Toulouse is known as a pink city. The characteristic pinkish stone and beautiful skyline do give it a slightly Italian feel. It was against this skyline that, as our car left Toulouse, I spotted a peregrine falcon.

Its sharp pointed wings were folded back against its body, giving it an unmistakable stealth-bomber outline.

During my two weeks in the city I had thought that the tall spires and crags of the many churches were ideal for these cliff-dwelling birds.

These birds’ name has interesting Italian, or rather latinate, roots. Peregrine comes from the Latin word for pilgrim, because the birds were taken by falconers as adults, not as chicks from the nest. They were therefore taken during their journey, or while travelling, rather than before they could fly, as was customary with other falconers’ birds.

This bird, my favourite, seems to wander in my shadow – wherever I go in the world I see one, and I’m losing count of how many individual peregrine falcons I’ve now seen. But, I haven’t seen one in the UK in 2015 yet.