Jeannot and his jackdaw

Our neighbour Jeannot spends several hours every afternoon sitting on the bench by the fountain. Normally he brings his dog, but today he brought his recently adopted jackdaw. He's a bit of an animal whisperer and it's very tame as you can see. It sat quite happily on S's arm. "She's going to crap on you any minute," Jeannot said. She duly did. "Told you so!" She then tucked herself comfortably into the crook of S's arm and looked prepared to stay there for hours.

It was a very hot day. In the early evening we decided to have our tapas in the garden. It seemed like a good idea, but within an hour I was covered in itchy bumps and welts from insect bites and was slapping at giant ants (not that the latter bite). S naturally was unscathed. In the end we gave up and retreated to the insect-free zone of home.