For the past two years I’ve been working in and around Montpellier, rather than exclusively in Nimes. 15 years ago when I started teaching I drove all over the place, teaching individuals in their homes and then in their workplaces. In 2013 I added teaching at Vatel which soon became my sole employer, and that lasted until 2022. By then I was working there and at one other school in Nimes, and I hated both of my jobs; Vatel because the management was excruciatingly bad, the other school because the students were just appalling human beings.

I’ve also been working four days a week for the past two years as well as living half my time in a seaside apartment in Palavas; two weeks beside the sea, two weeks in the countryside in Moulezan. I’ve lived in Moulezan since 2019, the last five of them in my small apartment next to the boulangerie. This format has done wonders for my mental health and I feel much better in my head than I have done for a decade or more. Getting divorced helped a lot with that, too, it has to be said.

This summer is the last I will spend in Moulezan, though; this autumn I’m moving into a flat in Palavas and will be leaving the croissant-adjacent one for good. The landlord is selling and, while I could keep renting it, there’s no need. The only reason I’ve kept the apartment here is because Roxanne went to the Montessori collège in the village and in September she will be going to the Lycée Agricole in Meynes, east of Nimes, to study animal husbandry. And she’ll be going as a boarding student, sleeping there during the week and spending weekends either with me or with her mother. So, two weekends per month she’ll come to me in Palavas. Scarlett, meanwhile, returns to England at the end of August to continue her art studies at Bedford College.

So, I get to live the beach life in my new apartment which is, literally, on the beach; step out through my sliding doors onto my terrace, turn left, walk 10 metres alongside my flat, open the little gate and onto the beach. I can feel it doing me good already. The downside to this is that I can only rent the apartment from September to June; then it’s rented out to the beach lifeguards of the Gendarmerie Nationale who patrol the beach at Palavas, so I’ll have to do something else for the two months of the summer.

This year, summer has been three weeks of not doing much at all; we went to Paris for a few days in June to see the Hockney exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton (so good, I’m taking Scarlett there before she returns to England) and Le Barbier de Seville at the Opéra National (wow!). And, of course, to eat at Le Thoumieux and Chez Paul.

I’ve been writing, quite a lot in fact, of Seconds with help from The Novelry. It’s coming on. Roxanne and I went to Paris for a couple of days last week to see the Disney 100 exhibition which we both enjoyed immensely; and to visit Paris’s original Cat Café. The Cat Café exists (and charges €5 per visit) to please cat fans, including Roxanne who enjoyed it. I did not appreciate the appalling service and very mediocre food (clumsy, over-reheated – but then served cold! – goat cheese and tomato tart anyone?). Not recommended unless you’re a major cat fan who needs a feline fix.

The new school year is approaching and I will continue teaching in the same places as before as well as adding a couple of new ones. I learned my lesson while at Vatel – do NOT put all your wage-earning eggs in one crappy basket. In fact I’m up to six now, spread out more or less evenly but with a few days here and there venturing to Nimes and Perpignan. We’ll see how that goes. I am still, mostly, not working on Fridays and will still be teaching, on average, less than 20 hours a week, which is good for my physical and mental health.

But September to Christmas is full and will be hard. I spent most of June sleeping when I wasn’t still teaching, and have one last class this Friday before officially finishing for the summer holidays. I already have one school in my sights as the next to be fired and next year’s plan will be to not work on Mondays as well as Fridays. Here’s hoping.

Media this month

Draw a fish – go on, see how bad you are at drawing (or how good if you’re Scarlett).

BBC Proms – The BBC is continuing the enshittification of all nice things by withdrawing access to the BBC sounds app from anyone who dares to live abroad, rather than introduce the subscription service those of us who dare to leave its shores have been asking for for many years. You can still listen to BBC radio live via a slightly different page, but you are no longer allowed access to the catch-up service which was so useful.

Smart DNS proxy – On an unrelated note, VPN services are popular with those who aspire to listen to, say, the BBC whilst daring to live in foreign parts. I find them clumsy and slow at best, and the good ones are expensive. Do NOT use a free one! Ever! Smart DNS proxy does the same job as a VPN but without all the overhead of sending all your traffic via a 3rd party, costs the same and is about as easy/difficult to set up.

Murderbot (the books) – Martha Wells is a great writer and her Murderbot is a very relatable character. If you hate people but feel obliged to like them all in a wonderful non-dystopian but non-idyllic future, this is for you.

Murderbot (the TV series) – Yet another reason to get an Apple TV+ subscription. The first season (book 1) is available now, the second season (book two) will be out next year. If you’re one of my children you will be watching this next week.