L'Avenir - cruising Europe's inland waterways

Some pictures from the lift out. All very nerve wracking. Not enjoying living onboard for these last few days.  Will add to this later. Busy packing and winterising. And the trains aren't running. We finish as we began..... Apologies -I never did get around to adding to this post and here we are one week away from returning to France for the 2019 season. Looking forward to being back onboard - once she's afloat again that is.

Castelnaudary There are 2 directions to navigate a canal- upstream (uphill) or down. A tip for the prospective hire boater - should your choice of canal be heavily locked (e.g. the Midi) then (in my opinion) think about booking your route in the downhill direction. You probably have only a week and you undoubtedly want that to be as relaxing and enjoyable as possible. Downhill is less physical, less stressful and less likely to result in accident, dispute or divorce. I don't know if hire companies have a price differential according to direction but they certainly do depending on when you hire. I haven't checked for myself but several eclusiers (lock keepers) have told me that prices in September this year were discounted by 50% resulting in almost every boat available being out on the water. One result of this is a lot of waiting around in queues for locks and so, to move everyone through as quickly and with the least use of water as possible, the eclusiers pack as many...

Most people, if asked to name one canal in France, would answer the Canal du Midi. There are about 8500km of navigable canals and rivers in France and the Midi is only 241km so why is it so well known? Perhaps because it has been a setting in many a TV programme or film.We see it in paintings, postcards, posters and calendars. In short it is photogenic. Most canals are straight but the Midi has curves, not only in its course but also in the shapes of its ancient (350 year old) hand-hewn, stone locks and low bridges. As it winds its way through the south of France it flows close to Mediterranean beaches, passing quaint villages, and then the medieval, fairytale-like  citadel of Carcassonne. Fields of sunflowers follow the sun, grapes ripen in the vineyards and a boat drifts through the dappled shade cast by the stands of old plane trees lining the banks. Oval lock Canal du Midi Low bridge - Canal du Midi  Ok I'll stop there. You get the picture. It's the one t...

We are back in Toulouse for the second time this year. No great hardship as it is one of our favourite ports in this part of France. We arrived here a couple of weeks ago to pick up Libby and Brian who join us each year for a week's relaxing holiday. At least that's what they thought they were coming for. The reality turned out to be a little different but that's for a separate instalment. We were here for a few days before they arrived so I took the opportunity in my time off from the usual washing and preparing cabins etc to take a look around Toulouse at a few of the sights I'd missed previously. One of those was viewing the city from the rooftop cafe/restaurant at Gallerie Lafayette (big department store). The last time we were here the rooftop was closed. Incidentally the rooftop of the shop's Paris store shouldn't be missed for a fantastic view of that city. Access to the roof and the view(in both cities) is free although do check the...

We have managed to go a little further afield than in previous years with the aid of our new velo but as we only have one between us we either go separately or someone has to use one of the trusty old steeds - or not so trusty as the case may be. Our bikes have served us well over the past 10 years but lately we have had a problem with 'punctures'. A bike tour leader I spoke to said they rarely have trouble but I have certainly seen many a cyclist on the tow path, bike upturned. Perhaps the inner tubes we buy from supermarkets are not very good quality and we should be stocking up on the once in a blue moon occasions when we see a specialist cycle shop. As an emergency back up we've been carrying an aerosol foam sealant. As the less enthusiastic rider (and having a chivalrous partner) I usually luck in with choice of bike and so it was we found ourselves recently high in the hills, miles from the boat and surrounded by vineyards. Hills I would have had trouble wa...

Years of encouraging young children to write imaginatively has given me a pretty well-developed 'what if?' mentality. Is that such a good skill to develop, I wonder? It's all very well to enliven a story with dramas and catastrophes for the protagonist to overcome but not, perhaps, entirely useful to imagine similar struggles in our daily lives. Some foresight is necessary for the avoidance of problems but too much makes it harder to be brave and adventurous - qualities you would think are not necessary for inland boating. Generally speaking you would be correct. We were chatting over dinner with a couple from a neighbouring boat. 'Have you been to Bordeaux?' he says. We spent a couple of enjoyable days there en route to Scotland but that wasn't what he meant, of course. He meant by boat. Now this is something that one of us has been trying to persuade the other to do for the past couple of seasons. No prizes for guessing who is the reluctant one. The ...

Back where we started - Moissac. The port already has an end of season feel about it with quite a number of boats double banked and closed up for the winter. There are still a few hire boats passing through - mainly Americans and Australians it seems, Europeans having returned to work and school. Summer is over for many- not quite for us though. We still have another month in France before we follow the sun south. A few survivors (or late bloomers) from the summer crop The change of season is evident all along the canal. We, unfortunately, missed the full glory of the huge sunflower fields. The plants look rather crestfallen now, heads dipped towards the ground with their heavy load of dark seeds. The plane trees, of which there are still many along the canal du Garonne and which provide not only welcome shade but are also very lovely to look at haven't yet lost their leaves just the moisture and colour from them. The hoped for autumnal russets don't look as though t...

The Clock Tower - entrance to Auvillar I hear you and I'm sorry. 2 months away is almost inexcusable. I say almost but I do have a tiny (well, 3kg sized) excuse. A new grandson! We abandoned poor l'Avenir for 6 weeks so I could fly home to Australia combined with stop-overs in Scotland. We've been back on board for a week now but I'm still not quite into the swing of things. As we were flying from Bordeaux we decided to leave l'Avenir in Buzet. We know and like the port and it's not too far from the main railway line. Last time I wrote we were in Montauban and so we once again retraced our water steps along the canal de Garonne. We have been up and down this canal so many times that we sometimes feel we know what's around every corner and that there's nothing new to be discovered. Not true of course. Our horizons have been extended a little by a rather wonderful purchase. I happened to be sauntering through a village en route to buy the morning...

Stained Glass, Eglise St Orens, Montauban For one reason or another we haven't done much in the way of cruising this year. We've needed to have decent access to internet without bankrupting ourselves so a big thank you to Moissac, Castelsarrasin, Montech and Montauban for including wifi in the port charges. Plans have had to been researched, arranged, changed and changed again. All will become clear in time. As for the weather - the less said the better really. I've had full waterproofs on for the first time in years. Not at all what you'd expect in southern France in June but at least we can tie up and sit it out for days (weeks) without feeling too cheated unlike those on expensive hire boat holidays. The canals are full to overflowing and the rivers are closed to navigation due to the fast flow. At the moment we are sitting just above the double lock leading down onto the River Tarn and the canal water is flowing over the top of the lock gates at quite a ra...

Moissac. No idea of significance of outfits. Handing out delicious apple aperitif & cooking barbecue. The canal and the River Tarn at Moissac are separated by a couple of rows of houses, a road and an esplanade - usually a tranquil spot for a stroll. There was nothing tranquil about the area on the weekend of our arrival though. I have never seen so many carnival rides, rifle ranges and sundry other fairground attractions crammed so close together. You had to keep your wits about you for fear of losing them along with our head. How they all fitted in with their enormous trucks and extricated themselves once again after the weekend via the narrow access road I don't know.  A bit like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. The carnival was here as part of the festivities for the Pentecost weekend. Also in town were 8 young women competing for the title of Rosière de France. This isn't a beauty contest; the girls are supposed to be virtuous and hard working but I don't know what the j...

Ten months is a long time to leave a boat - and a blog - untended. Our last two cruising seasons were greatly curtailed but for the best of reasons; the birth of grandchildren. Leaving the littlies on the other side of the world this year is quite a wrench, hopefully we can skype. Thank you to those of you have come back to join us for 2018 - our tenth year on l'Avenir - and welcome aboard to new readers. Arriving and travelling in France in May always takes a little planning due to the number of public holidays but this year has been complicated by strikes (grèves). Strikes and protests are far from an unusual occurrence here but they are usually over and done with in a day or so. Not so this spring. In April the railway workers began three months of rolling strikes and were joined by Air France during May. The railways helpfully published a calendar of strike days which amount to 3 days of strikes per week but you can't find out which services are cancelled unt...