Despite a very late night last night Christian was up and out for 9am to take up his position behind the watering station in the square. A transfrontier mountain bike race was coming through the village so of course Christian was ready to give a hand. As a recompense we were invited by the Mayor to join him and his wife for the lunch put on by organisers of the race but first there were village commitments to fulfill. A tradition of the festa major is that the organisers go around the village playing music and collecting money at lunch time on the 3rd day. Their first port of call is the Mayor's house where they present his wife with a bouquet of flowers. In return they are invited to stay for an apéritif and some pretty substantial nibbles. This year, some of them also took a dip fully clad in the swimming pool. Once they had decided to move on we did the same. Lunch was in the local hunters' premises and the main course was snails. Fortunately we were at a table with a French guy who had been in the village for about 18 years so we weren't completely lost.
Then it was back to the village in time to watch some Sardane dancing. On leaving the bar, which had been a great vantage point with large parasols giving shade, Jacques spied us passing his house and invited us in for an apéritif with his cousin and his wife. 2½ hours later we made it home!
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