After our late night yesterday, we allowed ourselves to have a late rising, while Julia found her feet. As we were having breakfast in the wheelhouse (it was a bit too cool for the rear deck), we heard a barge going past, and on looking out we saw that it was Vertrouwen (our original training barge). We had seen her down on the River Tarn quai last week and hoped to catch someone on board before they left. But, too late - we didn’t recognise anyone on deck as they passed us, so it was probably a different set of syndicate members to those we had already met.

Once Julia texted that she had risen, we went up to the house for a chat and then decided to show her the town. Among the many sites was the Abbey. Given Julia’s keen sense of photography, she was seeing all sorts of different angles to what we had seen many times before. One that I particularly liked was the row of seatbacks in the stalls of the Abbey.

As we came out of the Abbey, we noticed two women posing on the seats with the “fat woman and child”. However, every time they set the timer on their camera, someone would walk in front of or behind them, and so they would have to jump up and do it all again. By standing a bit to one side, out of camera shot, I was able to get this reverse photo of their efforts. Finally, we helped them by holding people back until they had got their shot. We then went up and talked with them. Turns out they were a French mother and daughter who were cycling the Compostella Track, having just started yesterday from Cahors. I showed them the photo below and they immediately asked for a copy, so I shared it with them via email - the joys of modern technology! We then talked for quite a while about their ride and got the details of the guide book they were using - perhaps an adventure for us in another year.

As it was just after noon, we started looking for somewhere to have lunch, and eventually ended up at Skrakoss, where Lydie and her partner (the chef) were having a chat outside. She recognised us and started to talk and so we decided that this was as good a place for lunch as anywhere. We chatted about last year’s band tour, and Isaac’s birthday party that we had at Skrakoss. We also saw a little koala sitting on her serving bench, holding a business card for the 2 Cooks from Whorouly. Talk about a small world.

In the afternoon, we continued with pan rehearsals at la Maison. While we were practicing, we saw some faces at the window. Initially we thought that we must have been playing too loud for the neighbours, but the Gisberts were just interested in where the music was coming from. So we opened the windows, set up a couple of chairs on the verandah and played our proposed gig for them. Afterwards they came inside and were amazed at where the sound had come from. Rita even convinced Ms Gisberts to have a tinkle on the soprano. I reckon we've got a few new additions to the band for the next tour (or at the very least a couple of groupies)!

After dinner in the belvedere that evening, we took Julia on a walk along the canal and river. We started by crossing the bridge over the canal near the house.

We then walked down to the River Tarn, where Julia took the obligatory photo of the Pont Napolean.

After a long walk up the canal and back, it was time for a rest at one of the well-placed benches.