Emerging

A bright pyramid orchid.

A bit low on photo opportunities today. As a result of conversations at the apero yesterday, we went to the Foire de Printemps in Narbonne today. This is a big show in a conference centre combining stands of local food, drink, and handicrafts rather incongruously with everything to do with house construction and renovation. You may not have guessed that we were there for the latter, not the former. We had very broad brush conversations with two people representing construction companies ... don't worry Arachne, we are not going to renovate anything! It's much more straightforward to start from scratch. There's a lot to think about and we've only just started, so it's not going to happen for a good while. We have identified a building plot though. Uncharted territory for both of us ... what could possibly go wrong?

We shared a rather mediocre hamburger and chips from a food truck for lunch, bought artisanal ice cream, plus some cheese, and then decided to head home. It was warm and sunny in Narbonne, but on the autoroute we encountered a sudden shower of torrential rain -- which, oddly, had happened on the way there too. At the motorway exit, I wound the window down to pay. When I pressed the button to close it again as I pulled away, I uttered a loud "What the F....??!" as there was a sound of glass shattering followed by a crunching noise as the glass, instead of rising, broke into a billion pieces inside the door and was ground up by the winding mechanism.

We pulled over to consider. We are going away for a week tomorrow. We quickly established that nobody local could replace the window today -- presenting the problem of where to leave the car while we're gone. Out on the street didn't seem like a great idea. S called a neighbour and agreed to store the car on his drive behind a locked gate. So we sorted that, and then I got Bruno the faithful Peugeot started and took him on a short drive to the recycling bins to establish that he was working. I'm very glad we still have him! While there I had a quick look around for a blip. Job done.