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Want to make a quick soup with next to no effort? Here's what to do. You buy a package of "anti gaspi" vegetables of the popular St Eloi brand and use it from frozen. As with most soups, I use a mix of olive oil and butter. Heat in a pan, tip in the pack of veg, thin with water or vegetable stock if wished. Heat up, simmer for a bit and you will see a wonderful velouté in the pan. I used the carrots, squash, potatoes pack so it was a nice orange colour. I also noticed a pack with green veg and will try that next time. Snip some parsely or another herb of your choice, swirl over (artistically, if possible) a drizzle of cream (I suppose some pesto paste might also be good), grinding of black pepper, some croutons if liked and there is your soup. Advantages of doing it like this is that anti gaspi is exactly that, no waste, no peelings choppings or dicings and if properly presented looks like you have spent a lot of time doing it the traditional way.

Nick, I'm not trying to "top" your story but I thought you might like to hear of a story from my part of France, the Dordogne. A good friend (French) lives on one of the routes on the Compostelle but of course a long way away from the Spanish border. She puts out a flask of coffee and biscuits by her gate each morning with a note to pilgrims to help themselves. One year, a young German man appeared, helped himself to the biscuits and the contents of the flask and stayed chatting animatedly until lunch time. Martine and her husband invited the young man to have some lunch which the young man gratefully and charmingly accepted. After lunch, it being a very hot afternoon, the German asked whether he might be permitted to take a dip in their pool. Go ahead, they said and the man didn't need a second invitation. He spent most of the afternoon swimming and relaxing by the pool. He came back into the house after his swim, spotted the piano in a corner of the lounge and asked whether he might have a tinkle on it. My friends, by now thoroughly bemused and not knowing how the young man's stay would pan out, said OK, why not? After his piano session, it was getting for dinner time. Martine felt obliged to say, well you might as well have something to eat before you leave. Again the young German accepted with gratitude. As you can imagine, the next step was bed as my friends, being my sort of age, are not used to late nights. The end of the tale approaches. The young man slept the night and left the following morning after a hearty breakfast and left with many expressions of thanks and a slip of paper with his phone number for keeping in touch. My final question to my friend was, and did you hear from him again? Oh no, never, but it was an entertaining tale, the way she told it but I don't think I have reproduced the telling here. She told it with many gallic shrugs, mischievous looks and smiles and I laughed my head off

Right, Wools, but wouldn't you really need the gabarit of un sumo wrestler?

And I have been looking at headlines and couldn't work out what a pochoir is. Apparently, it's a stencil, I suppose they mean a blue print on which to base criteria for judgement. When I was having cushions cut to size, the firm asked me to make them a gabarit

Our neighbours over the road have just put their property on the market this week, so I think the answer to your question is YES.

Hitler's was a completely different situation, Wooly. It was war time and state sanctioned murder was permissible.

The word is "bourbier" and she used it to describe the state of the present administration. Apologies to anyone who already knows this word.

Indeed, Loiseau, sometimes I do say chienne but it never sounds quite "right" to me. Don't know why. It's like "cheffe" for chef and whatever the word is for a woman professeur. As most pet owners treat their animals like children, I suppose it's OK to ask if it's a boy or a girl. At least I think that's still acceptable because we haven't yet decided if animals can be bisexual, of indeterminate sex or any number of bewildering combinations.

No, Martin, that post was in jest and Nick does like a joke! In an earlier post, in reply to Lori, I'd already said I hoped no one else would be attacked like that. This last post was a riposte to Nick's reference to Baldwin whose murder case was dismissed and the ex Trump bit was because he is referred to as the ex president and also to recall the Monty Python's joke about a dead parrot being called an ex parrot. I am not a Trump fan, nor am I a Jo Brand fan....don't like either of them. However, I do not wish them a violent death!

If unsure, I ask c'est une fille ou un garçon?

I used to go to a guns and knives shop to collect my mondial relai parcels but, as that was a specialist shop, I expected the sale of these types of goods. I suppose with Decathlon, you could say shooting is after all a sport, an Olympic sport no less. It's not like dispensers and ammo selling next to cheese, is it?

Nick, I like that...a LOT! The best of all worlds, the assassin chap would get off scot free and Trump would be.....well, ex-Trump, wouldn't he?

I suppose that if I was going to be killed by someone, being shot might be the quick option?

Lori, yes, that seems to be the reality. As though buying ammunition for your gun is something as routine and casual as buying chewing gum! I hope I never have to live in a society like that.

Lehaut, that is very, very scary! Just as well I use an adblocker and can't actually read your link! There are some things better unseen because I have good visual memory and once seen I would find it near impossible to unsee them.

Oh Lori, I hope there are no more attacks. Perhaps they will now think seriously about the gun laws?

Does anyone think anything different? Any comments? Maybe memes you have seen? Lori, you are the only person I know who actually has a vote, so do you think as I do?

Tiddleywinks, of course!

That's not just France though, is it? Even years ago, a member of our family was paying more than that for a nursing (not merely residential) home.

All the best with your search, Cosford but I think you will find a car indispensable anywhere in the Dordogne. Everything is just so far away, at least far enough away to walk to (especially as you get older) and I think you will regret not having your own transport. You won't need a big car as such, but certainly a little runaround.

Forgot to say, as many smarter and wiser than I have, Politics is the Art of the Possible.

Mélenchon is no longer the force he was. Actually, I admired the way he was the first to come out, after the first round, and said if any of his people were the third candidate, then they would stand down. It was only after his speech that the others fell into line and the left "coalition" of 4 parties was formed. Mélenchon is a wily old campaigner, has been for decades. But he is no longer in line for any official position. At least that is what I think and I will eat my words if I am wrong.

Well, we seem to have averted the worst case scenario

DL, I do not dare think too much about it. Will know soon enough but it does feel like the sword of Damocles.

Yes, indeed, ALBF though I don't know about "great minds" as my mind is only partially functional at the moment. I too have a lot of time of Mbappe😀 Such wonderful skills, the way he weaves around all the opponents and then wham! the ball's in goal!