Rainy day

This weekend is the weekend of la rentrée, when all the French kids (rug rat =  le mioche) go back to shool, and the adults go back to work after their august holidays.  It's therefore the weekend of the "back to school" car boot sales, of which there were three near us.  We went to the biggest one, at Laval.  It rained.

To put this rain in context, we have to note that it hasn't rained here for at least 6 weeks (except for a little shower a couple of weeks back), and we've had a scorching drought, with temperatures up in the upper thirties; around 13°C higher than normal for this time of year.  The plants are suffering, there are restrictions and bans on watering.  The next rain that is forecast won't be until Friday.

And the rain wasn't the kind of rain that will do the plants any good; a light intermittent rain all morning, that will wet the top half-inch of soil and then evaporate off in no time.  But it was enough to put the dampers on the car boot sale; people had to cover their stalls with plastic or other watherproofs, or just watch their goods get wet.  And there were fewer buyers around than is usual, too.

However, we caught a few bargains.   I found a sit-up bench for the gîte gym, and a couple of DVDs for evening entertainment, some cheap reading glasses and a book on gardening.

Here's a picture of the event, taken from a roadside café, while we had a break.