Sunday morning also began at 1000h with the Big Tosser competition, where participants attempted to throw a mooring rope over a temporary bollard (the sort of thing we do every day when cruising in the canals). Sadly, defending champion Steve (from Somewhere) was unable to be with us, which meant that we would have a new Big Tosser. Fourteen entrants started throwing at the safe distance of 1 metre (at which everyone was successful), and the distance then escalated by one metre at a time. As the distance increased, competitors started to fall by the wayside until only 4 entrants were left standing at a distance of 5m.

But the 5m distance proved to be the breaker, with only one competitor successfully throwing this distance, and so Mike (from Carolyn) was adjudged to be the Big Tosser for 2016. This performance proved the all-round sporting ability of Mike given that he had been runner-up (with Gill) in the pétanque yesterday.

Mike then tried to equal the tournament record distance of 6m (set by Steve Bridges in 2014) but his valiant attempt fell just short. Unfortunately, since Steve was not present, we didn’t have a trophy to present to Mike, but he seemed happy to just have the satisfaction of being acknowledged as a Big Tosser. However, we later scoured the Moissac Market and found a trophy that was presented to Mike that evening.

After lunch, we prepared for the cruise down the River Tarn, after which we turned to run up the River Garonne for a while.

When we had gone up the Garonne a way, we dropped anchors and, because the temperature was in the high 30s, many decided to go for a swim. It was very difficult to convince anyone that we should stop this activity and head back to port, but since we had to set up for the final event tonight, we eventually and reluctantly weighed anchor and headed back to Moissac.

The final event for the Festival was a pot-luck dinner and concert in the Uvarium Parc. For this, participants brought their own meals and/or brought something to share with others. The entertainment was provided by five groups; the Petenicks playing old favourites in English, Annette (from Zimbabwe) playing classical and popular pieces on the piano, the Jazzelas (from Moissac) playing jazz, Bernard’s new group (Grain de Sel) playing traditional French numbers on fiddle, guitar and accordian, and the newly formed un-named trio of Rita, Bernard and Stuart. It was great to have music provided by both the barging and local communities, and to have a mixture of people represented among the 70 in attendance. The video below gives a feeling for the ambiance of the evening.

After the dinner finished, and we had packed up all the chairs and trestle tables provided for us by the Mairie, Rita and I adjourned to Pomme de Mer to join Nick and friends in a nightcap drink and to watch the end of the Euro Cup 2016 Final between France and Portugal. It all looked set for a thrilling finish as 90 minutes elapsed with the score at 0-0, but a goal by Portugal in extra time put paid to any fairytale finish for France winning the Cup at home. There was still lots of car horn tooting in Moissac after the game, proving that there are lots of Portugese in Moissac, but I would love to have heard it if France had managed to win!!