The circus comes to town

It’s set up on the boules ground, where the carnaval was just two weekends ago. Walking over the bridge the other day, I noticed these amazing horses tethered on the river bed - not like any horse I'd ever seen before.


A search on the internet shows that they’re Knabstrupper horses.

Sadly I believe the circus has some exotic animals in cages, so I haven’t ventured in to have a closer look.

And another strange animal encounter yesterday. I went to Capestang via the small village of Le Somail on the canal, and stopped to take some photos of the lovely bridge there.

I noticed a large rodent-like animal in the reeds on the other side of the canal.

I crossed the bridge and got a few more photos – it was the size of a very large cat, head like a guinea pig and long tail like a rat. Another search on the internet identifies it as a nutria, introduced from South America to the southern part of North America, and then introduced to Europe.



Last night there was a quiz night at Anita and Geoffrey’s lovely house down by the river. The house can be seen in the photo at the top of this posting, immediately to the left of the circus poster. A good night was had by all, especially by the winning team – seen here drinking the prize!


At the house, the painting continues. Nic has put me onto audible books, so I download a novel onto the MP3 player, plug in, and paint. And several chapters of a damn good yarn later, there’s another wall done! It’s addictive – I even listened to it while I drove into Narbonne the other day for what I hope is my final visit to the CPAM to sort the health cover registration.

And speaking of driving, I finally found somewhere in Narbonne to have the satellite navigation system fitted to the Suzuki. I bought it with me from the UK – I had it removed from the UK car before I sold it. It’s a really good system with a large pop-out screen, and software which covers most of Western Europe. It was invaluable when Steve and I were in France in 2004 – navigating the Peripherique of Paris was a doddle, and no getting lost out in the countryside!

Here’s a print of an old picture of Bize that the previous owners of the house kindly left for me. My house is the middle one of the group of three on the left, the dark opening being the garage door.