of exciting holidays being taken by family and friends, and of course they have to go in school holidays, but we can now avoid the expensive, busy times and stay home when the roads are clogged.

We came back from the UK in late July to a still boiling hot Lunel - afternoons up to 40°. The evenings are now shorter, which is a pity, but it's also getting a bit cooler - one night the temperature dropped to 16, and when I walked to the doctor's early it was lovely and cool with high wispy cloud.  Lunel is always very dry, though it occasionally rains heavily - a storm one afternoon produced 4 mm of rain but lasted just half an hour.

We try to get the tasks done in the morning, sometimes eat on the terrace, and read, sleep or follow sport in the heat of the day.  The Olympics have plenty to interest us just now, and the radio cricket commentary is always good value with highlights on Channel 5 - we are at the limit for UK tv reception but we still see a lot luckily.  Our French tv has gone completely on the blink which is no big loss but our satellite man is coming to fix it when he gets back from his holiday at the end of the month.

Once the cooler evening comes we can take Evie for a walk and we often go to the canal path - we're lucky to have it so near.  Sleeping at night has been a problem in the very hot weather, so we are glad the nights are cooling a little.  Otherwise one of the coolest places is the car with air conditioning running, so we never mind going out to play music or for the odd trip to Montpellier or our French group on Tuesdays.  One night stayed up late to look out for shooting stars - we saw a few though we were a bit early.

We always enjoy good food and drink of course, and from time to time we go out to lunch at La Terrasse, our favourite town centre restaurant and bar.  The other day we both had lobster (thermidor) for the first time in our lives - delicious!