Finally, after seven weeks on the barge this year, we moved her out of port for a short shake-down cruise. On Saturday, at the start of the Fetes de Plaisanciers, an interviewer from French TV5 wants to do an interview with us while we cruise along the canal, as part of a program they are putting together about the hidden joys of the Canal de Garonne. So we thought we should make sure that everything works OK, after our recent episode with the bowthrusters, before we have them on board. So we headed west through the swing-bridge and went up the canal and through one lock, past the bridge across to St Nicolas de la Grave, where we met Monica and Nicole riding their bikes. They took the opportunity of getting some shots of Kanumbra from bankside (something we are rarely able to do).

We then tied up near Boudou for a relaxed lunch in the shade, before doing a 180 degree turn, by nosing into the bank and pivoting around, and coming back to port. Everything (including ourselves) seemed to work OK.

That afternoon we headed in convoy (camion, three 9-seaters and Terry’s car) north of Moissac, past the fruit orchards almost ready for harvest, to the hilltop town of Lauzerte, for a Night Market concert.

Approaching Lauzerte on the winding valley road gave a good appreciation of its hilltop location.

After we had set up near the old church clock tower and done a quick sound-check, it was time again to be treated to a feast by the local organisers (one of the advantages of playing at venues with lots of food vendors).

Around 1900h, the crowd started pouring in for the Night Market, and by 1930h when we started playing, we estimated the crowd to be around 800 people. While this was a good crowd, it also presented a problem we had not anticipated; we were not loud enough! Because everyone was eating, drinking and chatting, the background noise was quite high. People down the back kept coming up to Rita to say that they could not hear most of the band, with only the sound of the basses carrying to the back of the crowd. While Isaac and I thought this was not such a bad situation, the rest of the band were not as happy. So we played as loud as we could, without distorting the sound from the pans, but it was of little benefit. As time wore on, the chatter died down and those who really wanted to listen moved to the front of the crowd, so it all reached a type of equilibrium, but the first hour or so was quite testing.

Luckily, we had Nico and Miyu and all the maison builders up the front and cheering on the crowd to get them up and dancing. By the second set with the sun going down, the mood was getting good as seen on the video of Netty Netty with drum solo by Joe James (I think he has now settled into the band!)

Despite the great reaction from the crowd, it was very tiring having to keep playing at maximum volume just to be heard, so we were not too unhappy when the show came to a close around 2200h. We then carried all the equipment to the camion and the 9-seaters and packed everything away before returning to the square and the bar in the corner to have a well earned drink with the rest of the stayers. We are getting used to the musicians' life of drinks at midnight to relax after a gig.

We arrived home in Moissac late that night just before the rain arrived; we were lucky it held off because, unlike Damazan, we had absolutely no cover at Lauzerte. Maybe all that praying has helped!