Rita went off to a goodbye meeting with Gislaine (one of the French band members) in the morning, while I futzed around on the barge, achieving nothing in particular.

When she got home in late morning, we headed out to Intermarche to stock up for our barging trip to the west. On the way, we dropped into the Renault garage to see whether they could replace the steering arm rubber boot (which had been picked up in our Control Technique examination) while we were away. It had been squeaking badly lately in tight turns, and last night on the Motorway home from Damazan we thought we smelled something burning, so we figured it was time to get it fixed before we drive to Bern next month. When we found the person at the repairs enquiry counter, she recognised us immediately as the band people who rented the vans in 2014! Maybe Moissac is a small town! She agreed that they could repair it while we were away, and that we could leave it in their yard for that time. We told her that we would need another van hire next year, and she was happy to hear that another band was coming to Moissac. It was nice to know that the 2014 band tour had left a good mark on her mind.

Sometimes, you also leave marks in the most unusual ways. When we first got to Moissac, we had appreciated the rubbish and recycling bins that the Mairie had provided along the Bassin du Canal for the barge people. However, over the next couple of years, we noticed that many people were not using the recycling bin correctly for recyclables. So in about 2013, Rita wrote a note (in English, for the barging people) on the top of the yellow bin, explaining what it was for (maybe yellow bins mean something different in the UK). We were interested to see that the note still remains on the bin, and surprised that the texta-pen markings had not faded away completely. Now, that’s leaving your mark on things!

At lunchtime we headed up to La Pigionaire to meet Nico and Miyu (and Massa and Ïoli) for lunch. It was great to meet up with them again, and continue the conversation we were having with them last year. Ïoli was as quiet as a church mouse (much to Miyu’s surprise), while Massa had great fun “playing pretends” with Rita. It’s hard to realise that next year he will be off to pre-school on the bus from their place in Puycornet.

After lunch, Nico came around to La Maison to check on some work that I asked him to do in the Lightwell. Unfortunately, the people who installed the window and glass roof in the Lightwell were not carpenters, and had used chipboard for the window surrounds on the inside and thin plywood on the outside. Both are in drastic need of replacing, and several other “air-gaps” around the window need fixing. So this will at least be one paid job for Nico to get his feet on the ground after he settles into Puycornet. While we were at La Maison, we met Annabelle the Portugese cleaner that Raphael has coming around each week. We could now put a face to the name.

In the late afternoon, I dropped off the Scenic at the Renault garage, and then walked the couple of kilometres back  home, via the ATM at the bank. At the same time, Rita was dropping off the house keys at Dr. Lozat’s office.

That evening, because we had decided to delay our departure till tomorrow, we had time to accept the invitation for drinks with Jack and Sanne on the deck of their barge Artemis, which had been moored next to us for the past week. We had an interesting conversation with them, learning about Jack’s veterinary career, and his role in converting his practice to a digital business. We also learned that they had owned their 1920’s Dutch Barge since the 1960’s, initially using it only on weekends and holidays in The Netherlands, and more recently (since retirement) cruising fulltime all over Europe. They now seem to be happy in the South of France, and doubt they will ever go up the Rhone again.