The Trek to Toulouse

We have cruised the section of canal from Buzet to Toulouse many times - it's a little hard to find anything new to say about it. We always enjoy the section as far as Montech but after that it's long, straight and frankly a bit tedious.
This time we had stops in  some of our favourite places.

Serignac Eglise - twisted spire

The pretty bastide village of Serignac where it's good to see the restaurant in the square expanding and clearly doing well. So well, we thought, that they could afford to serve foie gras as an 'amuse bouche.' Except it wasn't an 'amuse bouche' it was someone else's starter given to us by mistake. We insisted on paying (as we'd eaten it) but they were more insistent that we shoudn't.

Market Hall Valence d'Agen

Valence d'Agen

The day to visit Valence d'Agen is market day (Tuesday) when there are stalls in the  2 market halls and throughout the streets. During summer there are lots of other activities organised. We missed the giant picnic and karaoke held at the port I'm sorry to say but were there in time to enjoy an 'authentic' meal at the pop up Italian village- although I was a little surprised to bump into a couple of the Italian chefs buying their authentic supplies in the local Intermarche supermarket the following morning.
Valence also has a couple of attractive circular lavoirs - unusual for this area of France.

Lavoir. Valence d'Agen

Then it was a long, hot day (is there any other sort this year?) all the way to Moissac.
We usually make a stop in Agen but this time we decided to push on through and spend an extra day in Moissac. The flight of 4 locks up to Agen is a killer in hot weather. They are all deep which means shimmying up long, slimy, slippery ladders. I don't like to climb up clutching a rope so I always hurl the ropes up first. I'm a dab hand at rope throwing these days - pity there's not much call for the skill elsewhere in my life. The locks all fill slowly so it's a long wait in blazing sunshine. I'll be happy not to do them again.
There is the treat of the magnificent aqueduct at the top of course. The aqueduct over the River Garonne is 539m long and was completed in 1849. It still gives me a bit of a thrill to cross.

Aqueduct Agen

Moissac is another town I'll be a little sad not to see again. The port is friendly and well run with a mixture of long stayers and those passing through. The town and its abbey are on the Santiago de Compostella route so there are many pilgrims visiting and also trudging along the towpath. Not an appealing journey in 40 degree heat.

Doorway in Moissac - not the celebrated abbey doorway!

Then on to Castelsarrasin where we began this year. Again a very friendly port and a great market town (as is Moissac). After that we had a brief stop at Montech (very good restaurant beside the port) and where we bought our trusty e-velo last year.
Next major stop -Toulouse.

Last stop before Toulouse