I have frozen peas added to my baggage but now that I know about this week's heatwave I'm lighter by the clothing that I've been carrying around for four weeks ready for my return to a cool UK. What luck, that my friends in Sète had planned to take an empty suitcase back and were happy to put my superfluous stuff in it!

To Marseille; I wanted to see how it's changed since my last visit 40 years ago when I stayed in my French penfriend's student hall of residence. Today I took the metro, which didn't exist then, to the flat she and her husband have recently bought. Tonight is only their third night there so the coffee machine came out of its box, I untied the string round the rolled-up mattress I'll be sleeping on and I admired the new terrace furniture, heavy enough not to blow away when the Mistral does its worst.

The 'itinerary from hell' they had planned for me had to be postponed; instead, we lazed, admired the sunset from their terrace then went out for couscous.