A typical Sunday: 20 July

It is sometimes a struggle to remember what day of the week it is and we have taken to having a special Sunday lunch as a ‘pointer’ for the week. Yesterday was very typical of a Sunday. It started off a little cooler than usual so we were late rising and having breakfast. We then set off on our bikes to the neighbouring village of Appoigny (5km away) as they have a market on Sunday mornings. The ride there was especially pleasant, the sun was shining, the road nearly flat and of course we were enjoying our new bikes. The market was small, not surprising as the village is small, but the produce was very good. We bought green beans, courgettes and cabbage that had obviously been picked that morning, shallots, and some goat’s cheese for Catherine. We also bought a lovely chicken from the butcher and a loaf of bread from the baker. Yes, they are open on a Sunday morning (but don’t count on them on a Monday!). We saw one man coming out of the bakers with an arm load of at least seven baguettes; he said he had a large family! We had a cycle around the village, very pretty with lots of colourful civic planting and well cared for houses with impressive flower and vegetable gardens. Of course the large church was seemingly out of all proportion to the size of the village.

We cycled back to the boat and while Jeanette cooked roast chicken dinner, Catherine continued her queenly duties with mastic gun and paint brush. (As I have mentioned previously, Catherine is Queen of the mastic gun and paint brush) The main course was delicious (the gas oven is a dream to use despite its complete lack of temperature markings) the cheese board and baguette that followed most enjoyable and all accompanied with a delicious dry and cheap Italian riesling. (As a rule we are paying between 2 and 3 euros - that's roughly $4-6 - for a very drinkable bottle of wine. We pay more for white than red and have found perfectly quaffable wines for under 2 euros!) A post prandial rest was required with a read of the current novel before doing a few more little jobs around the boat and then heading off for another bike ride up the track by the river to the next village, Monteneau, which we will sail through tomorrow on our way to Auxerre. We were only just hungry enough when we got back at 8pm to have a snack. It doesn’t get dark at the moment until after 10pm, so after dishes and a few more jobs we played cards until we felt it was a respectable time to go to bed.

Jeanette (and Catherine)