Farewell to all that!

We set off downstream (north-west) for Meilhan on what was to be our final trip westward to say goodbye to the good friends we have made down here on the Canal Des Deux Mers.

On the way we stopped just downstream of Charles and Caroline’s boat CONNIE and they came for supper.  There had been a slight mis-communication about our exact timing and venue for this meeting as Louise had mistakenly used their land-line for a text, and Caroline had emailed us after we had disconnected from the internet!  But we combined our suppers and it all went brilliantly and in the morning we continued on our way.

At Meilhan, Lucie and Malcolm of BODY & SOUL had invited us for supper and Mark and Annie of ANNA came for pre-supper drinks.  Alex had asked Lucie, as she passed on her way to see a sick friend in the village, if she knew of an osteopath locally who could deal with his sore leg.  On her return she said she had made an appointment for 8.30 the day after next in a town 10 minutes away and she would give Alex a lift to it (and interpret!)  Brilliant.  Thanks Lucie.

Lucie made us a lovely supper and the following night everybody came to Riccall for drinks.  Alex managed to allow a Crémant cork to escape unchecked at some point and it shot up, hit the ceiling and rebounded right onto Lucie’s glass, shattering it all over the floor, much to everybody’s amusement. (They thought he had done it on purpose, but no!)

Then the following morning Alex and Lucie set off for the osteopath: a most unusual experience for Alex as the fellow was treating him and two other patients in different rooms all at the same time, and also answering the phone every 5 minutes or so, stopping whatever treatment he happened to be giving, to do so.  But at the end of it all, he seemed to have effected a cure and Alex walked thankfully away without a limp and only €40 out of pocket.

Later that morning we set off east again leaving the port with much honking of horns!

We spent a last few days at the port at Buzet saying goodbye to other friends and picking up stores with the use of Tom’s car (L’ESCAPADE).  He had offered us unlimited use of it, partly because he is a very nice guy, and partly because Alex had looked after L’ESCAPADE during the winter.

Again we left the port with much honking of horns – so much so that ‘Madame the Dragon’ from the house opposite came out to see who she was blocking in with her car this time!

At Agen we moored on the two well-spaced bollards opposite the hire base.  A small cruiser was moored on the two close-together bollards and we discovered over the next couple of days that the lady in the cruiser (no evidence of a partner) had managed to get a concessionary ‘stationnement’ at that spot and had even had an electricity supply installed for her sole use since we were last there in the autumn.  Lucky woman!  It’s a super spot, within a few minutes walk of the station and the town centre, with the only downside being the dog merde all along the grassy bank.

At long last we made sure we did the ‘tourist thing’ in Agen, with a long overdue visit to the small medieval area of the town and other notable buildings and squares.  We’d missed out on these high spots on our previous visits, and had hoped to eat in the Café du Gare (famous from Rick Stein’s DVD of this area) only to find it closed permanently!  The recession has hit in France too it seems.

At Boé we moored up behind SOMEWHERE and had a couple of days of good crack with Ken and Rhonda.  Alex borrowed their car to locate and transport a new battery for the generator, the old one having suddenly died for some reason.  Then after a night at Valence d’Agen and only just getting under the bridge with the roof on (again!) we set off for Pommevic, about an hour away.  We had decided it would be a perfect spot to deal once and for all with the water tanks as they were still producing tainted water.  Electricity and water is free at Pommevic, and there is a small ditch well below the level of the canal beside the mooring, which was important for Alex’s plans.

So we bought 10 litres of eau de javel (thin bleach) and added it to the water bit by bit as we filled the tanks up.  Then we ran all the taps till we could smell the bleach coming out, topped up the tanks and left them to ‘stew’ overnight.  The next day Alex rigged up an outlet from before the water pump and created a siphon with the hosepipe down into the ditch.  This meant we could empty the tanks without running the water pump for hours.  It took a bit longer than we had expected (4 hours) but saved overworking the pump.  Afterwards of course we filled up with fresh water, but decided to carry on using bottled water for drinking and cooking until we had re-filled the tanks a second time.  Quite an effort at the time but now, two weeks later, it seems to have worked.

Later in the afternoon we saw a barge coming towards us from the lock upstream.  It was SASSI and we helped Bob and Chris moor up and invited them for cups of tea.  After a short while, and in a very heavy downpour we saw PEABODY appearing from the other direction.  We made the introductions as Bob and Chris hadn’t met PEABODY’s Ced and Suzie and the two barges breasted up together.  Then we put together our intended evening meals and all had supper on RICCALL.  Another jolly evening, despite the appalling weather.

PEABODY left before us the next morning, but by the time we got to the first lock it had broken down, so we had to tie to tree roots and have an early lunch while we waited for VNF to repair the lock.

The weather here has been truly dreadful – just like in the UK.  We had had three solid weeks of miserable, cold and wet days before we set off from Buzet and the awful downpours continued for most of our journey to Montauban.  The pilgrim route ‘Le Chemin de St Jacques de Compostelle’ runs beside the canal here and over the last few days we have seen literally dozens of rain-soaked pilgrims trudging their way west in the inclement/atrocious weather.  We did at one point seriously consider offering warming teas/coffees and probably should have!  But there have been oases of calm and even warm weather too, and despite everything the trees are greening up and the spring flowers are here in abundance.

At last we reached our first booked destination – Montauban.  PEABODY, who was ahead of us had warned us that it was a bit full but we had booked a place so had to go anyway – with all our trains and flights to the UK for Alex’s sister Julia’s 60th birthday booked and starting from Montauban.  As it turned out the hotel barge ROSA was on ‘our’ quay but we doubled onto her and Alex rang Tom the captain who we know slightly.  Tom was quite happy for us to stay moored alongside and said he’d extract ROSA when he had to leave without our help, as we wouldn’t be back until a day later.

Julia’s 60th birthday was a momentous milestone for her as she has MD and the doctors had predicted only about 20 more years of life when she was 18.  Julia is an example to us all of how to live life to the full even with a severe disability.  She never dwells on what she can’t do but always makes the most of what she can – hence a jolly birthday party for 120!!!

The party was to be held in her friends’ barn with an attached marquee.  Most of the preparation had been done by the time we arrived early on Friday afternoon but nevertheless Alex mucked in with Steve for the rest of that day and we both helped the next day for the party to begin that evening.

It was a great success but the weather was terrible with gusts of wind and rain trying to join the partygoers!  The two space heaters made little impression unless you were right next to them, but Julia was duly astounded when we unveiled her present - the sculpture of a stag at bay which all her family members had contributed towards.  Standing nearly 8ft high to the tips of his antlers, he is the marvellous creation of one George Hider from Somerset and all out of scrap steel!

Monday was spent un-doing the party – marquee, lighting, sound systems etc etc. then it was the journey in reverse.

Our flight back on Tuesday coincided with the French May bank holiday so at Toulouse airport we discovered that there was no navette into the city.  A rather expensive taxi ride got us to the railway station but the flight had been delayed and we had missed our booked ‘slow’ train.  An extra €5 however, swapped us to the next TGV which was so fast that we arrived back in Montauban only an hour or so after we would have via Plan A.

ROSA had gone and RICCALL was now well moored to the quay.  Our power lead had been plugged in but not switched on unfortunately, but as it had only been overnight, the batteries were still well up, thankfully.

On Thursday we set off to tackle the nine locks of the Montauban flight but had to stop for another early lunch at the first lock as VNF were working on it and had stopped for the obligatory French lunch. We had another couple of minor hiccups before we got to the top lock.  At one lock we were helped by the gentleman who lives in the lockside house: he made the necessary telephone call to VNF to report the lock failure, but more importantly, he understood the answer!!  We had a bit of chat with him in our imperfect French and as we left he presented Louise with a small bunch of tulips from his garden.  How kind of him.

We’d been invited to supper by Alisdair and Barbara of the hotel barge ST LOUIS, not aboard the boat but at their home, which is a super VNF canalside house.  It’s a lovely setting and they can moor their barge there.  Lucky them!  Supper was great, cooked by Barbara, ably assisted by their two crew members Cheryl and Val.

We had roughed out a plan for getting to Avignon for July and realised we had time to return to Moissac (retracing our steps somewhat) to spend a few days on the lovely River Tarn moorings there.

Today is the holiday to commemorate V E day and each town and village holds a small ceremony at their cenotaph to mark the occasion.  The Maire and other dignitaries of the town were present to lay their wreaths and the old soldiers provided a guard of honour.  There were armed soldiers, police and a small crowd of onlookers and with the Marseillaise played over the loudspeaker it was a very moving occasion.

And at last the sun has reappeared, the rain has stopped and it’s warm again.  We are alone on the river quay.  Most boats won’t come down to this quay until the water and electricity have been reconnected after the winter inundations (there is still a small fear of further rising river levels) but we don’t mind that and it’s just magic!