One of the reasons why we returned to Fontet yesterday was that we had seen posters for a Vide Grenier that was to be held in Fontet today. So, given the success of the Night Market last week, we decided to check it out. As we walked along the canal to the port area, we spied a couple of coypu wandering around the nearby field.

The apple tree in the field had been dropping apples for a while, and the coypu wasted no time in grabbing one to bring home for the family. Clearly, from the path worn through the grass, this was not the first time this had been done.

When we got to the Vide Grenier, we were not disappointed. As we arrived, a fleet of vintage cars had started arriving, including about 20 Deux Chevaux. What a grand sight as they lined up on the grass.

Rita also took the opportunity to relive some of her teenage years watching The Dukes of Hazzard, as she posed with this police car.

The Vide Grenier itself was the best we had been to this year, with a large number of quality stalls and many things worth buying at many of the stalls. We had to control ourselves, but still managed to buy a wok, a porch light, a pair of secateurs, a nice hat and a loaf of bread for lunch. When we got back to the barge, Rita had to check once more that the hat fitted.

Later that afternoon, as I sat in the wheelhouse, I heard someone moving around outside and then heard a knock on the door. I opened the door to be greeted by “I read your blog”. I then spent an interesting hour or so talking with Patrice Potier, who was cruising on a hire boat moored behind us but was looking at buying a new Piper barge, and wanted to talk with me about our experiences so far on a Piper. We took him on a barge tour, and he learned of our journey and we also learned from him about recent developments with Piper barges. I was especially interested in the new rear deck designs, where Piper has incorporated a rigid bimini cover, faux-teak decking, and an innovative wheelhouse door design where the concertina doors open fully to join the rear deck seamlessly with the wheelhouse area (as shown in this photo which Patrice later emailed to me).

After Patrice left, we decided to make a start on the vinyl cover for the wheelhouse roof, by cleaning the roof and getting rid of a lot of loose paint, even though this loose paint would eventually be covered by the vinyl covering. We then measured and cut the vinyl to size (measuring twice, cutting once), including an allowance for doubling the vinyl at the edges, and an overhang of 30mm all round.

In the evening a light rain started to fall, but we enjoyed sitting under cover on the rear deck for dinner, after which I started reading Tom Sawyer on the iPad Kindle.