Today, we were escaping Moissac for the weekend, and heading down to the south-east of France, near the Spanish border. It was a good day to escape, since it was rainy and driving kept us warm and dry. Our destination was the town of Port Vendres, one of the biggest French ports on the Med.

The drive to Port Vendres was pretty straight-forward along the motorway, with none of the traffic problems we experienced when last we headed this way in 2014 (it is, however, still June). The town of Port Vendres has lots of fishing boats, private yachts and some large commercial boats in the main port.

We are staying at the house of Valerie and her husband George (both doctors in Moissac). Port Vendres is the home town of George, and we are staying in his old family home. The purpose of the trip was to attend a concert in which Valerie was performing, and then for Rita to play with Valerie and others at the Saturday Market. So the first thing they did when we arrived was sneak in a bit of practice at the house.

On Friday night, a community concert was held in the local picture theatre, featuring seven artists spread over four acts (with variations of the artists in each act). Valerie played accordion and tenor sax in one quartet, and then joined with her Moissac friend Susie to sing some traditional French songs. An interesting evening, but when Valerie, George and the other performers decided to have an after-show party around midnight, Rita and I declined after the long day of driving.