We had a pretty uneventful evening and went to bed early, so it wasn’t until the next day that we heard about the awful attack in Nice. Everyone was a bit subdued that day as we all digested the news, but in typical French fashion, they promptly got back to living and there was a general sense that they would not be changing their lifestyle, or trading security for personal freedoms ( which perhaps is what has happened in the States after 9/11).
There next day we decided to run up to the IKEA in Montpelier to get some storage bins and a few items for the galley. It took care of 6 hours of the day and we got back and stowed everything before cocktail hour.
While sitting in the cockpit we noticed a minivan pull up loaded to the gill’s with gear and 3 kids. This turned out to be a lovely Swiss couple Laure and Stephane with their 3 kids Timeo age 6, Sylian age 8, and Aleana age 12. They had purchased a Lagoon 470 in March from Catana which had been a trade in, but in typical Catana fashion, all the promises made had not come to fruition. In fact, they were happy to buy the boat as it was but had been promised ( and this was in their contract), new engines, generator refit, hatch/port re bedding, rigging upgrades, various galley refits, electrical work..and were still waiting, that and the usual issue of making things worse when work was done. Stephane came by for a few beer’s while the kids and Laure went to the beach to burn off some energy. We didn’t see Alan or any worker’s and tomorrow was Sunday and marked a month that we had been in France, so a third of our visa was used up. By the next day the wind had died and it was really hot again so just minor boat jobs, a walk to the bakery and fruit stand, then off for a swim to cool off. On Sunday we noticed the summer hours had kicked in so the grocery stores were open in the afternoon now versus closing at 1 pm, and Laure and I took the kids and did a grocery run as we were having them over for dinner that night.
It was the busiest I had seen the store due to the holiday weekend, and I was getting a sense that the summer tourist season had kicked in and from here on out the beaches, resto’s (local slang for restaurant), camp grounds, and supermarkets would all be chocka until the end of August. The Canet-En-Roussillon area was a big summer destination due to the long sandy beaches here, and as we had noticed the southern coast beaches were stony or rocky on our coastal tour back from Figueres. It was fun to prep for a dinner party and we dined alfresco in the cockpit on chicken, potato and green salad, with a gorgeous fruit tart for dessert.
We likely drank too much wine as we were up until 130 am, although the kids went off to bed at a reasonable hour at least. We were really impressed with the kids behavior, who entertained themselves for the most part, coloring, playing games, and giving our trampoline a thorough workout!
We got up to wash the boat off before the wind filled in. Alan arrived for coffee and we went over the ever-growing list of work to be completed. The Volvo mechanic arrived to check out the shifting problem and reported he would be ordering a new shifter cable as the current one was too short(?). The 15 meter HDMI cable and Fusion radio that Todd had ordered through Amazon arrived at the office, and was tracked down to Renault who had collected the order for some reason. The gel coat guru’s arrived and rapidly took care of a number of small fiberglass fixes around the boat..wow, it felt like things were really happening now!
The work and wind continued the next morning with more fiberglass and gel coat work, The young electrician Patrick was here and started to wire the fusion radio, and viola, music! There was a broken starboard speaker in the cockpit which Todd would end up replacing that night. Then Patrick was called to another boat and another electrician showed up to finish the installation.This poor ( and seriously short) fellow, was very scared of water and it was hard for him to come aboard (we had been jumping the gap but had to go and find a Pasarelle/gang plank in order to coax him over), and he looked green about the gills when the boat rocked slightly. He finished the wiring pronto and made good his escape back to the safety of the factory. The engine mechanic arrived and changed out the shifter cable which had been too short and had made it very hard to shift gears. Oh, and a lock materialized for the salon doors..with one very rusty key that we would need to get extras cut from. All and all it was a productive day.
Our job the next day was to get keys made so we were off doing that (35 EU and they didn’t fit so had to repeat the process), when the electricians returned to wire the 3000 Watt Inverter…and put it right in front of the breaker box so you couldn’t access the breakers. This sort of thing was mind boggling and becoming very irritating. Todd was not a happy camper and put a call through to our broker to explain the situation and vent a bit.
I went with Laure and the kids on the water taxi to check out some kind of fete in the square, and we stopped in at Sandrine’s resto ” La cane sucre”, for a drink and a great crepe. Sandrine offered advice on how to send a certified letter to Catana in order to put the pressure on and get the contract finished. Laure was very interested and gave her contact info to pass on to a lawyer friend of Sandrine’s, as they were very ticked off with the results and lack of progress on their boat. It was always good to catch up with Sandrine who exuded positive energy, and it was fun to meet Myra’s new puppy “Mocha”, who was a multi-colored bundle of wiggle, and very cute.