You may have noticed something slightly different about the P‑O Life website recently. You can now read an article without battling your way through a small army of flashing adverts, mysterious arrows and boxes offering things you have absolutely no recollection of searching for.

Yes, we have removed most of the rather hideous Google ads.

We know they helped to support the website, but we also know they made it harder to use, particularly on a phone. We would much rather you stayed for a proper look around than gave up halfway through an article because an advert for toenail fungus had swallowed the screen.

And there is plenty to explore.

The P‑O Life website is updated regularly with local news, upcoming events, walks, days out, practical advice about life in France, language help and articles celebrating the people, places and occasional peculiarities of the Pyrénées-Orientales.

You can also search our English-speaking business directory, browse the classified adverts, check what is coming up in the events calendar and read current and past editions of the P‑O Life magazine online.

We will still feature our trusted local advertisers. Their support helps keep P‑O Life going, but we want advertising on the site to be useful, relevant and considerably less likely to leap out from behind a paragraph.

This is part of a wider effort to make the website cleaner, easier to navigate and much more enjoyable to use. Have a browse, rediscover an old favourite or fall down a rabbit hole of walks, French bureaucracy and Catalan festivals.

And if something still drives you mad, please tell us. We cannot promise to fix the French bureaucracy, but we can certainly keep improving the website.