I went to Moret again this afternoon with the others. Exactly the same weather and conditions as on Thursday. I searched all the river from St Mammes to Moret for a subject, and couldn't settle on a good one. Then I began to sketch an old man in a punt fishing. Blackish brown rats (not very big) kept coming up out of the bank to drag away at a large crust of bread that someone had tied to a string by a chain. Half tame. Not being able to carry off the bread they would nibble and eat off it insitu.We saw a wedding procession preceded by three musicians - a fiddler, a silver instrument and another. Working people. men in silk hats and short semi-frock-coats. the men had obviously drunk about as much as they could manage. Only one or two girls in white - the bride and another. perhaps 30 people altogether, including quite young ones, aged 15 or so. Bride about 25 or 26, certainly not a virgin - so much was obvious!
As the procession approached the town the musicians began to play, and some of the people danced along. One couple stayed lingering behind, the man ran behind a tree while his girl waited for him; then he rejoined her and they walked on slowly after the procession - call of nature I expect; the French are rather more relaxed about theses things! nearly all the people had a brutish and very stupid look. In towns only as big as Fontainebleau, these marriage processions have ceased to occur, but they continue in villages.Bad sleeping for a week or two. I waste 2 or 3 hours a night in useless bed. So I am trying to stay up later. This morning I didn't sleep after 4.30. I got up at 6.15. i went out at 8 to think about my play, and returned at 10, having done two hours walking in hot sunshine, and two hours thinking. And I was exhausted for the day. I could easily have gone to sleep before lunch. I notice that I almost always sleep more soundly when I have had a good, brisk walk during the day.
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