Bank Holiday

It was a bit quiet yesterday. Actually it was a lot quiet. It was quieter than a fairly quiet Sunday, which, if you've ever spent a Sunday in France, you will know is pretty quiet.

It was a bank holiday. In England that means thousands of people at IKEA and Tesco and Homebase and Oxford Street and Longleat and the beach if it's sunny and traffic jams on all roads, even those that don't lead anywhere. In France it means there is one boulangerie open for about three hours, enough for everyone to get the bread that is vital to their daily existence, and that's it. Even the swallows seemed to stay in their nests.

Mind you, it rained all afternoon and evening. Two weeks of fabulous sunshine and then it rains all through the bank holiday - isn't that typical?

There is a race course here in Carcassonne, down on the bank of the River Aude, a little to the north of the town. I think it is used about twice a year for horse racing and trotting - a rather bizarre sport for us English to grasp as it involves a horse and a cart not running as fast as they could because they are only allowed to trot - so the one that runs medium fast very quickly will win but the one that runs too fast i.e. gallops, will lose!. Well, yesterday was one of those two days a year and sadly it rained all afternoon so no fun was to be had there, whether galloping or trotting

Also, the French Rugby League Cup Final, played here in Carcassonne, was subject to the ongoing deluge, which rather dampened the atmosphere for the home town side and was possibly a factor in the lacklustre performance and eventual defeat on the night. Oh well, it was not to be.

However, the renovation doesn't abide by bank holidays so it was full steam ahead, despite wifely thoughts from afar that we are not "getting on with it". I understand her frustration because it feels to me, at times, that it is all taking rather a long time and I have the benefit of seeing every little thing get done. Today we hope, finally, to connect the water into the separate apartment and test all the new plumbing lines. Fingers crossed that we don't have the same deluge inside as we had outside yesterday.