I have not had a very exciting week unless you count back breaking, sweaty drudgery in a yard exciting. I am sick of looking at an area of our yard that is supposed to be growing grass. I refuse to water it because water is so expensive here and there is a draught so there are just ugly brown clumps here and there with green weeds. The soil is awful and is the texture of cement. I didn’t want any grass to begin with. Anyway, I decided to make it all brick and gravel with no plants except some pots of roses and lavendar at the edges. I’ve been in the process of digging up the grass and I have to use the broad end of a pick ax to do it because the soil is so hard and the grass, even though it looks dead, has incredible roots. Every morning before it gets too hot I am out there chiseling away. I think Maurice would just let it stay the way it is but it is so awful I am embarrassed when we have people over. I’ve probably got about a week’s worth of work left-just getting the grass out-that doesn’t count doing the brick and gravel. I can only work a few hours a day and then it gets too hot. I am starting a month of French classes in Aix so I guess I will only be working on it on week-ends and maybe occasionally when the sun starts going behind a nearby mountain and our yard becomes blissfully shady.

A few photos taken in a building in Aix that I just happened to wander into. Aix is full of great old mansions as it was once full of properous lawyers.

A face on a fountain that I like. It looks so modern to me. I don’t know the age of the fountain.