Not missed.

Another grey start to the day. Sophie's paws bear witness to some serious mole hill excavating.

Two farmers dogs come for their morning tour of the village. Sophie really wants to get out and play with them. She whimpers with frustration from inside the garden.

Then it's the turn of the post lady to show up at the gate. She's selling calendars . Calendar sales are usually done in November but the post lady's been in hospital - again - for major cancer surgery . She's got bored sitting at home and is driving round her old delivery route chatting to whoever crosses her path. There is a cigarette in her mouth. The Old Farmer wanders over for a long chat.

The yellow vest protesters had erected ten wooden crosses on the roundabout by the motorway pay booths. This morning workmen are removing them. No one in the village knows why there were ten of them or why they were put up in the first place.

At the motorway exit there are yet more workmen at work on another roundabout. They're removing the remains of the cars that were hijacked and set alight in early December.

We ignore an unappetizing strawberry and vanilla concoction at the bakers.

Seems there was a general strike on Tuesday that we managed to miss. The traffic on the motorway was down to a single lane and there were people blocking one of the slip roads in Toulouse but apart from that nothing. The radio was playing music non-stop which may have been n indication that the announcers were on strike. French breakfast radio announcers have a self satisfied jollity bordering on the manic. They were not missed.