As often happens on the first full day in Moissac, I was so tired after the 40-hour trip from Taggerty that I slept very well and awoke at a respectable hour (0800hr) - although I don’t expect this trend to continue for long. After a quick breakfast on goodies left on the barge when my winter guests (Nico and Miyu) departed, I went for a walk around town to see what had changed. The first thing I noticed was dredging work being undertaken on the River Tarn near the entrance/exit of the lock connecting to the Canal du Garonne. The slow flowrate in the river at this point makes it a favourite spot for silt and weeds to gather, so the dredging will be welcomed by those (like us) wanting to cruise on the river this year.

The floods on the Tarn in the preceding months had left quite a bit of tree debris hung up on the barrage in the middle of the river, but this has not deterred the canoeists who make good use of the river.

One of the additions to the Port of Moissac landscape over the winter has been the completion of the new footbridge across the Canal du Garonne at the eastern end of the port near the old silos. This bridge does away with the need to walk over the lock gates to cross the canal. It doesn’t really save any time, but it is a bit safer, provides easy access over the canal at this end of the port for those in wheelchairs (as I observed later that day), and it provides a good vantage point for photos of boats going through the lock and for photos of the port area, including the famous Moissac sunsets.

The lighting at night makes the spillage over the lock gates into quite a visual feature (Photo: Kaz Noble).

I then proceeded to walk around the town re-aquainting myself with the various areas. As I walked past the site where the band played last year in the Abbey Square, the various restauranteurs were busy setting up tables for the lunch customers - very tempting. This really is one of my favourite spots in Moissac.

That evening I headed up to the house at Rue Gambetta to have dinner again with Nico and Miyu. The renovations are almost finished, including the pergola built on top of the garage, with Nico and Ronan using traditional French carpentry methods. Although only finished in the past month, passersby are already beginning to comment on it, admiring the beautiful “old" structure that has preserved French architecture in this part of town!

Since it was such a glorious evening, we decided to christen the pergola using the purpose for which it was intended - leisurely dining on summer evenings.  We can all verify that it works beautifully.

We also had a special reason for dinner - to celebrate Nico’s 29th birthday. Miyu baked some special little birthday cakes, on which she placed some "special" little candles (which kept Nico busy for a while as he tried to blow them out for good).

As I left the house that night, I had an interesting encounter with the neighbours - the Gisberts. When Miyu and I arrived earlier that evening, Miyu suggested we park in front of the Gisbert’s garage, because they rarely used their car at night. When I returned to the car after dinner, they were all standing around, and Mr Gisbert was just pasting a message on my windscreen. Mrs Gisbert engaged me in “conversation”, even though I understood very little of what she was saying. However, I did understand that she kept asking me for my "number" but I had no idea what "number" she was after. So, with my lack of French and her lack of English, we just went back and forth a few times, until Mr Gisbert wrote down our address, minus the number, and I supplied the missing "71". This seemed to make everyone happy, and she seemed to wish me a fond farewell. However, as I started the car to leave, she stood in front of the car and wouldn't let me leave. By this time we were all totally confused. Then a younger man (who I later found out was her son) came out of their house and luckily he spoke a little bit of English. It turned out that she hadn't realised who I was (her Australian neighbour), but anyway she was very happy to let me park in front of their garage for the night (and was not letting me leave because she thought I had misunderstood her). Eventually, she realised I was Rita's "man" and was very happy to learn that she will see Rita next week. We all then smiled and she let me leave for the night.