I headed out for a coffee, although the coffee flavour was nice I could taste the UHT milk it had been made with & I’m not keen on the taste of UHT milk. The weather wasn’t very pleasant but we headed out to the market- Marche S Cypriens which was across the other side of the Garonne river. It was a very busy market selling meat, fish & fruit & vegetables. We purchased some fish - ocean trout & walked home over a different bridge. As we got nearer the Capitole square the Gendarme numbers were increasing, they were also in full riot gear, I said to Richard it felt like a city waiting for something to happen, there were less people in the city than the previous two days. We had emailed Emile’s restaurant the previous day to make a booking for lunch, we hadn’t had a response but decided to head there anyway. The cold water tap in the kitchen didn’t always turn off & unfortunately after I’d got a glass of water wouldn’t turn off & the more I tried the more water sprayed out the sides. Richard managed to get it so it was only leaking out of the tap & we contacted our hosts. The message said the stopcock was under the sink, but we’d already checked there, as well as unclipped the kick board & no luck. They wanted us to send a picture.... strange it was a running tap. In the end Richard rang them on WhatsApp, they were going to try to get a plumber, we said we were going out for lunch. We headed to the restaurant through the drizzle, they couldn’t find our booking but said if we came back in 5 mins they’d be a table as a couple of tables were just paying. We walked around a lovely square, even though the rain was no getting heavier & went back to the restaurant.

Richard had found this restaurant in the Michelin guide & it was supposed to have the best Cassoulet in Toulouse. We ordered a herring to share for entree which was delicious & I ordered cassoulet & Richard sweetbreads, the maître d’ said these were the 2 best dishes, we also had a bottle of wine at the waiters suggestion. The cassoulet was delicious & so were the sweetbreads. We shared a Grande Marnier dessert, also on the maître d’s recommendation, which was also nice, with a glass of muscat it was clear, very different to our Australian muscat. We made our way home & noticed the yellow jackets march heading our way, the Maître d had said there would be one & that it’s best not to be wondering around in the evening as there is sometimes trouble. We headed into the supermarket, past about 8 security guards, purchased a few items & made our way out through another door as the one we had entered by was closed whilst the march went past. We waited whilst a number of security buses passed us & then cut through a lane towards our apartment. Our street was really quiet. Our hosts had messaged to ask if Muriel’s Mum could come as they’d found out the stopcock was in a locked cupboard in the living room. We said yes but later received a message to say she’d tried but couldn’t get through because of the march. We headed out for a walk at 5.30, it was a bit busier & a lovely sunny afternoon. I took pictures of buildings & also the paintings under the arcades opposite Capitole & we returned home. She did get here at 8.30 with dad. They opened the cupboard & took out the cleaning items & then each tried to turn the stopcock off, they were talking in French & sometimes it sounded quite heated, her phone rang a few times which we assumed was Muriel. Dad eventually shut off the water & they then showed Richard where to turn it back on as this had turned the water off for the whole apartment. Unfortunately Richard couldn’t get his hand through the same hole & although I could, I couldn’t turn the tap.

So they had to cut some of the plaster away with a kitchen knife as of course we had no other tools. As you can imagine it took a while, I did feel so sorry for them as Dad would have been mid 70’s we guess, sitting on the floor of a cupboard in the corner at nearly 9 pm on a Sunday night. He kept saying “c’est impossible” anyway eventually he managed & we were able to get our hands in to turn on & off & they left. What a day!! We were then able to have some pate & bread & watch something on Netflix.