After the heat of the weekend, we welcomed an overnight storm which cooled things down a lot. We were just grateful that it hadn’t arrived during the Festival. In the late morning we ventured out to Ste Nicholas de la Grave, where Veronique was giving a performance (an “animation”) at the Morning Market. We didn’t really know what that entailed, but we agreed to support her anyway. As it turned out, it was a lot of singing with Veronique on keyboard, and Rita on steelpan. It started out with just a few of her friends singing (Rita, Jackie and two others) but Veronique quickly roped in passers-by of all ages to join in as well.

During the morning, we met up with Maire-José Mauriège - the chirpy local president of the "artistes du kiosque" association who arranged for Pans on Fire to play in Ste Nicholas in 2014. She greeted Rita like a long-lost relative, and quickly asked “where is the rest of the band?”. I think we have a standing invitation to play again in this town. She then joined in the singing for a while, before scurrying off to do her market shopping before the stalls closed.

After the market closed around 1400h, we headed back to Moissac to say goodbye to some of the barges leaving after the Festival. We had decided to stay on the Tarn for a few days, and others were also taking advantage of the river, with Addie (Don and Laura’s grand-daughter) going out on a kayak with another bargee. As the weather warmed up, it degenerated into seeing who could splash the other the most.

We headed up to the house in the evening to do a bit of tidying-up after the weekend, and to have dinner with Jackie. Before long, however, the storm clouds started gathering, and so we headed back to the barge as the first big raindrops started to fall.