Under a different sky

 Up early(ish), packed the car, set off via Aunt B's in Narbonne to drop off the Peugeot (for use by me later). Then the well-worn track to this aparthotel on the outskirts of Valencia. The surrounding industrial estate doesn't have a lot to recommend it, but it's very convenient and not expensive. 

We were hot and tired when we arrived at 5:30, and were immediately tempted by the sight of people sitting outside the terrible Irish pub downstairs drinking cold beers while their less clued-up colleagues queued in a tailback of traffic at the roundabout to get home from work. So having deposited overnight stuff and Mystère in the studio, S immediately popped downstairs and returned with two chilled bottles.

We enjoyed them while poor Mystère crept round exploring (I'm sure he must have recognised it, because almost all the studios in this place have an identical layout). Then he retreated under one of the beds as usual. He's refused to eat anything but at least he's drunk some water. He might sneakily eat in the middle of the night.

We ate pasta and bolognese brought from home (again). I regretted quickly grabbing a bottle of red from the wine rack to bring with us ... it was one of the ones we bought when we visited an inexperienced wine maker in Montlaur in June. It was fruity and refreshing then. Now it's refermented in the bottle, and it was even worse than the vin orange. You could see the bubbles. We drank a glass each and the rest was poured down the sink. I have a horrible feeling I gave the other bottle to someone who invited us to dinner...

Onward to you know where tomorrow!

PS just a note to say that since the Fiat garage told us the car needed a new engine costing more than the car did six weeks ago, we've driven close to 2,000 km in it with zero problems ...