Rest Day: Carcassonne - Picnics And Psychoanalysis

It's a rest day in Carcassonne. Everyone is in Le Cité, at various picnics.

Here, under the ancient drawbridge, are Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen, on a tartan rug, eating cassoulet.

Phil Liggett: Well Paul, that was a surprise yesterday, Baby Pierre turning up at the Tour

Paul Sherwen: Yes, no one foresaw it.

Phil Liggett: Least of all Ageless Lobster.

Paul Sherwen: Yes, Ha ha! I predict we won't see Ageless riding in any breakaways tomorrow.

Phil Liggett: If at all.

Paul Sherwen: I just makes you wonder Phil, if someone put him up to it.

Phil Liggett: I wouldn't be at all surprised, Paul.

.........

Here, a little further inside Le Cité, are Team Get Up, in a little stone square, eating petits patés nîmois, which Belle bought in Nîmes. Richie has joined them.

Richie: These are yum. I feel better already from my heatstroke, bad tummy and bronchitis....

Unni: Is that what you had? No wonder you fizzled.

Belle et Bonne: I should have brought that brandade.

Sweezus: What's that? Brandy?

Belle et Bonne: No. An emulsion of salt cod and olive oil. You eat it with bread or potatoes.

Arthur: Why didn't you? I would have had it.

Belle et Bonne: Gaius saw it, his nose twitched, and his eyes popped right out of his head. I gave it to him. He'll be somewhere around having a stinky old picnic with papa and Schopenhauer and David.

........

She is right. Here, sitting under a barbicon, are Vello, Gaius, David, and Schopenhauer, with an earthenware pot of brandade, having a stinky old picnic.

Vello: Burp!

Gaius: Buuurp!!

Schopenhauer: Urk!

Vello: You Germans burp differently.

Schopenhauer: And that's not all we do differently.

David: Now then ( burp!) ...excuse me.......let's not go there.

Schopenhauer: I led them out and none of them followed me.

David: Reason alone doesn't incline us to action.

Vello: Ha ha! ( Umph!)  Tell that to Ageless.

Gaius: I imagine he doesn't need telling. Emotion inclines us to action.

Vello: I say Gaius! That's very philosophical.

David: Hang on! All he did was extrapolate. That's not philosophy. Sorry, Gaius.

Gaius: That's all right, David. Is there any more salt cod and olive oil emulsion?

David: Yes there is. Plenty. Here take the whole pot of it.

Gaius: Are you sure? Shall I finish it off then?

Schopenhauer: Yes. Might as well.

........

And finally, here at the heart of Le Cité on a cold stone wall near the covered medieval well, are Ageless, Louttit  and Louis-Claude of Team Crustacean, Professor Freud their manager, and Baby Pierre. They are not eating anything.

Ageless: Alas alas.

Baby Pierre: But she does, she does love you.

Ageless: No she doesn't. Tell me again how she does.

Baby Pierre: She laughed when she realised.

Ageless: Laughed how exactly?

Baby Pierre: Ha Ha. Hee Hee.

Professor Freud: What was the tone of this laughter?

Baby Pierre: Ha ha. Hee hee.

Professor Freud: Of course. That serves me right.

Louttit: Was she hysterical?

Professor Freud: That was my next question.

Louis-Claude: Is there nothing to eat?

Baby Pierre: What about me? I thought you were dying. That's why I came.

Louttit: How heart-warming! That's family feeling for you.

Ageless: He's not my family.

Baby Pierre: I have the Mark of the Claw.

Louis-Claude: Let's see. Eh alors! He does have it. You are his daddy.

Ageless: All right all right. Let's forget all this nonsense. Who wants an ice cream?

Professor Freud: Avoidance.

Louttit: Sublimation.

Professor Freud: Hmm. You're probably right.

.........

Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen have finished their cassoulet. They fold up their rug.

Paul Sherwen: Keep your eye on Baby Pierre tomorrow, Phil.

Phil Liggett: You think he'll try something?

Paul Sherwen: Well, he did bring his bicycle.

Phil Liggett: But he can't enter the Tour at this stage.

Paul Sherwen: Have you seen the size of him? I should think he can do what he likes.