We had checked the weather forecast the previous night and, as it was going to be quite a chilly day and because we both needed some downtime, we had decided that we wouldn't do anything today. But I did go out in the morning to do some 'jobs' such as going to the bakery and the supermarket, finding out about sending a parcel home and getting some cash. I thought I would try to do all this without speaking any English. None of that: "Je suis Australienne. Je ne parle un peu le francais." nonsense.
Mission accomplished! There are two tricks to achieving such a feat. 1: Look as though you're in a hurry so nobody tries to engage you in a conversation meaning interactions can be kept at a basic level (for example, "Je voudrais deux croissants et une baguette s'il vous plait.") 2: Don't try to give people the right money as staring at the coins to figure out what denomination they are is a bit of a give away, just hand over notes instead and hope you're being given the right amount of change.
For lunch, we had a simple meal of baguette, jambon, poulet, tomates, oeufs durs et salade verte avec laitue, concombre et avocat (or, to put it another way bread, cold meats and salad but that doesn't sound as yummy as when you use French). We spent most of the day just chatting, reading and knitting. We also found an English channel on the TV and watched a movie. (I didn't feel the need to pretend to be French once I was back inside our apartment.)
I did go out for a walk in the afternoon to take some photos of this pretty town while there weren't many people about. In fact, the town looked deserted and one could have thought it was a ghost town. A vast difference from the day before when the market was on!
