This morning, we were greeted by another fine day in Moissac - since the band arrived three weeks ago, the weather has been beautiful, unlike the earlier part of summer - they should stay longer.

Today we had another Medieval Music Workshop, this time with Andre Calvet, the father of the proprietor of the MusicZone shop. We started at the Abbey, where Andre explained the musical significance and the history of many of the figures above the entrance to the Abbey.

We then adjourned to the Skraccos Cafe, where we had tea, coffee and cake to celebrate the 15th birthday of 6-bass player Isaac. After that, we moved behind Skraccos to the small theatre in which Andre presented his findings on the history of the design of the medieval musical instruments. Sadly, he didn’t talk about the relationships between the mathematics of the musical instruments and the mathematics of medieval architecture, but there was only so much time available. As on the previous day, Rita did a lot of translation between French and English! To thank Andre, we gave him a copy of “The First Five Years” and a Recovery CD

Then, as per normal, we posed for the now-obligatory group photo.

We then adjourned to the house for a quick lunch, and some shut-eye where necessary, because the day was not yet done, since we had a tour of the Cloister and Abbey scheduled for that afternoon. Our English-speaking guide for the tour was a font of knowledge; as he showed us one thing, someone would ask a question, which would remind him of something else, and then he would drag us off to another part of the Cloister to show us that, and then someone would ask another question etc etc. We only saw a small part of all the wonders of the Cloister, but it was still fascinating.

After the Abbey tour, we again went for a few drinks at le Bureau, and on the way home I stopped at the Post Office to pick up a package that had arrived from Australia. This was the paintings of Moissac that Shirley Peters had done for us, based on some photos of Old Moissac that we have found in the Market.

After a quiet dinner on the barge, I opened the package and was delighted with the results, as shown below.