We were woken at 0430h by a huge thunderstorm - thunder, lightning, rain, the whole shebang! There was so much lightning, it almost looked like daytime in all directions. After an hour or so, it calmed down a bit and we were able to go back to sleep.

In the morning, we went up to the Post Office to collect my Birth Certificate that had arrived at La Maison from Sydney in the last couple of days, and after this morning's storm I also checked the Lightwell for leaks - so far, none are apparent.

Yesterday, Bridget and Greg on Drumsara had gone down the Tarn and then up the Garonne with a couple of friends from Australia. On my advice, they had anchored on the Garonne overnight. However, given the intensity of the overnight storm, I was a bit worried when they had not returned by noon. A quick SMS to them found that they had survived OK, and were about to head back to port. We were all a bit relieved when they got home safely. Their guests were mightily impressed with their first night on a barge!!

In the afternoon, Rob and Cherie on Rovi1 came down to moor on the Tarn Quai, making three Aussie barges in line at one end, and three Piper barges in line at the other end (and us stuck in the middle).

We continued to assemble documents for the Prefecture interview on Wednesday, while I also paid Sutton Marine for the Capacitor Box that had arrived last week. Having failed to find how I could make an online electronic payment from my Credit Agricole account, I did it via an OFX payment from my Australian account. However, just as I clicked to finalise the payment, I realised I had not specified a recipient for the funds. Multiple attempts to rectify this online proved fruitless, so I rang the OFX Help number which took me to the London office, and in about 3 minutes the problem had been rectified, and he had also managed to change my mobile contact number to my French phone for the next few months. Now that’s what I call customer service.

By way of contrast, about 30 minutes later Rita had to ring EDF (the French electricity company) to enquire about a change of password that did not seem to have taken effect - the operator did not know why thus might have occurred, and eventually said that since system changes always happen on the weekend, they often have buggy Mondays where problems cannot be identified/rectified! Rita was advised to call back on Tuesday!

Later in the afternoon, I continued to read my Kindle book (on my iPad) about the Kennedy Brothers (John and Robert). While I thought I knew a bit about their lives, this book has been an eye-opener, especially their family connections to the Mafia, and the Mafia’s connections to the plot to assassinate Castro (and maybe JFK as a by-product).

In the evening, we walked up the Tarn to the Cacor Aqueduct. The early rays of sunset on the trees was stunning.

Finally, just when we thought we’d seen everything for the day, we got back to the barge to witness the moon setting not long after the sun had set.