Sunday 28th June 2009 Millegrand to Puicheric Canal du Midi

Hot and sunny. Up at 8.00 a.m. moving by 8.50 a.m. A bloke was fishing from the stern of a hire boat that had moored 200m behind us - he’d been fishing there when Mike set the gennie up the night before. We paused on the water point at Marseillette while Mike went in search of bread. There was a flea market in progress under the trees all along the canal bank from the bridge so I stayed on the back to keep an eye on all the valuables (camera, GPS, binos) as there were a few dubious looking characters about. Mike came back breadless as there was no boulangerie in the village and the local resto, which was a depot de pain, had run out. He said there were campervans nose to tail driving through the village. A hotel boat was moored upstream of the water point and two dead Dutch Barges downstream of it. Set off again at 9.45 a.m. Winifred (France Fluvial hireboat, formerly based at Moissac) was moored by the lock, crew on the top deck eating breakfast (didn’t speak). A hireboat had just gone down Marseillette lock and the keeper refilled it for us. I made a cuppa on the 3kms run to Fonfile three-rise. A hireboat, a LeBoat called Magnifique crewed by Danes, was waiting above the lock. A hireboat cleared the three-rise and we went down with the LeBoat (none of them spoke either). A British cruiser from the Norfolk Broads was waiting below. Just around the first bend we passed two more hireboats, a LeBoat and a Canalous. The keeper had just closed the gates behind the British cruiser and we wondered how long they would have to wait before he locked them through. The LeBoat we were following was the slowest hireboat we’d ever seen, we crawled along behind it on the 1.2 kms to St Martin two-rise. Again we had to wait. Two LeBoats came up then we went down. The Danes swapped sides so I had to change fenders and ropes over to go on the left. I think I missed throwing the rope around every bollard on that side. A young lady worked the lock from a control panel by the centre gates, but she spent most of the time in the lock office in the shade! 

Followed the hireboat 1.8 kms to Aiguille, another two-rise, where we had another wait as there were two hireboats coming up and they were photographing one another posing by the wooden figures on the left hand side of the lock chamber. The keeper, who had lots of wooden sculptures for sale, was sitting under a parasol on an inflatable seat in the form of a black hand with a finger pointing uphill to work the controls by the centre gate. He seemed to work the lock more slowly than usual and we left the bottom chamber just a few minutes before 12.30 p.m. 

Lunchtime. The gates shut right behind us. There were three hireboats getting ropes back on board to enter the lock. I said it’s lunchtime, l’heure à manger, but got blank looks; pointed to my wrist (imaginary watch), still blank. One bloke shouted something across to the others in German and I think they got the idea that boats have to stop while lock keepers eat lunch. The Danes stopped for lunch a few metres beyond the last of the Germans. We carried on to Puicheric, about a kilometre. In that short distance we passed three more boats to add to the queue waiting below Aiguille; a small French cruiser, a Danish yacht and another Canalous. We tied to the stumps before the road bridge and made sure we could get satellite TV between the trees before any other boats decided to moor next to us. 

Saturday 27th June 2009 Millegrand

Hot and sunny. Had a day off and painted the new short gangplank and the old long ones.

Friday 26th June 2009 below Fresquels to Millegrand

Getting warmer again. Grey clouds to start with and breezy, brightening up towards lunchtime. Up at eight, set the Markon generator up and set off at nine doing washing on the way. Mike had his new voltmeter on the roof for the first time to monitor the Markon output and make fine adjustments on the throttle to maintain the correct voltage. (It was very useful, I’m surprised we hadn’t thought of doing this years ago!). We were at L’Evêque at 9.25 a.m. A shortened péniche was moored on the left, right by the lock with ropes festooned in the trees. Crew breakfasting on deck. There were three hireboats in the lock trying to haul the boats up the wall with their lines - some of them make really hard work of it. The keeper didn’t see us with the péniche and the melée of boats obscuring his view up the canal and started to close the gates until he heard our hooter. Not a word of sorry, I didn’t see you! He looked a little sheepish as he worked the lock and I’d just said - kids! - must have another student on at this one - but it was a fiftyish resident keeper. 800m to Villedubert. It was ready, gates open. The resident lady keeper we’d seen before and she was very chatty. She asked about the painting on the boat of roses and I explained about the tradition. She seemed very interested. She said we would probably get thunderstorms later and I said I was glad we were only going as far as Millegrand. An old black and tan crossed Rotweiler dog, just like old Rocky five toes (a lock keeper’s dog who took a fancy to our two FiFis (both of them half Labrador/half German Shepherds) back in 1994), was wandering around the lock – must be one of his great-great-grandchildren! A LeBoat was waiting to come up as we left. I made a cuppa and got stuck into the ironing as we continued down to Trèbes. A narrowboat we knew was tied to an old stone quay just before the town, it looked shut up and deserted. We paused at the quay before the bridge as our book said there was water there. Our old mate Mike was moored there and we said hello, long time no see. They’d been in the south since 2000 and weren’t planning on going back north as he said it suited them. Easy access to the airport from their home in the UK for flights to Carcassonne and they had someone to look after their boat for them when they’re back in the UK. Said we’d see them again next time and went to get water from by the tourist office on the quay opposite the LeBoat base. I finished off the last of the ironing while Mike filled the tank. He was watching the antics of hireboaters trying to get their boat into the basin moorings opposite. Glad we didn’t own that boat! Set off again just after eleven. 

No one around at the three-rise so Mike went to find the keeper. He came out and worked Trèbes for us. A group of kids on bikes with minders paused by the lock to watch and several walkers with cameras appeared from nowhere. Left the bottom at 11.40 a.m. last lock of the day done. A large British cruiser from Dartmouth went past heading uphill at midday. Two large cruisers, one Belgian the other French, went past fifteen minutes later. Passed through Millepetit, where a hippy youth emerged from a dilapidated yacht without so much as a smile and sauntered off into the cluster of agricultural buildings surrounding an ancient château. 

The next bridge was Millegrand village and we moved on a few hundred metres to the end of a dirt road (loads of dust being blown up by the stiff breeze) and went beyond where a Nichols hireboat had stopped for lunch. It was 12.45 p.m. I gave Mike a hand to get the moped off and he went to collect the car from Frequels and move it on to Homps. Watched the news – Michael Jackson died suddenly, aged fifty, at his home in Los Angeles, probably from a heart attack. Heard from Mike back at Valence that friends with a Dutch Barge from Valence had gone on the Lot and had to turn round because of a sandbank in the river that the VNF hadn’t dredged out; now the water levels had gone down and they couldn’t get off the Lot again until it rains. They may be there some time!  

Thursday 25th June 2009 Sauzens to below Fresquels

Grey clouds and rain over the Black Mountains. Up at eight and moving for 8.40 a.m. to get to Lalande two-rise early. The alternator drive belt was slipping a little so Mike sprayed it with a compound called (strangely) “Belt slip”. (This is a sticky substance that stops the belt slipping. It’s only a temporary fix, the belt’s tension will be adjusted before the engine is started again. Ed.) I spotted the first honeysuckle among the jungle on the non towpath side, as well as plums and cherries galore. Warblers and cicadas were already in full song. Peaceful, no one else around. One LeBoat was moored on the stumps at Pezens. A tall thin keep fit enthusiast minced along the towpath at slow jogging speed; long shorts, hat on back to front and checking his pulse meter; tiny dog behind him going almost full pelt to keep up. It was 9.20 a.m. when we arrived. The keeper spotted us and opened the top end gates. Two dead yachts were moored above Lalande. The resident keeper, a young man in his thirties, worked the lock with his ice cream tray controls around his neck. We could see a hire boat coming into the lock below the two-rise which was only about 100m distant. The LeBoat cleared and we dropped down; lock worked by a lady keeper. A Dutch cruiser came into the lock we’d just left. A shortened péniche, converted for use as a hotel boat, was moored close below the lock plus another dead yacht. The wind started picking up. A large aircraft circled Carcassonne. 1.4 kms to La Douce. A very quiet young lady (student) worked the lock for us. Another dead boat was moored below the lock, this time it was a small Dutch Barge, looking a bit sad and neglected. Five minutes after leaving the lock we passed another uphill LeBoat followed by a Nichols hire boat which was trying to water the towpath. A slower LeBoat was a couple of minutes behind that. Where the canal used to continue down the Frequel valley (before the route was changed and went into Carcassonne) there was a mooring to visit a botanical garden. One small cruiser looked permanently moored, as was a trip boat called Helios and another LeBoat had stopped to tour the gardens. We passed two more LeBoats and trip boat Le Soleil by the rocade (ringroad), then another two just before the deep cutting that led into the town. Moorings had been extended from the bridge to the basin, where boats were moored end on, on both sides, leaving a double péniche width down the middle. We hovered as best we could as there was nowhere to moor and wait for the lock, which was empty. The lady keeper with control box around her neck came out to check for boats below before she refilled the lock for us. We chatted to a bloke on what we thought at first glance was a Moissac refugee hire boat, but it was a private boat. He asked how long we’d been here and said did we come over at the same time as the guy who wrote Long Dog to Carcassonne. Nope, he was here around 2000/2002 - we arrived in 1993. A small LeBoat called Ha’penny came in the lock with us. The lady from the tourist office came out to ask if we were stopping, no carrying on to Fresquels. (I nearly said because you charge too much! But we wouldn’t have stopped anyway as there were far too many boats, people, cars, bikes, etc) The keeper asked us to let the cruiser out first, which we would have done anyway as they go lots faster than us. The couple on it barely glanced our way let alone speak, too busy concentrating on ropes, etc. There were more and more boats moored below the lock and signs pinned to each tree to say that moorers must go to the tourist office by the lock to pay. A small Dutch Barge was moored below the lock. A long line of Nautic hire boats occupied the left hand bank. Start of a 2.7 kms pound to St Jean with good views to a very grey looking citadel without the sun shining. When we arrived at the lock the LeBoat was tied to the stumps waiting for two hire boats to come up. The hireboats cleared and the little boat was having trouble getting away from the bank so we sailed past them into the lock and they followed us in. It was only then that we realised they were Americans! Another lot that kept shtum, we wondered why. The lock keeper was the same young man as when we came through last, in 2007. A short pound (780m) lead to Fresquels two rise and single. A VNF van went past and was parked outside one of the houses just above the lock, the driver was chatting to two women. I said to Mike that’s Madame Chopin I’m sure it is. The van left and we waved and shouted bonjour Madame. Mike asked her if she was Madame Chopin and she said yes, she was. We reminded her of one late afternoon in 1994 and she remembered us – long lost relatives! Asked if she was enjoying her retirement and she made a face and said she was living with her daughter. Then two boats came round the bend and we had to go. Au’voir Madame Chopin!  She blew us kisses. (In 1994 we arrived at her lock, St Jean, and she wasn’t there so we waited, and waited. Eventually, at nearly closing time, she returned on her moped – at that time the locks were manually operated and keepers very often worked two or three locks – and threw a fit at Mike pointing a finger and stabbing him in the chest! (at five feet nothing she was quite a feisty little lock keeperess) We didn’t understand a word she said but found out next day that the previous keeper had forgotten to tell her that we were coming and she’d gone up into Carcassonne with the youth boat and had stayed there chatting, thinking she had no more traffic! She let us through her lock but we were too late to get up into Carcassonne basin) 

We followed the hire boat into the lock. The American guy got in a right mess, throwing ropes to his wife on the lockside and putting the engine in full forward, then full reverse and then he slipped and fell between the steering position and the seat, ending up with legs in the air and his bum on the deck, the boat reversing hard towards our bows! Mike managed to stop and had just started to reverse, when the American managed to get his boat into full forward again. The keeper watched from his tower alongside the bottom chamber. Two Locaboats were coming up in the single lock as we dropped down the two-rise. They moved over to our left hand side and waited in the short pound. We went straight into the bottom lock and down. Told the American we were stopping before the next lock and he said you’re not coming with us to watch the fun? No, we’re stopping to do some shopping. It was 12.30 p.m. lunchtime as we left the bottom. 

A Nautic was on the landing below and a little further on there was a Locaboat with a company van alongside it on the towpath. As we went past Mike spotted the boat’s gearbox on the towpath and said that looks like a serious business! We tied to the roots at 1.20 p.m. We had lunch, then we moved the boat as it was sitting on something like rocks on the bottom. Unloaded the moped and Mike went off to get the car. When he returned with the car we went shopping at the Intermarché just up the road by the top of Fresquels locks. Next we went in Bricomarché to buy some wire cable clips and a new plank. It took ages and three requests to get one of the young men to cut the plank. While we were waiting I noticed how dirty the shop was, dust on everything and you could see where whoever had cleaned the floor had left all the dust underneath the display cabinets. The girl at the checkout was flirting with a bloke old enough to be her father and eventually noticed she had customers. Filled a container with diesel for the boat’s tank at 99.5c/litre then went home. The road alongside the boat was about ten feet up from the towpath so I threw stuff down to Mike and he stacked it by the boat then I slid down the steep sloping path (with a useful tree halfway down to grab and slow the descent) and started putting all the groceries away.