The day started with some early rain, which reminded me that I needed to fill our water tank. In the late morning we went across to Irene & John’s house, where all our Dindi Moon band members will be staying next month. We had a good catch up with them, and then went on an inspection of the house. The band members are lucky ducks!

We then went up to the Sunday Market where Rita had spotted a nice hat for me. She was getting tired of me wearing my assortment of barging caps, and thought I needed something “more French”. Not sure if it does the trick, but it sure is comfortable.

When we got back to the barge, we needed to get the scanner working, since we needed to make electronic copies of some Carte de Séjour documents to send to Marion before our meeting at the Prefecture next week. No matter what we tried, we couldn’t get it to scan, so we took photos and then cropped the images. Not the best quality, but OK for the purpose.

During the afternoon, the World Cup final was played between France and Croatia. I was thinking of going to a local bar to watch it, but didn’t really need to as I could follow it by the cheers (and sighs) erupting at various times around Moissac: Cheers at 1718h, sighs at 1728h, more cheers at 1738h, and 1818h etc etc. Eventually, France defeated Croatia 4-2, which completed a nice circle for me. My first week in France (at the Serignon Karate Camp) in 1998 was France’s first World Cup victory (with Zinadine Zidane’s infamous head-butt), and my most recent week in France (20 years later) was their second victory. Let the car horns begin around Moissac - and they did!!

Towards the end of the game, we went up to the port for drinks on Rovi 1, and then returned to Kanumbra for pasta on the rear deck. As we approached the barge, we saw that the sky was looking ominously dark, and before long the first clap of thunder announced the arrival of the storm. It poured down for quite a while, long enough to get all the lads tooting their horns around Moissac to go home for dinner.

The rain continued till sunset, but had eased enough in the west to let the sun peek out from under the clouds and deliver a pretty pink sunset over the Moulin.

It also provided an unusual pink rainbow in the east, and given the results earlier in the afternoon, I think the pot of gold was somewhere in Russia.