Up and down in Piriac

It took a while for us all to get going this morning after a warm and damp night. The sky was grey clearing to blue later. Eventually Ben and I went off to explore the market, which was huge... admittedly we only caught the tail end of it last time we were here but this seemed more than twice the size. I chickened out and bought some basics in the supermarket but Ben charged in and bought us a ham hock and some excellent tomatoes. We put up our new table in the cockpit and had a very civilised lunch with a fresh baguette and olives.

Wonderful colours in the market

Unfortunately I felt distinctly under the weather. Isn't is funny how many euphemisms there are - low rent, sub fusc, under par, off-colour etc. My tummy hurt and I had no energy. I really don't know what caused this but I suspect it's a reaction to rushing around all the time we were back in the UK and not finishing Cruising until the last possible moment. Anyway although we were supposed to be deciding where to go next and we all looked at charts etc I found it quite impossible to decide a route or even our next destination. Actually we had the same issue last time we were here, which is why we ended up going straight to L'Herbaudière.

After a rather fractious afternoon of doing not much except getting Ben's new tenancy agreement printed off, filled in, signed, scanned and emailed, with the help of the Capitainerie, I managed to pull myself together with the help of a modest Ricard and we all went out to the jolly creperie we visited with Robin two months ago. Madame from the motor boat next door came out to tell us in slightly incomprehensible French that she was more than happy to help in any way she can as she has had lots of practice - her husband is also in a fauteuil (wheelchair). She said how good it was to go out to eat as her husband won't go out unless they have a car (I think) and also that looking after a disabled person is très fatiguant. Too right, and perhaps that is also why I wasn't feeling too brilliant. Anyway with Ben's help we did a very efficient job of getting Sam off & on the boat, using a new technique where we leave the guardrails in place in the last moment on his way back to the boat so he can hand on to them.

Probably fortunately, tomorrow's weather looks a bit rubbish - grey, possibly drizzly, a bit windy and rather bumpy seas. That's all the excuse we need to stay an extra night.