After all our concern about Frank’s health over the past week, we were shocked to learn that Sarah’s dad passed away at 6am this morning. Just goes to show that you can never know for certain what will happen in life and in death.

Given that Frank was still not feeling the best, however, we decided to have an easy day and just take a car trip to nearby Puymirol, a hilltop town that Rita and I had visited on our first trip in 2011.

As is the case with many of these hilltop towns, nothing much has changed (probably for centuries). However, compared to the 2011 view below, there has been a marked increase in the area of solar panels in the valley below. We later learned, by reading the local paper when we stopped for lunch at the local cafe, that this had been a hotly-debated issue, but the community decided that the environmental and economic value of the solar panels (which cover a hydroponic tomato farm) was worth more than the view from the hilltop. Many might debate this viewpoint, but it does show that France is more open to these developments, as they are to windfarms.

Because Frank was not feeling the best, and it had been a strenuous day walking around Puymirol in the sun, we decided to just sit around the house after we got home and do nothing else.