Rest Day: Albi - Open Your Heart

Rest day.

Belle has laid out a picnic on a grassy bank near the Cathédrale de Sainte-Cécile.

Team Condor has not yet arrived.

The sun shines on the red bricks of the cathedral.

Very plain on the outside, says David.

A stern message to Cathars, says Vello.

Might they come back? asks Gaius.

They already have, says Vello.

Try a junot, says Belle. But mind your teeth. The locals dip them in wine.

I'm all for that, says Vello, taking a triangular biscuit.

Snap!

That was the biscuit.

I have very good teeth, says Vello.

A bracing biscuit, says Gaius. Anise, but no sugar. I have good teeth as well.

Nevertheless you really should dip them, says Belle.

Nietzsche is eyeing the cathedral. He is not eating his junot. Nor sipping his Gailloc.

Team Condor arrives in a bunch sprint, with Terence in tow.

Sorry we're late, says Sweezus.

It was Mouldy's fault, says Terence.

You're not late, says Belle. You're just in time for the cassoulet.

She whips off a lid.

The delicious smell of pork cassoulet wafts out.

Everyone eats, except Terence and Nietzsche.

How's Team Philosophe going? asks Sweezus.

Muddling along, says Vello. But perhaps you should ask Nietzsche for his view.

Nietzsche discards his uneaten biscuit and prepares to answer.

Inexplicable things happen, says Nietszche. I rode up the wrong mountain. I met a saint who did not seem troubled by my warning.

What was your warning? asks Sprocket

In heaven, says Nietzsche, all the interesting people are missing.

Ha ha! laughs David. Did you tell him where he should go instead?

No, says Nietzsche. And then I met another one. Saint Flour, from whom I received a message.

What was it? asks Terence. The winner?

Open your heart, says Nietzsche.

What a lovely message, says Belle. Here, if you're not eating the cassoulet, try one of these.

She offers Nietzsche a bugne, which is the cousin of a donut, but shaped more like a mandrake root.

He tries it. Ah, sweetness! Not bad.

Perhaps he was being too anal.

He looks at his hand, in which is the half eaten bugne.

There is icing sugar on his fingers.

And some has fallen onto his lucky bracelet.

Belle pours more Gailloc into everyone's glasses.

And now, a surprise, says Belle. A person that some of you know is coming.

Sprocket hopes it isn't his mother.

No one hopes that it is.

None the less, it is Grace Swan who is walking towards them, with a basket of chanterelles, a bunch of pink garlic and two bottles of local peach wine.