It's the 31st day of my annual 31 day pledge of abstinence; the sun is shining and the early frost is melting on our pontoon. Teddy seems fine and has his walk and dietary food, his heart pill and his diuretic. We have a good breakfast before Alex Melville, our neighbour on "Busted Flush", comes in for his French lesson with Lucie. This is a signal for me to do my fitness routine outside - the gentle and mindful exercises which I call "Malc-Chi" and a two kilometer bike-ride down to the first lock and back the other side. It's a glorious day.
I think that "Skype" is the greatest communication tool of all media tools; We are often in touch with our off-spring and other relatives and friends who also use it - some of them every day. Indeed we could spend all day "Skyping" people in turn and might never have the pleasure of washing up, cleaning the boat, hanging out the washing, emptying ash from the wood burner, walking the dog, cutting logs, pumping out the sewage, and so on - one can chat all day on "Skype" if one feels like it; then squeeze in the useful things later.
Perhaps it is just as well that, when we "set sail" from our mooring at the end of March, "Skype" will become unavailable until the next "hot spot" wifi connection; we will take three days to reach Toulouse and to the dry dock. After finishing there, we will travel some 200klm along the Canal du Midi to Agde where we will be lifted on to a low loader bound for Brittany...and reconnection with "Skype"?.
Friend Alex has just bought a second hand Citroen "Picassa" hatch-back and he has kindly offered to take us anywhere we want to go, within reason of course. We go shopping together and this has widened our collective enjoyment of Montauban and its environment. We have already made several excursions into the hinterland:. Especially of note so far, apart from Montauban itself, there is the town of Albi and the beautiful village of St. Antonin Val Noble with its excellent Sunday market.
It is at St. Antonin that we meet up with Alex's American Friends (T D Lake and his partner Linnea Kathryn Barnes ) He turns out to be the author of the book "A Baguette a Day" which tells the story of life for their first year in France as American Citizens. "T" claims to have written this book at the rate of two pages a day. She is an artist of many talents and good looks.
This super American couple have since visited Body and Soul for Sunday lunch and we have revisited them, armed with food, after scouring the Sunday market again for fresh produce and before a pre-arranged meeting at the coffee bar in the square. Sadly, and with mixed feelings, they plan to return to the States and Chicago, mid February, and another adventure soon. Their house and car are up for sale. No doubt we will stay in touch. They have the most loveable golden retriever called Beau. Lunch was a blast and we solved the world's problems together. We plan to see them again before their departure.
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