Up early to watch the AFL game of the Hawks v Carlton Blues. Hawthorn led from the opening minute to run out comfortable, but not dominant, winners, 74-55

After a relaxed breakfast and an easy morning, Lothar prepared to leave with his family to go down near Biaritz (in the elbow of the Bay of Biscay) to visit friends, before returning to Bern. Unlike me, who uses Google Maps to plan trips, Lothar still likes using the big fold-out paper maps (much like his brother Frank, who still uses a paper address book instead of a smartphone contacts list).

After they had left around noon, Rita and I had a lazy day, cleaning the house and pottering in the garden. It sure is quiet!! But at least we got to see over the past week how la Maison worked for one of its original purposes; providing a base for friends and relatives who wanted to visit Moissac. During that time, four groups have visited (Jan&Mareyne; Sarah&Alban&kids; Lothar &Family; Janek&Steph), and the place never really felt like it was crowded.

With threatening weather closing in, we debated whether to go down to the Uvarium Cafe for a Cuban music concert. We eventually decided to give it a go, but as we arrived we saw the Cuban band taking all their gear to their cars, after the conclusion of their gig. We therefore turned around to head for the barge, but before we got there (just 100 metres away), heavy rain began to fall. This continued for the next hour or so, and washed out the band that was due to play after the Cubans. Since this band was billed as “Rap, HipHop and Loud”, we were quite happy, since that meant we could get to sleep before 2am. Every cloud has a silver lining.