A basket of bowls

It was a bank holiday today, so we decided to go for a traffic-avoiding day out on minor roads to the pottery market in Sallèles d'Aude. The good: there was hardly any traffic. The bad: when we got there we remembered that the last time we went to this market five years ago we weren't crazy about any of the work on display, and the same applied this time. Most of it was too garish and clunky for me. I quite liked these fruit bowls, but not enough to buy one, and the one bowl I did really like, a subtly crazed white one, was 90 euros, so no sale there either.

We swiftly left and drove to Le Somail, a village further along the canal. We haven't been there for years; it's very picturesque and was heaving with people and boats. Instantly feeling as if we were on holiday, we sat on a canalside terrace for an ice cream and then visited the second-hand bookshop for which Le Somail is famous. It's huge -- that photo is just a part of it. I bought a little book of French jam recipes, like I don't have too many cookbooks already.

In the evening, S and R had invited us over for a barbecue. There were lots of guests, and nearly all of them were British -- many of them unknown to us. S and R seem to have a talent for hoovering up Brits! We even met a man from Stockton-on-Tees, very near S's mum's, who has lived in Fabrezan for 15 years, yet we've never encountered him before.  Before we went to Sallèles I had made another large batch of gougères and they all got scarfed up very quickly. S and R had also made some curry, admittedly using jars of curry sauce, but for the long curry-deprived like us, it was delicious. A late night was had by all.