Woke to a fine sunny morning, and being pinch’n’punched by Rita. Got up to mark some more exams before the sun got too high in the sky. Rita went up to the house to continue painting and I followed her up to get some more exams marked in the cool of the house, until my laptop battery died (since I had forgotten to take the power adaptor with me). Came back to barge and continued marking until Rita came home. Then headed across the canal to the Fish’n’Chips night. Given the debacle in June, I satisfied myself with just pinching some of Rita’s dinner(which was big enough to serve two anyway). Got talking with Larry Doff from Washington DC. Turned out we have very similar career paths, including spending time working at an Upstate New York university (he at RPI, me at Cornell). We then got talking about the trip to Bordeaux, and he described his encounter with the Gironde Mascaret (tidal bore). Sounds like quite an adventure, and well worth knowing about if heading to Bordeaux. He told a story of being caught on the Garonne in his barge as the mascaret approached, and asking some bystanders where would be the "best place" to be when it arrived. They told him, and he positioned his barge accordingly. Unfortunately the "bystanders" turned out to the surfers, and as this YouTube video shows, the best place for surfers is not necessarily the same as the best place for a barge when the mascaret arrived! He gave me his 2012 copy of the Annuaire des Marees for the Garonne, so now I know what to look for when heading that way. He advised that the eclusier at Castets may well have copies.

After dinner, we went for a walk down to the Tarn and got some good sunset shots. It’s starting to warm up, and is still quite warm at 11pm, with everyone still sitting out on their decks along the quai.