Tesco disposible bbqs are all quite good fun. We had chicken, beef, kebaby things, some stuffed peppers and mushrooms courtesy of Jon and lots of other gorgeous munchies. It went on quite late - but not too late to keep Philip up - and wine and perry (from Hereford - originally for Rik but he never got round to arranging to collect it!) flowed freely.

After Nic and Philip had gone to bed, Liam, Jon and I stayed up until some ridiculous hour in the morning drinking whisky and listening to Elgar.

This morning, we all surfaced quite late and Philip had gone by that time. Nic and I did the croissant dash before heading to Angoulême to drop Jon to his train. He seems to have had a really nice time. At least, I hope he has! Certainly he enjoyed lying in the road at about 4am this morning looking at the stars.

Nic and I wandered around the cathedral in Angoulême - very nice - and did some other touristy bits before getting back to the cottage for about 6pm. Liam was working and we had a couple of drinks before a little siesta. Liam went for a run and Pip woke me up by ringing from the UK asking me to put the weather station on.

After food, I took Liam and Nic up Le Grand Puyconnieux (and found it first time!) where we looked at a slightly cloudy sky but still saw stars. The moon didn't help our gazing though.

The realisation that I will be here alone from Thursday is sinking in! Eek! I will have to get out and start meeting people! It would appear that a cat has adopted the cottage, so I won't be lonely after all!

Nic goes back tomorrow. We're currently deliberating whether to drive to Bordeaux and be tourists or just shove her on a train at Angoulême and hope the return journey's less eventful.