We awoke to a fine and sunny morning, with the prospects of a hot day. However, my mood was dampened somewhat when I realised that the toilet macerator was not working again. Stuart came down to hopefully offer some gems of wisdom, but between us we still couldn’t find the problem, or the solution. We pulled the toilet away from the wall to gain a better view, and examined the very scant manual that Chris Farmer had in his folder of manuals (there was nothing more detailed on the web either). Slowly, we at least started to get an idea of how it was supposed to work, but not why it was not working. I discovered some loose wiring and replaced the terminal connectors, but that didn’t solve anything. So while Rita was away for a driving lesson, I determined to remove the toilet entirely, take it outside and pull it apart to see why it wasn’t working. Before I did that however, now that I had it away from the wall and could see the components, I rang Nico to see what he had done to get it working. He described in detail the various items that I could now see, and said that he had got it working by “banging the handle of a big screwdriver on the white tube at the bottom of the macerator”!! So much for science!  But given that nothing else had worked, I thought I may as well try that and see what happened. And it worked!  Several times!  So I put the toilet back against the wall and told Rita when she got home that I had pulled it apart and fixed it. When she used it, and it worked, she thought I was a genius. But I couldn’t hold that smile in for long. After I told her the truth, my genius status disappeared. Especially when the damned thing stopped working a little while later. So, now I really will have to pull it apart, unless the vinegar soaking does the trick overnight.

During the afternoon, the VNF barge “Naiade” cruised through Moissac. We last saw Naiade when we were at the DBA Rally in Toulouse last September, and they were holding an ecological expo on board. Despite its size, it looked like it was being crewed by only two people.

In the afternoon, I took some time to catch up on some email and internet matters. While browsing my emails, I noticed that not all DBA members were tech savvy, nor did they bother finding out what they were talking about before posting their comments, when I saw this comment from someone criticising the DBA Facebook pages: "I for one would not use Facebook and so have no idea what is being discussed there and who by.”, but nonetheless they felt at ease criticising something they had never seen. Reminded me of the prudes criticising various movies, and when asked they admit they have never seen the movie but they still think it is disgusting!

In the evening, we went up to see the lightshow at the Abbaye. Here they describe and explain the various features on the entranceway to the Abbey, with a special emphasis on the musical instruments being played by the various participants. Just a short video overlaid on the sculptures, but very interesting (even in French).