Síle and I have always disagreed about whether or not we should build a swimming pool in the garden of our house in France.
Basically she is against and I am for.

But she has always said that she would like some sort of water feature to give a feeling of cool water in the summer.
Just last week she pointed out a picture of a lion’s heat spouting water into a trough in a French gardening magazine and explained that that was the sort of feature she would like.

On Sunday, as part of my birthday celebrations, we went to see the huge Marche de Pouce which is on every week in a suburb of Montpellier.
There at one of the first stalls Sile spotted her Lion’s Head.
M. the stall holder told her she could have it for €25.
Síle offered him €20, no deal so she decided to not get it, for the moment.
About an hour later, on our way out of the market, we spotted that the Lion’s head was still for sale.
This time Madame, wife of the stallholder was doing the dealing.
She told Síle that the price was €50, but that she could have it for €30.

Síle protested, M. was summonsed, he said that “Yes , he had offered it for sale for €25 ” Whereby M. and Madame had a large stand up row behind their stall.
We watched in fascination, more determined than ever to acquire the head, even for the €25 first refused.
Eventually Madame thrust it at Síle and begrudgingly sold it for €25- at this stage we were convinced we had got a bargain.
But then again maybe the row was a set piece by this two to convince everyone they were getting things on the cheap.

Whichever we are now the proud owners of a rather magnificent rusty iron Lion’s Head.