Gargoyles

From the French word gargouiller, to gurgle. We went to the market in Narbonne today, exciting! It's the first time I've ventured more than 15 km from home since December. This is the 13th-century church of Notre Dame de Lamourguier just behind les Halles. It used to house Narbonne's extensive collection of Roman stonework (gravestones mostly) and a bonkers son et lumière created by some Italian artists and bearing absolutely no relation to Narbonne. Now it's empty because the stones have been removed to form a major part of the collection of the new Musée de la Romanité which should have opened officially this month but obviously won't.

Anyway. We bought lovely food for tomorrow, and I went to the nice wine merchant in the street just outside. Both in the market and in this shop, I had to queue lengthily behind people whose accents clearly indicated they were Not From Here ... the February holidays have brought in tourists from other parts of France. Once upon a time I wouldn't have batted an eyelid ... sigh. Another Covid effect.

Back home, lunch (from the north African stall in the market), and I finished my mosaic (except for the grouting). Late afternoon we enjoyed a Youtube concert of music by/inspired by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Lapsed blipper Bundle was listening too, while wrestling with some DIY, and afterwards we had a lengthy Zoom apero with her -- it was really good to catch up.

During our chat, Mystère came in looking unusually ruffled ... loose tufts of fur revealed he had been fighting, so I have been treating a bitten ear. Sigh. He's gone to bed now. And we are going to chill out with some TV.