I rose early to watch the AFL game between the Hawks and Fremantle. The Hawks had several players out and never really got going over in the West, eventually going down by 19 points and dropping to third place on the AFL ladder.

After a late morning breakfast, we received some good news in an email saying that we had a new drummer for the French Tour. Apparently, Matty’s family had held a family meeting on Friday and decided that they were not going to let the band down. So, with one day’s notice, Joe James (Matty’s uncle) decided that he would come to France in Matty’s place. Luckily, Joe had taught Matty how to play the drums, so we should be in good hands - time will tell. An amazing gesture from Joe, and we look forward to meeting him in Barcelona tomorrow morning!

In the afternoon, we decided to drive over to Rennes les Bains to check out the hotel where the band will be staying on Monday night. It was a fabulous drive though winding local roads and gorges, and Rennes les Bains was not a disappointment, although we were somewhat surprised at the large number of visitors. We think the band will like it for their first night in France. Just as well we went there, since we discovered all the narrow streets around the hotel that the bus would not fit through (even though our GPS would probably have directed us to them!).

As usual, when Rita finds a body of flowing water, she decided to go for a swim.

In the late afternoon, we drove back to Talairan and had dinner with Peter and Kaye at the Talairan Bar.