One more.

Difficult to judge where we stand on the pandemic. Somethings are getting back to normal, somethings aren't. The Delta variant now accounts for 20% of cases in France. Numbers have doubled over the last week. A man with a gravelly voice on the breakfast radio says the variant will account for 90% of cases by the end of the summer. He speaks very slowly and very deliberately as if to make it quite clear to the listeners that his opinion is to be highly valued.

The bakers has a sign on the door saying ' No more than two customers in the  premises at any time'. This is ignored by a group of five village ladies who congregate by the till. I stand and wait while they order their croissants and baguettes. One of them orders a Chocolat Moelleux. All the others tut. 'It's all right for some ' says one. Another calls the cake buyer ' Money bags'. Another says, rather pointedly, ' I suppose one cake won't do you any more harm'. The emphasis is on the word 'more'. They wander away clucking. I note they all have their masks below their noses.

The weather of late has been dire. A bracing 14 degrees this morning. Sophie opts to nap on the front door step while I wander in to get a jacket. The chill weather seems to do wonders for the wisteria which is coming into its second blooming of the year. 

Post coffee and croissant ends it's time to take a walk along the valley floor. Six new arrivals in the cows field by the lake. The little ones are asleep in the grass. Two mothers are out of it , as in completely out of it, after their long and eventful night. Four others stand, seemingly shell shocked, and munch contentedly away on the grass. In fact they munch away exuding more than contentment - double contentment. 

So goes village life in deepest, deepest France profonde.