Johnny Hallyday in Viviers, Ardèche (07)

At the weekend Viviers, a village of about 4000 people in the Ardèche, filled with thousands of fans of Johnny Hallyday (1943–2017) to see the unveiling of his statue, created by Daniel Georges, at the southern entrance to the village by the restaurant Le Tennissee: 'Quelque chose de Tennissee' is one of Johnny's most famous works, although it is not about the American state but the writer Tennissee Williams. The work was paid for by Johnny's fans. Last Friday would have been Johnny's seventy-fifth birthday.

Johnny Hallyday's mother lived in Viviers, a place he visited for seventeen years, often dropping in on  the Café des Arts when he came here.

His mother Huguette Galmiche (1920–2007), née Clerc, is buried in the cemetery at Viviers.

Pierre-Léon Boissin in Viviers, Ardèche (07)

Before finding the grave of Johnny Hallyday's mother, I was struck by this sculpture of a man and his dog in the ancien cimetière in Viviers. Who was this guy? I wasn't the only one to ask himself the same question, but it turns out that this is a representation of Pierre-Léon Boissin, who owned a nearby villa called Pax, and the statue was originally erected in the park there, awaiting his death: a work effected by Baussan et Bauvas (sometime between the creation of the villa in 1889) and 1916. On Boisson's death Villa Pax was sold and the buyer had the sepulcre moved to the cemetery. But of the nature of Boisson, his life, I can't readily find anything. (His dog, by the way, was called Gypsey.

The Box Tree Moth in Viviers, Ardèche (07)

It's surprising what you can find out even when you're not looking for it. For instance today we were (like another pair of French seekers, plus another guy from Cavaillon) looking for the grave of Johnny Hallyday's mother – when we were surrounded by 'butterflies' (although I thought they may be daytime moths) and this obliging little creature posed for me for quite some time. OK, you do the Google, and discover that this is the pyrale du buis, or box tree moth, whose caterpillar was introduced into Europe from Asia by accident in the first decade of this century, and is causing such havoc among boxwood trees that it is considered a pest. Shame really, as my partner Penny thought they'd come out to celebrate Johnny's 75th birthday (last Friday). Obviously some people must hate them, but surely they're nothing like the pest that is the human race?

And this is another example of the moth, seen in thousands just a few hundred kilometers north of Viviers in  Savigny-lès-Beaune (21). Our car roof was covered in the creatures, some of which had died or were dying in the morning dew.