After a day with a long cycle ride for an even longer Sunday lunch, an evening on the terrace would perhaps be uneventful. Not so. First up was a hot air balloon. We've seen plenty over the years at the Bristol Balloon Festival, but can't recall ever seeing one in the Languedoc, perhaps because they only fly at dawn or dusk to avoid the worst of the regions notorious winds. Suitable landing sites must also be scarce. Dumping a sizeable basket supported by delicate fabric into a meadow or cornfield may be fine, but vinyards with their vine stumps and trailing wires don't bear thinking about.
This colourful balloon is decending into the sunset. The Hitchcokian black birds are Swallows doing their last circuits of the village before nightfall.
There's also a Swallow in this shot. It was nearly dark so the picture is grainy, but then that may be just as well for the faint hearted. A Kestrel has somehow caught and dragged a swallow onto some roof tiles and is about to crush its head before flying off with it, presumably to the nest.
