Saturday 4th September 2010 Avril-sur-Loire. Day off.

Cool morning but getting hot again as we had very little cloud. As Avril has no boulangerie, Mike went into Decize in the car to buy a loaf – pain ancien (1,25€) - they had no ordinary pain left. Decided to make a new “make no waves, please” board as the old one was crumbling (we made it when we went to the Midi first in 1993). Mike cut a piece of plywood and gave it a coat of undercoat as we’d run out of primer. Very hot (38°C+), so we added the reflectors to the starboard side windows. Two hireboats went past (German crews) heading downhill. Several more boats went uphill during the course of the afternoon. Very quiet at Avril except for traffic on the road opposite and that was fairly light. I was last to go to bed just after midnight so I had the task of turning the inverter off. It was as black as a bag outside as there were no street lights anywhere nearby - lovely! The sky had light clouds but the stars where they were visible were very bright.