Snails .

Off to the supermarket for last minute rugby watching necessities - Pringles and Pretzels . It's cool , so while I shop Wilf sleeps happily away in the back of the car with the windows down . You know you're in France when there are thirty different types of canned snails on the shelves .

While were busy scouring the supermarket aisles ' the font ' is off to the opening of the new cinema in the little market town . Fifty years to the day since the old cinema closed down . To start their first season off they're showing ' Rise of the Planet of the Apes ' or ' La planete des Singes ' as it's known here. This movie ' the font ' helpfully informs me is a prequel . When I was a boy no one had thought of prequels - they only had sequels. Another sign of advancing years .

A really good week for Wilf . He's been sleeping all the way through from ten at night until six in the morning without having to get up for pit stops . His head seems to be getting bigger and his body smaller but apart from that you wouldn't have any idea there was anything wrong . No blood this week . He's happy with a simple routine - wherever we go , he goes . Not as difficult as it sounds now that the temperatures are falling and he can curl up on his favourite blanket behind the rear seats . He really needs a trip to the groomers to deal with the staining round his mouth and paws but he finds being left alone with strangers too upsetting . And why , when you're old and blind , should anything interrupt your happiness ?