Sunday 16th February

Though the day was quite wet, soft plangent rain not like the heavy persistent rain of England, we were still glad to be here.  The town is just as pretty with a blanket of drizzle as it is in full sunshine.  Villareal for the morning market – only a few stalls but this is a typical French market, not touristique, just for the locals. Grand café au lait in the café, full of bustling families and a group of young men drinking jugs of bier at the bar. There is no English comparison to these cafes which see no distinction between serving coffee and wine and brandy and beer all at the same time from the same long bar. And on market day they are really busy.

Home, and we had a problem with our brand new Calor gas fire.  It wouldn’t fire up and the pilot light kept going out.  We tried everything and in the end took it back to BricoMarche.  The guys there were brilliant – tested it themselves and after they couldn’t get it to work we got another one, though we will have to wait until Monday for the refund.

I did some painting, Egyptian Cotton on two walls.  Looks good, even with just one coat.  Then a curry in Poppy’s and home.  I was shattered and bed by eleven (ten in English time).