This morning was just a blissfully quiet time on the boat, so we didn't feel the need to go anywhere. We just sat around writing on a thesis and a blog. In the background, I started following the start of the 4th Ashes Test.

In the afternoon, we raised some energy and cycled up the hill to the Chateau, where we planned to book into a tour of the interior of the chateau. The history of the Chateau was interesting, having been in the same family for hundreds of years. But as the family tree petered out, the last surviving member bequeathed the estate to the local Mairie some years ago, and since then extensive renovations have been done. The EU-funded exterior renovations are now nearly finished. We were met by a delightful young lady from the Caribbean, who was to be our guide. As it turned out, we were the only customers for an afternoon tour, and so it became a private tour with no real time limits, and she was happy to answer our questions and go into more depth on things that caught our attention. The tour obviously went longer than expected, because for the last half hour we were accompanied by a young guy who followed us, closing windows after us as we went from room to room. But even he got involved in answering questions and giving us more information. The only downside was that we weren't allowed to take any photos inside (despite numerous requests by Rita). But the tour was really interesting and well worth the time spent there.

Wed 19 July - blog, thesis, 4th Test, Chateau tour, circus tent

After we finished the tour, we noticed a circus tent out at the side of the Chateau, with music emenating from within. It all looked very intriguing, but there was no one around to explain to us what was going on.

But as we cycled back into town, we saw a poster in a shop window, advertising a small circus that would be performing in the tent over the next few days. So Rita made some phone enquiries, and found out that the first two performances were booked out, but there were still some free tickets available for the third performance (in three days time). But by then, we had planned to have already moved on from Ray. So maybe we wont see the circus.