We Succumb to Getting Sidetracked 12-08-25

Today we planned to go up to the Roman ruins and the Monastery, but we wanted to go after lunch. So we thought we would spend just a few minutes at the Monday brocante market. In retrospect not the ideal decision. Once we get started we don’t seem to be able to pull ourselves away. The plan was to look at the little adjacent square to the main one and then be on our way. So we went through the little one and somehow wandered over to the other main one.  Since the day was so nice there were many more vendors than last week and that was our downfall.  We ended up going through the entire market from one end to the other. Early on Deb found a little grabber like the ones we bought a couple years ago and everyone enjoys playing with, but it was the most decorated one yet.  Since the dealers are asking what she feels are crazy prices for very plain ones, she just put it back and moved on.  As we finished our rounds she brought me to look at it so I encouraged her to ask the dealer the price. It turned out to be a little less expensive than the plain Jane ones she found before. So we will have a new one to play with when we get back home. 

After yesterday I was holding out for a light lunch today and vetoed going to one or the other of our favorite places nearby. Instead we went to the little place where I had the duck burger.  To celebrate the beautiful day Deb had a Aperol Spritz while I had a glass of local white wine. This time I ordered the Salad Nicoise while Deb had a salad of melted goat cheese over toasts on a bed of mixed greens. It really was much lighter than what I’ve been eating lately so that was a positive.  We sat next to a couple of young women from Italy who were later joined for coffee by another young couple they knew, also Italian speakers. The poor guy couldn’t get three words in for every forty of the three women but they were all enjoying themselves. We couldn’t follow their conversation but it was a genial lot nonetheless. 

Since we frittered the day away we decided that we may try the ruins tomorrow. It was close to 4:00 and the sun is down by about 5:00 so we sat out on the promenade and watched people go by. We also saw an interesting thing we’d not noticed before. The seagulls were doing their mobbing of the little fish that came to the surface some ways out from the beach.  All at once a motor boat roared up and stopped in the middle of them whereupon the sailor commenced to fish.  Deb saw him bring up a fish about a foot long. A little later we saw the gulls circling and diving again and this time 3 boats raced into the area and commenced fishing. We saw it happen a third time and came to the conclusion that the fishermen let the gulls do the scouting and locating then swoop in for the bigger fish that have come to feast on the little fish themselves. 

So a another kind of slow day, but we learned something new regarding the fishing practices of the local fishermen.