I woke early on Sunday morning and finished the remainder of my exam grading, giving me free time for the rest of the day. Given that Jackie is a sculptor, we had spotted a Ceramique Expo being held in the town of Giroussens, about an hour east of Moissac on L’Agout, a tributary of the River Tarn. Since we knew that that region was very scenic, we decided to go for the drive and show Jackie the Expo. After a very pleasant drive through the Tarn Valley river flats, we rose up a hill and reached Giroussens. The view out over L’Agout was impressive, and the market stalls lining the streets and the vintage cars in the town square promised an interesting afternoon.

But before we could even ask for directions to the Ceramique Expo, we were besieged by a flood of people coming down the main street in period costume, accompanied by the sounds of regional music.

It turned out that, unbeknown to us, Giroussens was also the venue for their Fete de Lavoirs that day. Before long, the town square was awash with people, musicians, dancers (and horses).

The local artists were also out in force, competing hard for the prizes at the end of the day.

Finally, we dragged ourselves away and found the Ceramique Expo that was being held in the nearly Ceramique Museum (Giroussens has had a reputation for fine ceramiques for hundreds of years, because of the local clays and the abundance of free firewood to fuel the kilns). There were several display rooms, each showing a different type of ceramic. Several looked like they were made of coral flutes, but were in fact individually fired ceramic pieces. On the way back for a coffee in the town square, I couldn’t help but photograph one of the many doorknockers that have a personality all their own. Finally we took our leave from Giroussens in late afternoon.

We decided to go home on the same road as we came because we had enjoyed the scenery, and also because Jackie wanted to have a closer look at some “wrapped trees” that she has seen in Saint Sulpice as we had driven through on the way to Giroussens. So we kept a close lookout for these trees as we drove through Saint Sulpice, a town famous for its three-towered belltower on the cathedral. As soon as we spotted them, we were lucky enough to be right next to an empty parking spot on the footpath, so we pulled over to have a closer look. They were indeed unusual and very colourful, and worth the break in the trip home.

As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed some people gathering in a nearby park, so we moseyed over for a closer look, and found a community brass band warming up, next to an ampitheatre in front of the Mairie. Within a few minutes, they had started to move on stage, so we decided to hang around and see what they were like. They played pretty well and tightly, and seemed to enjoy what they were doing.

We stayed for several songs, but not knowing how long they were going to play, we decided that we should take the opportunity to record one of their numbers, which got the crowd involved and clapping along.

The day proved to be one of those serendipitous French days, where you go somewhere with the intention of doing one thing, and at the close of the day you have ended up doing several different things that you had no idea about at the start of the day.  The day was finished off in style, with a full moon over Moissac.