I see no ships

I had a day out at the tall ships event in Sète today. The SNCF was doing a special offer on train tickets, which definitely beat the nightmare of trying to park along with thousands of other people.

It was a lovely day at home, but I was very glad I'd brought a fleece, which I put on when I got off the train and didn't take off all day. It was overcast and increasingly windy ... by the end of the afternoon even the harbour was choppy, and waves were coming over the outer wall. All the ships were tied up at the quays, a number of them familiar from other occasions. It was strange to see the Nao Victoria again, last seen in Seville. Also the Shtandart and La Grace.

My original intention was to buy a ticket to visit the ships (special 2-euro discount for visitors arriving by train) but when I arrived and saw the massive queues for most of the ships, I gave up on that idea. Standing in queues for ages in a howling gale didn't appeal to me. Instead I just walked around looking at the ships and the various demonstrations of marine crafts going on in tents on the quays.

When I got hungry I walked further into town, away from the massive crowds (and the wind), hoping to find somewhere where I could eat inside. I didn't, but the place I chose at random was sheltered enough to make sitting outside bearable, and the food was OK.

More wandering after lunch, when to my complete surprise I bumped into Aunt B, who had come on a coach trip from Narbonne. What are the chances among all those thousands of people? What a pity neither of us knew the other was going. We had a quick chat, but she was just on the way back to the bus.

Eventually the increasingly violent wind and the milling crowds got to me, and I headed back to the station. The SNCF lived down to expectations ... my train was 20 minutes late, so I missed the connection in Narbonne and the next train was an hour later, thus doubling the journey time. I was very glad to finally get home at a quarter to nine, and so was Mystère. Sat down with a nice large mug of Lidl's spiced Rooibos and had a quick trawl through 165 photos. The conditions were difficult, and I have deleted half of them. This was the easiest blip choice. I will process the rest later ... bedtime now!