Wednesday 24th June 2009 Villepinte to Sauzens

Warm and sunny, nice breeze. We set off just after nine. Two hireboats were still attached to the quay. The Scots had somehow managed to leave a tap running all the day before and almost emptied their water tank, so they would have to stop at Bram to fill up. We said we’d see them further down. The first lock, Villepinte, was empty so we gave a hoot as we arrived and the keeper came out to fill it. Above the lock two boats were moored, a reasonable looking yacht and an old wooden cabin cruiser that was slowly rotting away, with a for sale notice on it. The young man (probably a student) worked the lock from his ice cream tray around his neck. The lock house looked empty, but a house attached to the end of it was lived in with red geraniums in boxes on the windowsills. A sign in the grass on the lockside beneath towering pine trees pointed us in the direction of a long gone expo de verres (glass exhibition) 1.7 kms to Sauzens. The lock was ready for us and an older man worked the lock, again with the control panel strapped round his neck. The lock house again looked empty and the garden unkempt. 1.2 kms to Bram. A Loca was coming up. Another young man acted as cinema usherette and worked the lock. Hooray, the single storey lock house was inhabited with a Midi-Pyrénée flag flying. A LeBoat was moored above the lock, the female crew did a quick u-turn and followed the Loca we’d just passed back uphill to Sauzens. We dropped down on to the start of a 5.6 kms long pound. Just below the lock we passed through the basin at Bram. Hireboats filled the end on moorings (including one of Moissac’s blue ones) and the moorings along the towpath stretched a good 75m. Among them was the wide narrowboat who’d been there when we went the other way in 2007. Its skipper was going up to his camper van parked up the bank from his boat so I shouted to ask him when he was going to finish fitting that boat out! He laughed and said not yet and we told him we were going north and hoped to see him sometime with the boat. Maybe, he said. A hotel boat was moored outside the café-bar and the quay beyond it had now been repaired and had a series of bollards to tie to. Two hireboats went past heading uphill. Halfway along the pound we were overtaken by a LeBoat called Clipper 15 which must have been in the basin at Bram. The occupants didn’t even look our way never mind try to say Bonjour! At the next lock, Béteille, the LeBoat was waiting for the lock to fill. Two dead yachts were moored above the lock. A bloke in his thirties worked the lock. The two guys on the LeBoat were American. One took a photo of me coiling my rope up. When the lock was empty they mimed for us to go first. I said you could try speaking English to us and they suddenly came to life, admiring the boat and asking how old it was, etc. They hadn’t realised we were English!! We sent them off first as they would only have to duck under overhanging trees to overtake us again. 7.5 kms to the next lock. Around KP85 we saw the first vineyard close by the canal. Another LeBoat went past heading uphill. Another passed us at 11.25 a.m. Mike said good morning captain, as the bloke steering had a shiny white captain’s hat on. The lady seated beside him started laughing as he started doing some serious turning of the steering wheel! Crossed the aqueduct over the Espitalet stream (well clogged up with young trees and undergrowth) and entered the section of serious bendy bits. Passed two more LeBoats at midday. A Belgian cruiser (dead) and a slipper launch (sheeted and dead) and a LeBoat were moored at Villesèquelande where the moorings had been extended and more picnic tables added, plus there were signs that electricity was about to be laid on too. Ten minutes later more uphill boats went past, a Locaboat and an ex-Connoisseur hire boat. I dropped our centre rope around a concrete bollard in the shade above Villesèque lock just as fifty kids on bikes, plus minders, rode past on the towpath (far bank) and all shouted bonjour, ‘allo, etc. 

There were three hireboats coming uphill in the lock and as it was 12.20 p.m. so we waited to see what happened. After they cleared the lady keeper called us in. I said thanks as it was so close to lunch time. She replied that she had to empty the lock anyway (Why? Uphill traffic due?) so we might as well go through. We left the bottom at 12.40 p.m. The quay at Sauzens was full. Two British blokes on a Dutch botter with a red ensign asked if we wanted water. I told him no but we were planning on staying overnight, possibly. They said they were staying but the boat in front was leaving after lunch. In front were two yachts. We tried to moor uphill of the quay, but it was too shallow. As we only really wanted to get on the quay to unload the moped we decided to move further on and use the plank to unload the bike on to the towpath. A few minutes later we tied up with the bows under an overhanging oak tree, opposite a tree loaded with unripe plums. One of us stepped on a straw coloured stick insect on the gunnel (I thought they were all green in various shades, our gunnel is sand coloured) and squidged its rear end. No tree roots to tie to, so we banged stakes in. After lunch I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped down a plank, watching out for passing cyclists. Some of them said bonjour with remarkably English accents. He went to collect the car from Le Ségala.

Tuesday 23rd June 2009 below Laurens to Villepinte

Hot and sunny with a cooling breeze. Set off at 9.00 a.m. to the next lock, La Domergue. The lock was empty, we hooted and the keeper filled it. On the lockside he had lots of birds in cages and an old caterpillar-tracked tractor. Mike had a chat with him about the tractor, (which was built before WWII, ran on petrol and was used for tending the vines), as we dropped down in the lock. 1.2 kms to the next lock, La Planque. This time the lock was ready and as we dropped down the chamber Mike chatted with an old chap on a bike whose accented French sounded Dutch. Into Castelnaudary, paused between the footbridge and the first road bridge and I went to get some bread (1,10€) while Mike kept the boat by the bank. As we passed through the moorings in the town we saw a British cruiser we’d done a few locks with; so we asked the skipper how much it had cost him to moor at Le Sègala and he replied that it had cost him nothing for mooring but 2€ for electricity. Told him we’d been told that the moorings at Castelnaudary were being renovated and end-on finger moorings were going to be provided, then the moorings (which up to now had always been free) were going to be charged at 24€ per night. The first boat of the day went past, a Locaboat heading uphill with a very large flag bearing the logo “Port du Ghent”. We trundled past the little yacht (whose owners we met the previous Tuesday) tucked in the moorings back of the island. 

Crossed the big wide basin, noting that Crown Blue Line were now called LeBoat. A LeBoat hireboat, called Caprice 2, was trying (unsuccessfully) to get away from the quay above the four-rise staircase of St Roch. We could see the top lock was full and there was something coming up. The guy on the hire boat was Scottish and he said that the keeper had said it would be half an hour before his boat could go down the locks. We said we’d go down with them. The boat coming up was a 30m unconverted Dutch Luxemotor with a banner down its coaming proclaiming transport by water was X N° of times safer than road transport. He wanted the quay that we’d just backed up to as a tanker had just arrived to refuel him. We pulled out and round him, not easy with half a gale blowing across the basin, and followed the hire boat into the lock. (Read sometime later that the brave Frenchman, called Sam, who owned the Luxemotor called Tourmente, was trying hard to revive trade on the Midi canals by taking wine down to Bordeaux for export) The Scotsman told us it was his first ever boat trip and their first lock. There were two middle aged couples on board and they didn’t make too bad a job of their first locking. We dropped down the four chambers and left the bottom at 11.50 a.m. A Dutch yacht was waiting below to go up. 1.4 kms to the next lock. A Nichols hire boat went past heading uphill. Gay two-rise was ready. A young lady worked the lock from a control box by the middle gates. It was 12.20 p.m. when we left the bottom. Just a short run of 1.7 kms down to the next lock, three-rise Viviers, which was closed for lunch until 1.30 p.m. The Scots moored halfway along the pound and we moored on the stumps in the shade above the lock. At 1.30 p.m. we dropped down the locks on our own, no signs of the hire boat. Another LeBoat went past heading uphill. The lady keeper at Guillermin was very chatty. She had an ice cream tray control box and she showed Mike that there were even buttons to operate the traffic lights above and below the lock - but they didn’t work! Another very short pound to St Sernin. The stumps above the lock were occupied by two Locaboats who’d stopped for lunch. The French crews weren’t ready to continue, they informed me when I asked if they were waiting for the lock. They said the lock keeper was asleep. We sat and waited, crabwise in the wind as they were occupying the waiting area. The old guy in shorts wasn’t asleep. His lock was empty, he brought another hireboat up then we went down. Another short pound to Guerre. The lock was ready so we went in. Two large yellow dogs were lolling in the heat on the lockside but no sign of the keeper. Eventually the blonde keeper appeared; she didn’t understand what Mike said to her at all. She spotted a hireboat we’d just passed which was against the bank with its crew holding strings and said Ah there’s another “avalant” (downhill) to which Mike said no, he’s “montant” (uphill). She looked a bit bleary eyed, probably too much wine with her lunch and had just woken up. She closed the gates behind us and wandered off. She came back with her ice cream tray and remembered how to work the lock. A bloke arrived from a boat below and stood chatting with her. A lizard ran off the lockside (the lock was almost empty) and into the water. It managed to climb partway up the wall so I went to encourage it to go all the way up the wall before the lock filled again. We passed the péniche from Malause again, moored about 300m above the next lock, La Peyruque.

The lock gates were opening as we arrived and Winifred, one of the big blue-hulled hireboats that used to crash about in the Moissac area, came towards us - its British steerer struggling with the heavy boat in the side wind. It missed us, or to be more accurate we missed it! A duck and ducklings were in the chamber, so we shooed all the little ones from between the boat and the wall. 500m to La Criminelle where a young female student, (followed by boyfriend), worked the lock for us while the boyfriend sat on a bollard. 1.4 kms to the last lock of the day, Trèboul, a deeper one at 3,20m. It was empty, two hireboats had just come in to come up. We looked across to the Pyrénées in the distance to our right with the sun shining on their snow covered flanks.

On the left two new wind farms had sprouted from the tops of two hills in the Black Mountains. We sat on the aqueduct and waited for the hireboats to clear. The resident lady keeper was chatty so Mike asked if she knew the history behind the lock name of Guerre, (war in French) she didn’t, but she did know the history of La Criminelle. Mike didn’t understand much of what she said and I couldn’t hear her from where I was - holding the centre rope, but I remembered being told before that the name refers to the lock itself and I thought they said it was a killer of horses, somehow they got pulled into the canal and drowned. It was 3.55 p.m. when we left the bottom and set off on the last stretch to Villepinte. The wooden quay was empty, all ours. It was 4.00 p.m. we’d done almost six hours, the longest day yet. A young German couple were picnicking and they told Mike they’d seen a woman doing some washing at the old lavoir - so it was still in use like it was when we came here first in 1994. Mike said he could smell soap powder. I wouldn’t fancy washing my hands in there let alone putting the laundry in the canal. It looks clean, but bearing in mind there are only a few sanitary stations or pump outs in France…… We’d noticed the last three locks had been refilled behind us and the boat following us came past just as we were tying up. It was a very ugly new VNF boat, a square pan (no shape to it) with a hydraulic leg powering it at the back and a large crane arm with weed grabber at the front. Shortly after that Caprice 2 arrived and moored in front of us. We couldn’t get any satellite TV as the trees were in the way. Nothing on TV anyway so Mike took the dish down and put our “Make no waves” board out as there were still lots of hireboats passing at speed. 

Monday 22nd June 2009 Le Ségala to below Laurens

Sunny with white clouds. A chilly start, fleeces on. We set off at 9.10 a.m. The quay at Le Ségala was almost full, although it was supposed to be reserved for Rive de France hireboats. A white-bearded English chap said he would follow us down to the lock as we passed his smart little Dutch Pedro cruiser. Méditerranée was empty with bottom gates open when we arrived. As we threw ropes around the wooden stumps above the lock, to wait for whatever was coming uphill, the keeper refilled the lock. There was a traffic light at the top end of the lock (which are usually only on automatic locks). On the lockside was a post with green and red buttons for use on automatic, but a young keeper in designer sunglasses with an ice cream tray round his neck worked the lock for us. Poser! A short pound took us to Roc two-rise. 

The usual resident dark-haired and moustachioed keeper was there to greet us and have a chat. We were soon through and on to the next pound. We passed a Dutch cruiser heading uphill; it had an SSR (British Small Ships Registration) number and Dordrecht (large town in the Netherlands) as its home port. On the 1.2 kms pound to Laurens three-rise I made a cuppa. Drank it while dropping down the locks to the amusement of the lady on the cruiser alongside who thought it was very laid back to drink coffee while holding a bit of string! (Takes all sorts). 

The young man working the lock (again with ice cream tray controls) did so from the upper storey window of the almost derelict lock house. I had to agree with Mike that he wasn’t in full control from up there, although he had a good view of all three chambers. At eleven o’clock we stopped at an old stone quay with rings about halfway between the bottom of Laurens and the next lock, La Domergue. A fat narrowboat was moored at the downhill end (where the rings were) so we tied bows to bows. 

The people on it returned in their car and Mike had a chat with the skipper. He had photoelectric panels on his roof which he said provided 50Amps when the sun was shining and was producing 7.5 Amps as they were talking - as the sun was going down. He also had a heat exchanger system of pipework on his roof which heated water by the action of sunlight and asked Mike if he knew what would be the best method of automatically turning his circulation pump on and off. His partner, a Dutch lady, also came out to chat. She lived in Amsterdam and went back to visit her family using cheap air flights for 10€ or less, sourced via the Internet. 

Saturday 20th June 2009 Le Ségala

Sunny with white clouds and a cool breeze (the edge of a Tramontane) which kept the temperature down nicely. Mike put the quant poles out to keep the boat off the bottom as the water level had come up overnight but was sure to go down again during the day while the locks at either end of the summit were in almost constant use. He went to Labastide and collected the post (no charge again!) and collected a loaf. 

Friday 19th June 2009 KP35 Vieillevigne Br to Le Ségala

Up just after eight, pouring with rain at nine. It stopped, so we set off at 9.30 a.m. It was still grey and overcast, but at least it was much cooler than the day before, which had been a scorcher. A couple of kilometres to the first lock. I got off at the wooden landing below Laval two-rise with two ropes to drop down to Mike once the boat was in the lock. A converted Dutch Barge, painted in crazy paving blue and yellow, was coming down and had just entered the lower chamber. 

A cruiser was on the landing above the lock so I asked the keeper, (an older bloke who was talking to a younger guy with a VNF shirt) who was filling the upper lock chamber, if the cruiser was coming down; no, he said, there’s one coming up. Well, that would be us, but surely he’d let the cruiser down at the same time? Apparently not. We went into the bottom chamber and got severely flushed off the right hand wall. The lock was about half full when the guy emptied it again! He’d let the cruiser in the top after all and was starting again. Mike thought we ought to have moved to the other side of the chamber because of the powerful swirl from the paddles. Later we were more astute and looked for the “feed” paddle, as on each lock one paddle had been left manually operated to be set for running water through the lock when needed, and we put the boat on the opposite side of the chamber to the wind-up or “dead” paddle, as it didn’t lift when they pressed the buttons. When our lock was full the centre gates opened, we passed the cruiser and went into the top chamber and got blown off the wall again. Another converted large Dutch Barge was waiting above to come down. 1.4kms to Gardouche. A large German cruiser and a yacht were moored beneath the trees just before the lock. The lock was empty and I got off as before. Shouted “bonjour” to the resident lady keeper, who was in her house but keeping an eye open for boats, and she came out to press the buttons to work the lock. A shallower lock, only 2,10m rise, it was much calmer as we’d swapped to the left hand side, so the two paddles came up on our side of the lock and the flow kept the boat against the wall instead of blowing it off. As we left the lock I told the lady keeper that we would pause for water as I’d seen the sign on her house that indicated there was water and toilets a bit further along the towpath. She said there was a proper tap on the other side by her lock at the end of the long quay and she had the key – the tap further up the towpath was a push button thing for cyclists and walkers in a toilet block. I asked if it was free, she said yes. I told her we only needed about a third of a tankful and were topping up before the downhill side of the canal. She said yes it was all pay, pay, pay, on the other side! There were lots of campervans parked on the lockside, several blokes came out to watch and one wanted to take our bow rope. He tied it to a ring and I had to ask him to untie it again as Mike needed plenty of slack to be able to swing the stern end in as we had to go along the lock wing wall at 45° to the quay. The lady keeper held out her hand for the stern rope and blushed when Mike stepped off with the rope and took her hand in gentlemanly fashion! I emptied the rubbish while Mike topped the tank up. Wiggled back out from where we’d moored and set off on the 4 kms pound to Renneville. Two British boats came down, a small brand new replica tjalk (Dutch sailing boat) complete with lowered mast and lee boards (had seen lots of those in the Netherlands but that was the first one we’d seen in France) followed by a cruiser. There was an older bloke at Renneville to work the lock, which had a long building alongside it which was derelict, so (like Vic) there was no resident keeper. He mimed “were we stopping to eat?” so we told him (in French) we would stop below the next lock to have some lunch. He smiled (just about). Mike spotted a cruiser coming in to moor below the lock as we left. On the next pound we saw a single Locaboat, followed by two more, then a boat that looked like a Connoisseur but had Europa on the side (must be a new hire boat company?) Moored on the wooden staging below Encassan two-rise for lunch. No sign of the cruiser catching us up. The bottom chamber was empty with the gates open, so at 1.25 p.m. I walked up with two ropes again. A cheery young lad worked the lock. We came up on the right hand side of the chamber as a Locaboat came down in the top. It was 1.50 p.m. as we left the top. A short pound, 1.6 kms, lead to the next lock Emborrel, a deeper one at 3,10m rise. I chatted to the young student girl who was temporary lock keeper for the summer break from Uni, where she was studying to be a maths teacher. I thought the lock house was derelict until I spotted a car parked and a few chickens wandering about. The girl retreated to the lock office at the end of the building as we left. We passed another pénichette heading downhill, we thought it was an ex-hireboat. On a blind bend we saw the bows of a large vessel and Mike quickly went into hard reverse. It was the trip boat from Renneville called Surcouf. He only had about half a dozen guests on the bows. (Surely that wouldn’t cover the diesel costs?) Off at the staging again with ropes and we went up Océan, the last uphill lock until we start on the Rhône. The usual resident keeper came out to work the lock using a remote control set hanging around his neck like a lady usherette in a cinema selling ices. The few spots of rain decided not to become a full blown shower as we chatted with the keeper and an American cyclist. A large group of kids on bikes, with teachers, started shouting ‘allo ‘allo and ding-a-linging on their bicycle bells, so Mike had to reply by hooting which cause even more ding-a-linging! The lock keeper had reminded us when we said we would probably be staying on the summit for the weekend that it was the day of music on Sunday (midsummer day) and there would be a fete on at Le Segala. Maybe we’ll move on if we get the post! Crossed the summit, passing the site where the canal originally went up another lock to a higher, shorter, summit level before Riquet made a short cutting which eliminated the two locks. At 3.45 p.m. we tied to the wall by the bridge in Le Segala; shallow as always, we dropped two tyres below the bottom and pulled the boat in tight so we weren’t scraping on the bottom of the canal every time anything went past. A hireboat moored in front of us as we were tying up, but only stayed for about an hour. Mike went off in the car to the post office in Labastide d’Anjou about 2km away from the mooring. They were shut; they had closed at 3.30 p.m. A cruiser went past at 5.50 p.m. heading for Méditerrannée, but stopped on the quay just through the bridge.

Thursday 18th June 2009 abv lk 7 Vic To KP35 Vieillevigne

Overnight rain, then overcast until just after ten. Set off at 9.35 a.m. on the 7.5 kms pound to Montgiscard, waving to the keeper at Vic as we left. Shortly after we left we passed two downhill Dutch boats, a large cruiser and a small Dutch Barge. It was 10.55 a.m. when we arrived below Montgiscard. The lock was full and another Dutch cruiser came down then we went up. The lock had a straight walled extension at the tail end with vertical bars in the walls on both sides which made it easy for us to use our centre rope while ascending 3.82m. We passed an English cruiser tied to the trees at KP27, whose skipper was painting his cabin. Mike told him not to step back to admire his work! A Locaboat was in the empty chamber of Ayguesvives lock, another deep one and former staircase two-rise. Again we rose easily with our centre rope on the bar in the wall. The German couple on the Loca called us past. It was midday and they were stopping for lunch. We carried on up to Sanglier two-rise, the first of the unaltered Midi locks. 

We were through in no time; ropes at fore and aft in the oval chamber. The keeper told us the next would be closed for lunch 12.30 – 1.30 p.m. We motored on and paused for lunch with our centre rope slung around a tree as there was no wooden staging below Negra. At 1.30 p.m. I took a walk up to the lock with two long ropes to drop down to Mike as it was another deep lock, 4m. The chamber was full with top gates open and a large Dutch cruiser (another one!) about to come down. I had a look at the old boatman’s chapel which had always been locked when we came through. Today it was open and the interior was neatly but simply furnished with a few wooden pews and an altar. Mike said the water from the emptying lock had made the canal below swirl all over the place making the boat go crabwise into the lock, so he had to be very careful to make sure the mast went through under the centre of the arched brick bridge. Told the keeper we were stopping on the pound. We left the top at 2.10 p.m. We tied up at 2.30 p.m. in blistering heat next to an old quay wall by a back road bridge with cyclists whizzing past on the towpath/cycle piste. We both had a doze for half an hour then I gave Mike a hand to unload the moped off the roof and he went to transfer the car to Le Segala on the summit. Our post should be at Labastide d’Anjou about the same time as we reach the summit.

Wednesday 17 th June 2009 above lk 7 Vic

Did some shopping at a very large Centre Commercial called Labege 2, which was only a short drive away. On the way out we spoke to the lock keeper on duty and told him we’d stay until the next morning. We both dozed in the heat after lunch. 

Tuesday 16th June 2009 below Lacourtensourt lk2 to abv lk 7 Vic

Sunny start, cloudy by mid afternoon, hot and sultry. Around 8.30 a.m. a small British yacht from Plymouth, arrived having been overnight above the last lock. They’d had problems with the locks the day before and had called the keeper out four times. I walked up to the lock, which showed two reds, “en panne” (out of order). The yacht went in the lock, the gates closed behind them and that was that, nothing worked. Mike turned the pole, he got a yellow flasher for a couple of minutes then it went back to red. The woman off the yacht called the VNF again. We chatted on the lockside. No sign of the VNF so after half an hour I used the intercom. He replied that he was on the road and would be with us shortly (In the meantime Mike ‘phoned and got the same reply). He arrived, (a very pleasant chatty young man), and set the lock working for us. I’d taken a short shaft with me to get the ropes off Mike but didn’t need it. I forgot it and left it on one of the big piles of gravel lying on the lockside. It was just ten o’clock as we set off again. When we arrived at lock 1 Lalande the “itinerant” (mobile lock keeper) was checking the weed trap on the weir so I asked him if he could get my boat shaft for me. No problem. He ‘phoned someone then went off to collect it. We said au’voir to the Brits on the yacht, as they were in a hurry to get to Castelnaudary, and waited a few minutes for the man in a van to return. A large ex-hireboat with a Canadian flag was coming down to lock 1, but he’d missed the turn pole. He said to Mike that he’d been concentrating on missing all the kids in canoes from the training centre above the lock. Told him the keeper would be back in a few minutes. When he turned up with my boat shaft I gave him a bottle of Corbiéres (a nice red wine) to say thanks – it wouldn’t be easy to replace the small boat hook and it’s a very useful thing – and set off on the long pound into Toulouse. It was very noisy and very smelly in places. A buzzard sat in the top of an old dead tree oblivious of the noise. We passed an eight man rowing skiff, a clunky looking French vessel. The tramp was still living by the motorway under a bridge and a few tents and makeshift wooden shacks had appeared in the undergrowth by the motorway. Past the line of moored houseboats, noticing there were a few gaps, and into the port de l’Embouchure where we swung hard left on to the Canal du Midi. I got off at the landing below the first lock on the Canal du Midi and walked up. A young chap was working the locks. The little yacht had just left and was dawdling above lock 1 Bearnais. The keeper emptied the lock and we stood chatting, he invited me in to look at the command post – six monitors for watching his three locks plus one with a schematic of the first section of the canal de la Garonne. He said he used to work at Niffer lock on the Rhine near Strasbourg and I told him we’d passed the winter two years back at Saverne. He said he came south for the sunshine – so did we, but we’re heading back north again. The little yacht was waiting for us in lock 2 Les Minimes and we went up side by side again. We used our centre rope on a bar in the wall. On up through the disused lock at Matabiau and into the deep lock, Bayard. We had a bar for the fore end and a floater for the stern. The yacht had a floater for the stern but only a ladder at the bows so he used the two rope system (put one rope as high as you can reach, then when that’s getting level with the boat reach up again and put the second rope as high as you can reach, taking the first one off, etc). The water shoved us off the wall by about a foot, but otherwise we rose quite gently. The keeper had said his lunchtime was flexible, so we were pleased he let us through the top lock without making us wait an hour for lunch (although the beggars’ tent city below the lock had disappeared, we were quite glad to note - however there were two bodies in sleeping bags under the next bridge (the one with Riquet’s statue) on the off side and two tents under the next arched bridge; Toulouse has had problems with vagrants for a long time) We followed the yacht into the city centre. They stopped next to an old péniche and said they were stopping to shop at Aldi. Mike took photos of a VNF dredger.

Passed a Dutch cruiser heading downhill at the aqueduct over the motorway. Ate our lunch going through the first Midi avenue of plane trees. We passed a tug pushing an empty dredging pan and another just before the start of the houseboats at Ramonville. Zambezi (the council’s youth boat, that frequently moored at Valence) was on dock in Ramonville. I got off below Castanets lock with a rope to drop down to Mike. No sign of the lock keeper so I had a look round for him - not doing the gardening and I spoke to the old black dog who was chained by the office in the shade. The keeper appeared to say he was on the ‘phone and would be with us in a couple of minutes. Mike brought the boat in and I dropped the rope back on the roof as there was a vertical pole in the extended section at the tail end of the oval lock for him to attach to. The sky started clouding over just after three o’clock – arrival of  the afternoon rain showers? We went past the dredging tip just below Vic and took a photo of the guy with the digger waiting for the next pan to unload.

The pan wasn’t far behind us as we’d heard the steerer hoot for the lock as we left Castanets. The gates were open at Vic so we sailed straight in and I climbed on the roof to throw a rope around a bollard at the start of the straight section. The blonde lady keeper waved us forward into the oval section (no thanks, not when there’s a straight bit!) but we said we were OK in the back end of the chamber and she said OK as long as she could get the gates shut - then she opened the wrong paddles and blew us off the wall! She didn’t look very happy, perhaps she’d been watching something interesting on TV in the portacabin by the deserted, decaying lock house. There was plenty of space for us above the lock on the old quay between the two remaining houseboats. Tied up, helped Mike get the moped off the roof (the yacht went past hoping to get through the next lock, Montgiscard, 7.5 kms distant, before they closed at six) and he went off to get the car from Lacourt. 

Monday 15th June 2009 Grisolles to below Lacourtensourt lock2.

Grey and overcast, a few sunny spells and a couple of heavy showers. Winded by the quay and ran the 4kms up to the next lock, 9 Emballens. A Locaboat and a yacht had moored overnight next to the wooden piled bank upstream of the winding hole. The lock was full so I turned the pole and got off on the bank to walk up to press the button. Mike took photos of the old mill alongside the lock.

The next three locks (which were still keeper operated in 2008) were now fully automatic, no keeper and a modern aluminium post for the green and red buttons. 3 kms to lock 8 Castelnau. A Locaboat was coming down in the lock. Turned the pole and went in the lock. I missed getting off on the stone step below the lock so Mike reversed to it to let me off. He shouldn’t have done that as I would have gone up the ladder but he was irritated that I didn’t “just step off”, so we had inadvertently activated the entry sensors again, a fact we didn’t realise until after we had left the lock. The lock automatics now thought there were two boats in the chamber! A French cruiser was coming downhill; we passed it by the turn pole on the short pound leading up to L’Hers lock 7. This time I went up the ladder to press the button. The cruiser was stuck above lock 8 with the gates open and a red light as the lock waited for the “second boat” (US!) to exit the lock. A VNF van went down the towpath but didn’t stop at lock 8! Sorry! Hope they didn’t have a long wait! Crossed the aqueduct of the little river L’Hers and started on the 3.7 kms pound to St Jory lock 6. A machine was stripping off the top surface of the towpath/cycle path; the workmen laughed and struck poses as I photographed their machine which was spitting the minced up top layer into a lorry that was driving slowly up the towpath in front of it. More lorries and machines were parked on the car park by the  low piling below St Jory lock. I stepped off on the piling below the lock and walked up, taking pictures of the machinery, etc.

2 kms to lock 5, Bordeneuve. I stepped off at the wooden landing place and walked up again taking the camera to take photos. 2 kms to lock 4, Lespinasse. A French yacht was coming down. I made a cuppa soup as lunch would be late. I went up the ladder in lock 4 as a short shower of heavy rain started. That was quite refreshing. 3.7 kms to lock, Fenouillet. The lock ladder had dried out by the time we arrived to go up the shallower lock. At 2.20 p.m. we moored next to the piling and a steeply sloping grassy bank below lock 2 Lacourtensourt. A large American cruiser came down the lock and tried to wash us off the bank so we put an extra line out; now we had four ropes, two at each end. At least the water was deep. Two boats came down the lock and the gates didn’t close behind them. The lock didn’t reset and the lights eventually went off. 

Sunday 14th June 2009 Lacourt-St-Pierre to Grisolles

Overcast until midmorning then the sun came out, hot and sticky again. Rain for a short while in the later afternoon. We left at 9.10 a.m. Just before the junction at Montech the towpath edge was eroding badly and sections had been edged with large rocks; the cycle path dipped in places where rodent holes went underneath it. Turned left at the junction heading uphill towards Toulouse. Quite a number of boats were moored in the port at Montech. We’d still got ants. Several days earlier Mike had spotted them trooping across the ropes into the engine room so he’d sprayed the ropes with ant killer and now the advance forage party was stranded on the boat. Every now and again a few would appear and we’d kill them; then we’d find a few more and repeat the procedure. A British yacht from Salcombe went past heading downhill by the wooden footbridge in Montech. Lavache lock 10 was full, so I twisted the pole and we waited while it emptied. I went up the ladder – a deeply recessed row of twisted metal bars covered with slimy chopped weed – to press the button. While the lock filled I went to look at the access below the lock and spotted an ancient wooden roller positioned to take the wear from towropes as horses crossed the bridge as it was once a towpath changeover bridge. I had to wait while a bunch of helmeted and lycra-clad would-be Lance Armstrongs cleared the bridge and then I took photos of it.

We set off on the long pound (18.5 kms) at 10.25 a.m. There were lots more rocks along the banks instead of piling. The sun was out and the weather hotting up again. Lots more rocks lined the cutting going up to Lamothe, but they’d left an old section of wooden bank piling for mooring (no one there) and a digger had been used to scrape off the top surface of the towpath ready for a machine to lay gravel for the cycle path (what an cyclist unfriendly surface – gravel!) Took photos of the machine. The short quay at Grisolles was full, a red yacht at one end and an ex-Connoisseur hireboat at the other end. We went through the bridge and moored at an old commercial quay which was about cabin roof height. Mike decided to leave the car at Lacourt until we reached the far side of Toulouse, probably Vic if we could find a mooring there. It was 1.30 p.m. The red yacht carried on uphill about half an hour later. I made sandwiches for lunch. Mike went across to the station to take photos from the footbridge which was right opposite where we were moored. The restaurant boat from Montech, Vent de Nuit, (Night Wind) arrived and tried to wind by the bridge, got stuck and went past us to the winding hole beyond the quay to turn around.

Wednesday 27th May 2009 Prades to Lacourt-St-Pierre

Cloudy start, sunny and warmer later. Mike investigated why the ‘fridge wasn’t switching off by taking the thermostat out and checking it. It wasn’t working properly, he put it back and before long it failed altogether, so he took it out and bypassed it. Rigged up a timer and connected it up via an inverter so it would switch on for fifteen minutes in every hour. The timer stopped working so Mike changed it for a digital one and set it to come on for twenty minutes in the hour, but it would only do twelve hours at a time so we’ll have to remember to reset it. The lock at St Martin N°17 was full; I turned the pole then got off on the bank below the lock and walked up. The itinerant lock keeper (a lady) arrived in her car as I reached the lockside. She unlocked the office on the end of a nicely kept lock house, checked the weir and drove off again. Mike brought the boat in and I pressed the green button and went to collect the centre rope. The bollards were all in the wrong places - it is so much easier going up in gently filling automatic locks with no ropes on - the boat just moves over slowly from one wall to the other when the flow pattern changes (or the wind). 4 kms to lock 16 Escatalens. We passed a downhill boat, a large French cruiser with a very miserable sour-faced bloke steering from the top deck. The lock was empty, so I got off at the old access place on the left hand side and went up the steps. Nice lock house. I pressed the button again and took the rope. A narrowboat was coming downhill on the next pound. It was a couple we’d met before, so we had a short chat whilst passing. They told us the péniche (from Malause) was going uphill in the Montech flight, slowly. Four very overweight French blokes in their sixties went past walking the towpath, they all waved and shouted bonjour. The Montech locks were operated for us by keepers (as usual) who pressed the buttons to work the locks. The bottom lock, N°15 Pommiés, was empty so we sailed straight in and tied on the two vertical bars set in the left hand wall. The force of water coming in caused the ropes to snatch and pull hard forward as we were too close to the front end of the short (30m) chamber. (The flight of locks at Montech were never lengthened as they built the Montech water slope to bypass them for 38m long péniches) In lock 14 Escudiés I went up the ladder, took the stern rope and put it round a bollard for Mike, then held a long line from a front deck side cleat to a bollard which, again, was set too far back; it still pulled forward and forced the boat off the wall. I walked the short pound up to lock 13 Pellaborie. Mike brought the boat in on the right hand side as the forward bollard was further up the chamber than the one on the left. It didn’t make a lot of difference. When the lock was full I walked on up to Peyrets, N°12, and we swapped back to the left hand side. I rode up to the last lock, N°11 Montech, and went up the ladder to take the ropes. The refrigeration guy Mike had spoken to the day before ‘phoned him back to say he’d checked with his suppliers and thought he could get a replacement thermostat for £20 plus 35% mark-up, plus P&P. It would be near enough £40. We thought that was too expensive and would scrap the old ‘fridge – it was after all seventeen years old and had had a replacement electronic controller fitted some nine years ago, we would be looking for a new one sooner than we expected. When the lock was full the keeper asked where we were going. I told him Lacourt for the night, then down to Montauban. He asked what time at the lock as he had to be there to issue a zapper for us to use on the automatic locks, I said nine - he said nine thirty! I asked what the old factory by the top lock used to make; he told me it was a paper manufacturing factory. Sad to see it so run down and decaying, but it had been empty for a long time. Must have been a big blow to the people of Montech when it closed down, as it surely must have been a big employer of local people. It was 11.35 a.m. when we turned left on to the Montauban arm. We chased a purple heron for a long way down the arm, it took off and landed - caught a fish - took off again and so on. The quay was empty so we moored at the Montech end and connected up to the electric. Mike put a bag over the electricity post as there were bare connections and someone had broken the covers. We decided that we had no choice other than to get a new ‘fridge, so Mike went off on the moped to see the VNF and changed our date with a zapper to Friday (at ten, not 9.30 a.m.!) and then collect the car from Valence while I searched the Internet for ‘fridges in Montauban. I’d only just started when he returned after cancelling our boat trip down to Montauban. The fuel pipe had come off the moped’s carburettor, so he’d come back to refill the tank with petrol and wash his hands. I told him we’d got the Internet on 3G and there were fifteen ‘fridge sellers to search through. He went to get the car and I carried on with the search. When he returned I was still searching. I came to the conclusion that the best on offer was an own brand fridge, almost same size as our old one for 235€ from Boulanger, a chain of electroménagers (sellers of electrical goods). I ‘phoned to see if they had one. No, place an order and it would arrive within three days. Mike said we should order one. I wouldn’t order one on the ‘phone as I wanted to see one first and then rang the shop back to find out what time they closed - 7.30 p.m. and it was almost six. The guy  arrived to collect the rent for the mooring, still 3€ a night same as the year before. We paid for two nights. We went straight away to Montauban to order our new ‘fridge. Took the ring road to avoid the teatime traffic. Nice ‘fridge, a bit wider than the old one and the freezer section seemed a bit smaller, paid 235€ for it and they said ring Thursday afternoon to see if it had arrived, if not it would be Friday. It was late when we got back.

(Cutting a very long story short, the new mains ‘fridge wouldn’t work on an inverter (of any size, not even one with 2500 watt capacity) so we had to take it back and accept a credit note). A new thermostat for the old 12v ‘fridge was ordered from the UK on 1st June and took until the 12th to arrive. We repaired the old ‘fridge, did a quick trip down the locks to Montauban and back (because we hadn’t been there before by boat) and finally set off again on the 14th June, over two weeks after we had arrived at Lacourt.)

Tuesday 26th May 2009 Moissac to Prades

Grey start, drizzle and showers of rain. Mike didn’t want to spend another night next to the seats, he said the fact that there were dossers a few feet from the boat made him feel uneasy. We set off at 9.15 a.m. There was no one at the swing bridge in Moissac so we waited a few minutes. I searched for the ‘phone number for the VNF sub division and ‘phoned them. The cheery lady who answered said she would call someone to get the bridge opened for us. Within a few minutes a young lady arrived by bicycle, went in the control cabin and swung the bridge open for us. On through the moorings at Moissac, crammed full with boats. I got off and walked up to lock 25 Moissac while it emptied. The young lady bridge-keeper, who had ridden up on her bike, pressed the buttons to work the lock and I held our centre rope round a bar in the wall as the lock filled. Her colleague had the next lock she told us as we left her lock. Another young lady pressed buttons at 24 Gregonne and 23 Cacor. She rode up the towpath on the quietest motor scooter we had ever heard. She told me it was electric. I asked if she had trouble with people on the towpath not hearing it. She laughed and said yes, she had to go beep! beep! and shout “excuse me!” a lot! Across the aqueduct over the Tarn and up the 2.5 kms to lock 22 Artel where an older man worked the lock and cycled the short pound to work lock 21 les Verriés for us. He picked up a baby rabbit to save it from the Siamese cat at the lock house, who sat glaring at him. A short pound to the next lock, 20 St Jean des Vignes, where another young lady took over. It was raining so she was wrapped up well in her waterproofs and hiding behind the control box. She rode her bike up the longer pound (1.3 kms) to Castelsarrassin lock 19. The sun came out as we went up the lock and she was all smiles and chatty as we left. The moorings in Castel were almost completely full. The two duck houses were still anchored in the middle opposite the old people’s home. A pair of barnacle geese busily sent off the ducks as a woman was feeding them bread. Quite a number of boats were on the bank at the boatyard including a short narrowboat that we’d met before. Some people with a boat on the bank came to wave and say hello. The next lock, Prades N°18, was automatic. Turned the pole and the chamber emptied. I was going to get off at the end of the lock chamber, but chickened out. The VNF guy from the lock house came out to look as the boat came into his lock. The wind was blowing hard and the boat came away from the left hand wall. The ladder was green and very slimy, so after Mike had pushed the fore end back over with the boat shaft and I put a rope around the vertical pole he went up the ladder to press the button. When the VNF bloke started chatting on his portable radio Mike told him we were stopping on the pound and would carry on uphill next day – adding, if it wasn’t raining (that always brings a smile). We tied up halfway along the pound next to the tarmac cycle path and a fairly busy road out of town. A converted péniche we’d seen at Malause went past heading uphill and the tripper from Castel went past heading downhill, back to base. 

Monday 25th May 2009 Valence d’Agen to Moissac

We set off from Valence at 10.10 a.m. after saying our au’voirs to the residents – M&R. Turned the pole below Valence lock, N°30, and waited while the chamber emptied. There was a fair amount of water coming down the canal, cascading over both sets of gates. I got off at the wooden landing stage and walked up while the lock emptied. As soon as the boat was in the chamber I pressed the green button, collected the centre rope that Mike had thrown up on to the lockside then the gates closed and the paddles opened. The lady keeper came out from the VNF workshops, wrote down the name of the boat and took photos. She smiled when Mike told her we were heading for Lyon and the North. Lock 29 Pommevic was also full, so I jumped ship at the landing and walked up. The house was derelict. The cherry tree by the house was loaded with ripe red cherries so I scrumped a handful while the lock emptied. Mike passed me a boat shaft and I reached a few more but the best ones were higher up, needed a ladder, no time! Loads and loads of towpath walkers with backpacks went by. A lone LeBoat hire boat was moored at the quay at Pommevic. Next lock, N°28 Du Brague, was empty and deserted except for two hikers having a rest, watching the boat. I made a cuppa as we went along the 6 kms pound. At Malause there were only three boats moored, a converted péniche, an ex-hire boat with window ledges full of model sailing yachts and a UK yacht. We passed loads more walkers in groups of about ten or so, a few fishermen and a couple of cyclists. Petit Bèzy N°27 was empty, the lock house inhabited but no one around at 12.20 p.m. It was lunchtime. Another 4 kms to D’Espagnette N°26. It was full, so we hovered below until the gates opened. As it was a shallow lock I stayed aboard and went up the ladder in the recess where the gates used to be before they lengthened the chamber. When the lock was almost full Mike took a deck brush to the hull and started scrubbing off the debris that had been washed off the wreck we’d been moored next to over winter at Valence and was coating last year’s new paint. At 1.50 p.m. we moored just downstream of the VNF workshops in Moissac, opposite a sewage farm. A couple of old lags were boozing (quietly) on the seats at the top of the bank. The ‘fridge started playing up, the thermostat was not switching off; so Mike turned it off overnight. Next morning he said the two foreign vagrants who had been sitting on the seats by the boat had stayed there talking loudly until 2.30 a.m. keeping him awake. 

Monday 18th May 2009

A final shop - changed our French Internet tariff and found complications that delayed our setting off for a few days.

Saturday 16th May 2009 Valence d’Agen

The beginning of our 17^th year of cruising sur Le Continent. Did a washing and cleaning blitz.

Thursday 14th May 2009 Valence d’Agen

Preparing to set off on our voyages again, we went to the centre commercial at Agen Sud and did some shopping at Carrefour. Called at Castorama (DIY) first and Mike bought a new drinking water filter cartridge (30,90€ - surprisingly it was the same price as the last one we bought - back in 2003!) as we were due to change it again in August. Bought fresh veg, meat, etc, and went home.

Wednesday 13th May 2009 Valence d’Agen C. Latéral à la Garonne.

Back on the boat at Valence d’Agen on the C. Latéral à la Garonne after driving south from Dunkerque.