Construction

A busy day today. It was our second pottery workshop; this time we worked with sheets of semi-dried terracotta, which can be cut to shape and used to construct pieces, but cannot be bent to shape, so no curves. Ex blipper Sarah made a perfect cube to hold salt, and we were all impressed when she neatly sliced off the top to make a lid. J made an amazing little model house, for the rather niche task of holding one of those burning anti-mosquito spirals. Knowing how slow I am at these things I unambitiously made a pair of bookends. They are straight-sided and stand upright … result!

I needed to leave on the dot of four to get to Quillan for 5:30 for our 3-hour choir rehearsal. When I opened the door of the workshop, the rain was biblical. I had to paddle through a lake to get to where I’d parked the car, and spent the rest of the day with wet feet. The cross country drive was hairy, with curtains of rain and roads awash. Fortunately it was clearer around Carcassonne, where I briefly stopped to pick S up, and the rest of the drive was easier. Total time: two hours, so I was half an hour late.

S’s mission after dropping our bags at the B&B was to find an open restaurant in the dead streets of Quillan on a Friday night. He whatsapped me the location, and in the five minute walk through dark streets I didn’t meet a single person. The pizzeria must have been the only place in town open, as it was brightly lit and heaving. Pizza very average, but we were grateful anyway. By the time we came out the whole town was dark and completely deserted. I thought Lézignan was run down, but Quillan takes the biscuit.

I was also grateful I’d decided to stay over and make a weekend of it, instead of driving two hours home and then doing the whole round trip again on Saturday. Followed by an hour to Castelnaudary on Sunday. So it was just a five minute drive to our bed for the night.