Irises and tomatoes.

The local Renault garage has a new courtesy vehicle. A two door electric thing - half scooter, half car. It can go all day on one three hour charge. Gullwing doors and two seats; one behind the other. According to the badge on the front it's called a Twizy. The ageing farmer and his wife who are using it  are unimpressed. Madame has some difficulty extricating herself from the tiny rear seat. Monsieur uses two hands to help her out. She giggles and straightens her skirt. Monsieur then has even more difficulty closing the gullwing doors. His wife profers a constant stream of advice which he ignores.  In the end he leaves one door open.Husband and wife wander off unconcernedly , hand in hand, to the greengrocers. 

Ten minutes later the process is repeated. Madame is pushed, rather than helped, into the rear seat. She settles down with a giggle. Monsieur clambers into the front seat.  The greengrocer hands the shopping bag to Madame then swings the gullwing doors shut. As they go he bangs his hand on the roof and shouts out ' make sure you don't speed '.  They lurch off at twenty miles an hour. This is probably the top speed of a Twizy.

New seats in the cafe under the arcade. The hideous purple plastic things replaced by pink raffia. Surprisingly, an improvement on what went before. Two new, unmatching, umbrellas positioned on the pavement where they provide shade to the passing pigeons. The beer and absinthe set , faced with this monumental change, stay inside.

Back in the village the tiles are being put back on the roof over the replica sixteenth century pottery kiln. The mayor,in a boiler suit and pork pie hat, is at the top of a ladder putting the last of them in place. Three villagers are clustered around the base of the ladder, helping . The kiln had been lit for the village fete but in the rainstorm water cascaded down the chimney and all it produced was smoke. Rather a lot of smoke .'' There's always next year " says the mayor brightly. Angus notices that the mayor has planted tomato plants on the bank behind the kiln next door to a swathe of yellow irises. Country practicality.