Our night was disturbed by late-night revellers on the steps in front of the Conservatorium, who kept partying until 0300h. At one stage, one of them entered the river upstream of the pontoon and then swam down and climbed onto the pontoon. The water must have been cold because he then proceeded to run up and down the pontoon (sans clothing) past all the moored boats. I stayed up until they left, sitting in the wheelhouse and working on the Excel citation analysis program. As a result, we were both late to rise this morning.

I then watched the NRL game between the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos (both contenders for the premiership this year). The game went badly for the Storm, both score-wise (26-0) and injury-wise, when several of their players were injured and they ran out of reserves sitting on the bench. The worst of the injuries was to Ryan Papenhuyzen, who was playing just his second game back after returning from an 18 month recovery period after shattering his kneecap in 2021. He played a great game last week, and was again playing well until he suffered a compound fracture of the ankle. The pain he suffered, both physically and emotionally, was clear for all to see. He is destined to sit on the sidelines for another extended period.

In mid-morning, a large group of schoolkids prepared to start a canoeing instruction class on the river.

They were soon in the water, and creating chaos, especially around the stern of our boat. It seemed that while they had been instructed how to paddle backwards, no one had shown them how to paddle forwards so that they could get out from near our rudder once they had ventured into that area. It was fun to watch how they handled the situation.

During the afternoon, I decided to do some work on the batteries, and started by posting some questions on the Piper Owners Facebook page. These questions essentially asked why the generator battery and the bowthruster batteries did not seem to be charged when the boat was connected to shore power. Hopefully, I will get some useful responses.

This week was the start of a major music festival in Besançon, starting with a orchestral and folk concert tonight at a temporary outdoor venue a little way up river. As the sun set and the sky darkened, the venue under the illuminated walls of the Citadel was spectacular. The orchestral music, in front of a packed audience, was also not too shabby. After an intermission, a middle eastern folk group took over. While interesting for the first two numbers, it became a bit repetitive, so we left early and avoided the exiting crowd.

While we were at the concert, the Rugby World Cup had started in Paris with the opening game between France and New Zealand. This clash has become a highlight of World Cup tournaments in recent years, after a couple of upset wins by France. And they didn't disappoint the locals this time either, with a 26-13 win over NZ. This sets up an interesting World Cup over the next couple of months.