I think we're all hoping that the pool ban was for this year only and won't be continued for next year unless the weather conditions are the same.....
I've got a feeling it's here to stay (and was never about weather conditions anyway).
For the weather conditions - no-one who lives in France that I have heard of expressing an opinion on the matter had heard of any hose/paddling pool bans anywhere in France at the time and I spied a goodly number in gardens on the bus back from Arnage/Mulsanne Sunday monring.
The thing that makes me believe the change in more perminent is the taps. I can't have been the only one to notice the old faithful screw-threadded-easy-hosepipe-attachment taps in Houx had been replaced with nice shiny new pre-for-30-seconds-of-water types. OK, these can be defeated by a man, patience and 10 bottles of '33' Export but...