A beautiful afternoon, overflowing with autumnal sunshine

and culminating in a mild evening with a 97% full moon,

gave way to a cloudy sky on Monday.

Monday’s 99% full moon should have progressed to a smashingly stunning proper Full Moon on Tuesday night, but the weather gods decided to give us rain instead. Or, as my British friend L. puts it more bluntly, it was pissing all day.

Which instead presented us with a smashingly stunning rainbow, when the cloud cover broke for a few moments in the afternoon.

The full arc over the arch was too large for a regular picture, so I had to take this slightly distorted panorama shot to catch the rapidly fading prismatic beauty.

Since it continued to rain into the night, we never did get to admire the full moon, just man-made light reflecting off the wet pavement and creating a continuously changing stained-glass pattern over the dimpled surface of the Charente river. Not so bad, really.

P.S. Saintes’ “Bernard Palissy II” is still offering river cruises to enjoy the fall colors along the Charente. Better hurry, though, she’ll go into drydock for her six months hibernation in just a few days!