Despite being able to lie in for a change, we wake early. We have a nice breakfast and then pack to go away for the day. The weather seems improved. It is much brighter and the sun even comes out at one stage, but it still isn't very warm. The sun here is very hot when it comes out. But when the sun is not out, the air temperature isn't much above 19C or so.
We order a taxi to take us to Montauban and for a change it works and they turn up. The hotel is in a converted Capucine convent. The rooms appear to be created out of two or three cells. It is all around a courtyard, which was obviously some sort of cloister. The decor isn't very imaginative. Very plain and modern. But it is all very comfortable and there is a bath. I don't usually have baths, but after 5 weeks of public showers a nice bath sounds like heaven.
First stop is to the spa where we book massages for tomorrow morning. Then we take a walk in to the town. It is a very lovely ancient town. We have arrived at lunch time so the Tourist Office and most of the shops are shut. We therefore just have a little wander around and find a cafe with outside chairs to have a bit of lunch. I have a huge salad gesiers. Too much to eat as we will have a big dinner tonight. In our wanderings we find a hardware store. It is closed until 2:00pm so we continue to wander. We find the main central square which is lovely and probably where we should have had lunch. Anyway, we get Richard a coffee ice-cream.
Then we make our way back to the hardware store. Richard wants to find a mallet to use to bash our new spikes in. We find that, but while wandering around we find something better to use for spikes. I have no idea what their real use is but they are metal spikes about 18 inches long with pointy ends, which will make them much easier to get into the ground. Now we just have to carry this lot around all day!
When we get to the tourist office it is open. It is in a wonderful old building. They give us a brochure in English to take a walking tour of the city. We have already done some, but we do most of the rest. We stop in the Ingres Museum and see the works by Ingres. Not his most famous works, but nice to see. The weather is now very pleasant. It is on and off sunny and not too hot, which is a delight. By the time we do the bridges, Neuf and Vielle we are tired and make our way back to the hotel.
Now we hit the spa. Quite a change from this morning when no one was here. Now it is heaving. There isn't even room in the men's changing room for Richard to put his clothes. So we spend nearly an hour there, in and out of the Jacuzzi, the steam room and the sauna, finally even sitting out by the swimming pool sun bathing!
Now back to the room to get ready for dinner. I have bought one of those fizzing bath bombs in town and run a bath to use it. It is a bit of fun, but I don't think they are worth what they cost. Anyway it makes the bath water a beautiful blue colour. I even blow dry my hair. First time I've done that for ages.
So we have dinner in the gourmet restaurant. It is OK, but I think a bit of a disappointment. The food is fairly straightforward and the portions are minute. The foie gras was only a finger sized piece less than 2 inches long! The other problem is that we have ordered the wine flight to go with the meal. As small as the portions of food are, this is not mirrored in the size of the wine portions. We thought we would get 3 medium glasses of wine plus a small glass of desert wine. Instead, we get four large glasses of wine plus desert wine! As we have had an aperitif I am pretty squiffy by time the meal is over.
So roll into bed. Nice to be in a large proper bed for a change.
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