This morning we decided to sleep in (because we could). After breakfast, I did a bit of work on this blog, then started reading a new novel, which is a sequel to "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared", a story about the adventures of a 100-year-old man who wanders off from a nursing home. In the sequel, he is now 101-years-old, has teamed up with a younger bloke (only 65 years old) and continues his adventures (many with an international political bent). Great read so far, and sometimes hard to tell the difference from the real news I read online anyway.

While I was reading this, Rita went up to the Moissac Mairie to seek permission to play at the market in late September with Scotch'n'Dry, which she obtained. Armed with this victory, we then set off for Auvillar to seek permission to play there at their sculpture exhibition. While Rita made enquiries at the Mairie, I sat in my favourite cafe near the town square.

We then had to go to the new Tourism Bureau office, which is located on the edge of the cliff overlooking the Garonne River.

While she was talking to people there, I wandered around a new exhibition space at the centre, and found this exhibit, which I thought might be a good omen for her asking to play a steel pan in Scotch'n'Dry.

The new Regional Tourism Centre is quite "swish", located in a refurbished convent, and with many art displays on the inside and outside. We particularly liked the walker sculptures, especialy since Auvillar is on the Compostella Trail.

As we had entered Auvillar, three dogs had barked loudly and continuously at us as we walked past their home. On our way out, they just sat on the steps of their house, and eyed us carefully as we went past.

The lady in the Tourism Bureau had told us about a few other towns in the region, and had suggested that Donzac and Dunes were places that we might like to see. So instead of going directly back to Moissac, we headed 20k west through Donzac to Dunes. But apart from a couple of old timbered houses (which both featured in the Tourism Bureau photo of Dunes) and the stone church, the town had few other attractions. So after a 15 minute visit we headed back to Moissac.

That evening as we were preparing dinner, we noticed that Whitey, like Ginger, had developed a liking for walking along the top of the rose arches. I suspect it was because that gave him better access to some of the small birds in the bay tree, which he was singularly unsuccessful in getting to come close enough to him.