Our days – and nights – are ordered by the peal of the bells from the old church, at the end of the rue de l’eglise, just 200 metres from our apartment.

Thankfully it does not keep us awake at night though I have, on different occasions, heard it pealing at midnight, at 1am and again at 5am, so I am pretty sure it continues to some extent through the wee hours. Bizarrely the clock does not keep the correct time, but the bells still peal the correct hour.

It’s a rather lovely corner of the old town, fairly well maintained, with neighbouring houses in ‘close’ formation on the cobbles around its perimeter, in some cases trailing roses and ivy across their stone frontages. There are one or two that I wouldn’t mind buying, if they ever came up…

It’s not a bad place to sit while waiting to collect the boys from the school just on the other side of the road. Sometimes as I pass, the organist is practising, and I am waylaid as I stop in to listen awhile.