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.
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