Slept surprisingly well after the long trip (but we know that jet-lag will eventually catch up with us). Woke at 9am and walked up to Boulangerie for croissants. On the way, we saw that Hilda May (our sister ship from the Piper Barge stable) was in port, and that Stuart and Christine were on board (we expected them to have left Moissac much earlier, but they had already returned to Moissac). Stopped for short chat then came back for coffee after dropping in to Capitainerie to report to Kaz and Iain, where we found out that our barge would not be needed for the Pentecote Fete Parade after all. Had a good talk with Stuart and Christine, and found they were thinking of selling Hilda May and their Reading house to buy two small houses in the UK and a coastal boat to travel between them. Sounds like quite an adventure.

We told them about the house in Moissac, and agreed to go look at the house at 3pm with them, then go to dinner later. Not only would this be a first for them, but also for Rita who had not yet seen the house in person. In the meantime, we popped out to the Intermarche by car and stocked up with the necessary groceries and other items.

The first thing that struck me about the house were the roses. I remembered them vaguely from when we had passed the house on the barge last summer, but they were dormant when Nico and I inspected the house in November. They were spectacular in their colour, and fully justified our registering of the domain name "La Maison de la Rose" for the B&B website. A bit of tender loving care will bring them back to their best.

We inspected the house while Rita met the neighbours from both sides - figured it was better that they speak to a French-speaker first up. Suspected that Rita was a bit taken aback by the size of the house and the potential amount of work that could be done on renovations. We found lots of items missing from the house (e.g. paintings and object d’arts) from when Nico and I inspected it in November. Even though I thought we had agreed that everything in the house when we signed the contract would remain in the house, apparently they are not considered to be “contents”, and this was confirmed when I again looked at the contract and saw that only the large items of furniture were listed as contents that went with the house. A bit of a shame, since many of these smaller items gave character to the house. Guess we'll just have to replace them in a different style.

After inspecting the house, we returned to the car and I noticed a large scratch on the left rear wheel arch. It would not have been caused where we were now parked, so I can only assume that it happened when we were parked in the Intermarche parking lot earlier today (it was consistent to the damage that would be inflicted by a car swinging in to the parking spot next to us). In 40 years of hire car rental, this is the first damage I have ever incurred, and this on our last hire car in Europe (now that we are buying our own car in France). I guess we’ll just have to see the cost of the damage when we return the car.

After the house inspection, it was back to the barge for a granny nap (jet-lag catching up with us) then off to Lou’s for dinner with Stuart and Christine.