Monday 4th
July 2016
Marseillette to
Trèbes
9 Kilometres, 3 locks
There were
to be no locks until we reached the triple staircase at Trèbes. We were about to set off at 09:05 when a
large boat went past, so we waited 10 minutes before we set sail. We caught up with them after a while as they
were much slower than we were.
Thankfully they pulled over for a break and we were able to continue at
our own pace. I hasten to add we were well within
the speed limit of 8kph.
The sky was incredibly blue today, but there was still a breeze when we set off, so light fleeces were required.
By 10:25 we
were approaching the locks at Trèbes.
There was one boat moored waiting, but not right by the lock, so we
moved ahead of them, moored up and I went up to have a look. This is yet another well tended lock.
There were four boats waiting to go down, the
first one went in on this side and left a huge amount of space,
Only leaving room for this boat with floating patio to join the boat on the other side. We were surprised that the lock keeper did move the above boat forward.
At 11:00 we
were heading into the lock with a mad rush of boats moving behind us. By this time there were 5 of us waiting.
Three of us made it.
This lady
had hurt her back so the éclusier did step in to lend a hand. Now I thought that a knotted hanky on your
head was a thing of British seaside postcards, but maybe when you are French
and the hanky is red it is okay?!
I mentioned
PK (kilometre markings) a while back and said we had never seen anything other
than on the map. Well now we are almost
at the end of the trip Chris noticed the PK indications on the lock notice board (top right)!!
Out the
other end to find at least five or six boats waiting to go down – we timed it
well as this is a very busy set of locks and can be a bottle neck.
We were
moored by midday in the Le Boat basin in, had paid our dues, filled up with water,
connected to electricity and put the air conditioning on and
we went across the other side of the canal for a beer and a light tapas lunch with a great view of our boat – a somewhat easier mooring than when we were here last time – no more climbing over the back rail to get on and off.
Some four hours after we moored a Le Boat employee asked us to move (we were put in position by one of their employees in the first place), so we now stern in again, but still have access to the quay along the side of the boat. The only problem is we are now being battered by the breeze! We hired with Le Boat in northern France some years ago and we were not that impressed then (the boat was tired and worse still we had booked and paid for a one way trip only to find when we got there that the information had not come through, so we had to return to our start point) and they don’t seem to be covering themselves in glory down here either.
Today is the
first day that we have been uncomfortably hot and sweaty. Yes I know I am supposed to glow, Chris to
perspire and it is only pigs that sweat – well today I am definitely living up
to my maiden name of Gammon! Thank heavens
for a good supply of ice cold water.
Having been
for a short wander round the town, done a little bit of shopping and posted a
couple of cards we headed back to the boat for a quiet afternoon. We were both taken by this Art Deco style
Marie (town hall) which we missed last time, possibly because there were cars
parked around it. We had hoped to find
the church which apparently is noteworthy for its 325 wooden beams, but it was
just too hot.
We ate our
dinner on the back deck and just as we were about to get our bowl of fruit I
felt the first spot of rain. In
everything went closely followed by us!
The heavens opened, the sky lit up and the thunder erupted. It was fairly short lived (and much needed),
but we guess it did some damage as the pompier (fire men) raced along the
street with the blues and twos going.
Only one other thing of note this evening – the peace was shattered by
loud panicky screams. We looked out to
see a young lad of around 7 or 8 in the water along with a man. Whether the boy fell or was pushed we will
never know, but whichever it was he was not a happy chap. He was safely retrieved and returned to dry
land and the man continued to enjoy a swim.
Very cooling I am sure, but I do wander if he knows just what goes into
the water from all the boats? The
toilets have no holding tank – it just all goes straight into the canal!
Tuesday 5th
July
Trèbes to
Carcassonne
13 Kilometres, 5 locks
We have
friends who live in Spain and many a time she has complained about ‘dirty rain’
and having to clean the patio and windows.
Well we now know exactly what she means – our boat was mostly a lovely
cream colour, but this morning it had developed a bad case of freckles!
You can really see the damage the cancer does to the plane trees – definitely a
battle they are still waging.
Then we came
to the three locks at Fresquel which look quite impressive from below. The éclusier is safely tucked away in the
little box to the right of the house. We
had a green light as we approached, so Chris dropped me off and made his way
into the lock. So far so good, but we
were still securing the boat when whoosh the paddles opened! Thankfully we were okay, but I would have
preferred a couple of minutes more before the action started!
There is a
short pound between the bottom lock and the second lock (bottom of a double
staircase). There were two boats in the
lock above us, Chris moved out of the bottom lock towards the right expecting
the two boats in the second lock to move to their right and enter the lock we
had just left. Well they did move to the
right, but as I walked round a gentleman from one of the two descending boats came
towards me waving his arms and shouting.
I was not sure what he was saying, but we think it might have been
‘patience’. He seemed to want to move his
two boats to the side, moor up whilst he thought we should wait in the bottom lock until they were tied up and
then move through! There was room enough
for two hotel boats to pass in complete safety never mind us and two
cruisers!! We got through in complete
safety and it was as they tried to enter their lock when the fun began (well
for the spectators at least!). The first
boat proceeded when there was a shout – one of the crew had fallen in (you can
just see a head and an arm stretching up at the stern on the boat)! She was retrieved; the boat was eventually
moved against the side and the second boat joined them. We can only assume the victim fell because
the boat bumped against the side and unbalanced her. The lock keeper was presumably keeping a good
eye on what was going on as he did not fill our lock until she was safely back
on the boat. We were nearly full before
the other two boats were both secure and ready to descend! I am very glad we did not have to share a
lock with them, but it was fun to watch!
We had been the only boat going up in all the locks we did today until we reached the last one before Carcassonne when we were joined by the trip boat.
What were
they all taking photos of?
This
In the UK on the canals it
is sometimes hard to get away from traffic noise. This road is the nearest we got to a motorway
in the entire trip – the N161 into Carcassonne.
Then past the Medieval Cité and on into Carcassonne.
As advised when we were here at the beginning of the trip, we had
phoned a few days ahead to book a mooring below the lock this time as we would
be against the side rather than stern in as we had been above the lock. We wondered whether it would work and if it did how easy it would be to know
where we should stop. There was no
problem!
An good mooring and easy to get on and off.
We had
thought about getting the bus up to the Medieval Cité, but it was not that warm
with spits of rain around, so we decided against it as we can visit in the car
from Bize Minervois. We had a light
lunch and went for a wander. The town
square that had the market last time we were here was transformed. There were cafés all around the square that
now had tables, chairs, sunshades and diners.
A rather splendid scene, but one I failed to capture!
I think I
was too absorbed by this – such an efficient way of moving house/office. We saw similar in Amsterdam once, but have
never seen anything like it in the UK.
There were
also signs of what is about to pass through this region in the next few days.
We went back
to the boat for a quiet afternoon – well that is what we hoped for, but we
discovered why our ‘great mooring’ was not so great – it is very noisy. The bridge behind us is a rail bridge and the
station is just across the other side of the canal. The road and train noise were manageable, but
an almost continual ‘Madame Bing Bong’ (as we christened her) – the station
announcer drove us round the bend!
To escape
the noise for a while we returned to the square in the evening for dinner, but
somehow the atmosphere was not the same – a place for lunch not dinner. We did, however, have a good meal. Chris had a Caesar Salad whilst I opted for a
Thai salad that was very interesting and one I will try to replicate if I can –
shredded white and red cabbage, grated carrot, tomato, chicken, crevettes and
peanuts with a soy, lemon and ginger dressing.
It was delicious. NB - it is almost a year later I have still not got around to trying this - yet!
Wednesday 6th July 2016
Carcassonne to Villesquelande
12 kilometres, 5 locks
We survived
the night, but it was rather noisy – above the lock is the place to moor in
Carcassonne. This was definitely our
worst mooring. We did some house work in the
cool first thing and headed off around 10:30.
Out of
Carcassonne through the imposing bridge
We got to
below the double staircase at La Lande without anything of note and had to stop
there as it was lunchtime. Not the easiest of moorings – we had to deploy the gangplank
for the first and last time.
Very close there was a bar in the shade
advertising snacks and crêpes – an unscheduled meal out, but it looked so
inviting. Foolishly we ordered a drink
before asking for the menu – they only served full meals and sweet crêpes – we
had hoped to have either a crocque monsieur or a savoury crêpe. We had to be ready when the lock opened at
13:30 so we opted for a crêpe suzette citron.
Sadly the worst crêpe either of us has ever had!
At the top
of Lalande locks there is this rather lovely sign. Another reason for more crew
– I needed someone to go round the other side to see where else the signs point
to!
We had hoped
to find some shade to moor up for the night as it was very hot, however, it was
not to be. We moored near a village
called Villesquelande
The only bit
of shade had been taken by a narrow boat.
Still there
were some bushes affording shade for me, my book and my chair with a great
view.
It is a
wonderfully peaceful place with the only sounds being the birds in the trees,
the odd ‘faster, higher’ from children around the corner who had constructed a
tyre swing beside the canal and the occasional passing cyclist. Bliss.
We enjoyed
dinner on the stern deck with plenty of time to enjoy the scenery.
Just to
round the evening off this chap came past! A novel way to travel.
Thursday 7th July 2016
Villesquelande to Bram
12 kilometres, 1 lock
What a
wonderful peaceful night we had and a lovely slow start in the morning as we
such a short journey to do with just the one lock and we were not expected in Bram until
after 3pm. After a leisurely breakfast
we walked into the village to find the shop which was much bigger than we had
expected. Our only purchases were bread and croissants, but it allowed us to
look at this village.
We did wonder
why someone has painted over the ‘V’?
There really
was not a lot to see. There is a certain
charm to the place
There is a
restaurant, but it eluded us and the only other point of interest is the Musée
de la Chevlerie, but we did not feel the need to part with 12€ for a guided
tour in French, especially as we already know quite a bit about the history of
the Cathares. It does seem a funny place
to have such a museum, but we can only assume that people do come and visit.
Now this
road name just demanded a google search – which confirmed that it was the date of the ceasefire
after 8 years of the war with Algeria. Why here in this village we have no idea.
So it was
back to the boat for lunch before setting sail for the last time this trip at
13:50 and oh boy was it hot!
We passed
another hotel boat that appeared to have no passengers, however the table was
laid for dinner for five or six, so they were either out or having a siesta –
the latter would have been the most sensible as I am sure their A/C is a lot
better than ours which is worse than useless.
I have to
say it was a good spot to stop.
We just had
one lock to do that had an ancient piece of farm equipment which we both missed
on the way east – it had then been our first lock and we were probably too
traumatised trying to get off the boat etc to notice anything around us!
And a very
helpful éclusier who, after helping us, retreated to the shade of a tree. I was
very envious.
He did have
a little dog as his assistant who, despite the heat, was insistent on a game of
ball. I failed to capture her I am
afraid. On the subject of dogs we have
seen a lot and even though no one picks up after their dogs there is not
a lot of mess all over the place. Also
this little dog was only the second we saw who was female – all the rest
were un-neutered males.
It was so
hot we got our ‘neck coolers’ out. These
were given to us by a friend and fellow blogger, Brenda from nb Jannock. This was the first time we have ever used
them and it won’t be the last – they really work, so thank you Brenda I think
you saved the day for us today.
You will
have to believe me, but Bram is right at the end, so our trip was nearly
over. It took a good 15 minutes to
actually arrive after I took this photo.
And so here
we are moored up and the trip is over.
Priorities
must be obeyed – as soon as we were moored we went to the quay side restaurant
where we had lunch the day before we set off nearly three weeks ago - it was a beer for Chris and a
Perrier water fro me. I also thought I would have a
sorbet to try and help cool me down, however they only did ice cream – the
salted caramel was to die for!
We had a
very quiet afternoon reading as it was just too hot to do anything else. Dinner was enjoyed on the back deck watching
all the diners enjoying their meals. We had
a table booked for the next night. It
seems to be very popular with the locals which is always a good sign.
The man
behind the bar in green is the patron.
If the meal we had at the start of the trip is anything to go by we are
in for a good time tomorrow.
Friday 8th July
Bram
A day of packing and cleaning - oh joy, but it had to be done. The meal was brilliant and the end of our trip was marked with yet another stunning sunset.
Summary
Did we enjoy
it? Resoundingly YES. This was our holiday of a lifetime, but we
need another lifetime as we want to go again in a few years time! We have learnt a lot. We got the time of year right, but the boat
was wrong. We will have a fibre glass
cruiser (probably from Locaboat), hopefully we will have more crew and we want
to do a one way trip from Lattes (near the Med) to Negre (east of Toulouse).
Locaboat at
Argens Minervois had said we could look at a couple of boats on a Saturday
which is their changeover day. We asked
Le Boat and Nicolls, but they both declined to let us look at any boats and
just handed over a brochure and told us to look on the website. You can only see so much on a website however
good the photos are. They really are not
endearing themselves to either of us.
We have a
list of things we need to bring with us which includes knicker elastic. I am sure it is not really called that any
more, but if you are of a certain age you will know what I mean. So why on earth do we need elastic?
To stop the
guide book pages blowing over to the wrong page as we motor along! The book was supplied with the boat - we did buy a copy when we booked the trip which was very useful for forward planning, but this ring bound, laminated copy was definitely the one to use whilst on the move. They also supplied a book with all sorts of useful information about where to stop, shops, restaurants and places of interest as well as a boat manual.
I bought some gloves in Trèbes on our way to Capestang on day two of
our trip? Well they served me well, but
are definitely only a one holiday pair of gloves! Probably only one week if I am honest! There are actually two holes – this one at
the thumb of my right hand and the other along the side of my right hand ring
finger.
Looking at
them both you can see how many of the white grippy bits I wore away. So our locking gloves for rope handling will
also be packed next time. Another lesson
– fewer clothes – it all dries so quickly it makes for a fast turn around –
well it works as long as you don’t hang a t-shirt on the rail by the air
conditioning vent – I managed to turn one of Chris’s t-shirts from pink to a
fetching shade of rust!
So watch
this space in a few years time! If we have a larger crew we may be able to do more of this
However I rather suspect that neither of us would enjoy sitting around when there is work to be done, so we will be fine on our own - we will just have a smaller boat. We can do longer days than we did and will be able to 'wild moor'.
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