OCTOBER

29 September - 30 October

Several days to spend in the port at Toulouse, a few housekeeping tasks and shopping forays to undertake in readiness for the next cruise with passengers, a lovely big Brico (hardware store) in the centre of the City and the brother of a friend with a café right on the Pont Neuf and the River to visit, what could be better. We also had some friends in residence here - David and Mandy Murray on their Dutch Tjalk ‘Freedom’ and we took the opportunity to enjoy social times with them all. So well did we enjoy their company that we slept through the burglary of the port enclosure, during which the thieves climbed the 2 metre fence with bolt cutters, stole my ‘Giant Boulder’ mountain bike (leaving Maureen’s to which mine was chained) and took it back over the fence and away.

This was the third burglary of the year for us. What are we doing wrong ? Most other people have had absolutely no trouble. I guess from now on we put our gear on board every night, secure it with un-cuttable locks and protect the entrances with multiple alarm systems. It feels a bit like a siege mentality but with immigration in France increasing petty crime exponentially, you just have to live with it any way you can.

I decided it was not going to bother me so I set off to the Decathlon store some 3 km from the boat on one of our guest bikes to investigate a replacement. Decathlon is a major sports store chain with just about everything for the outdoors pleasure nut. They had a range of mountain and racing bikes priced from moderate to extreme and being a miser I leant to the bottom of the moderate range, walking out with a new, 21 gear, light mountain bike complete with shopping basket, water bottle holder and stand for 175 euros. Not too bad but I would have preferred to spend the money on quality wines !

Two days later our guests arrived. Sue and Paul Scott had arranged the trip for themselves and their expatriate WA mates Tony and Diane Hodder. Both ex Zimbabwe engineers now based in Australia, Paul is currently renovating Indonesian oil rigs in the sea between Oz and Indonesia while Tony, from Melbourne, is in London building a new shopping centre for his employer - Multiplex. Paul had a hankering for years to ‘do the canals’ and had found us while searching the internet where is our site where we describe all angles of this exotic lifestyle.

They had flown from the UK to Carcassonne where I had arranged for them to stay at the pleasant and inexpensive Hotel Aragon, just outside the gates of the magnificent ‘Cite’ - a MUST SEE tourist site in France. This 12 - 14^th century city is completely restored and, surrounded by some 14km of fortified walls supporting magnificent towers, it is filled, wall to wall with medieval buildings and a chateau, now all dedicated to describing and reinforcing the pleasures of its visitors. Restaurants, museums, shops, workshops, an open air amphitheatre, hotels and cobble stoned narrow winding streets delight the eyes and the senses. There are tiny cafes and bars in village squares and guided tours to soak up the hours, just minutes walk from your comfortable hotel rooms.

The foursome took in the sights and sounds then enjoyed an early train trip to Toulouse and a quick taxi connection to the port where they met us and their home for the next week - Van Nelle.

We always start with a glass or two of Champagne (the real stuff) before mounting the bicycles for exploration tours of our surrounds. The team and I set off for the magnificent Capitole building, lavishly painted with frescos describing the various centuries of Toulousian life and decorated with magnificent statues, gilt wall, door and window frames and rich marble and oak furnishings. Just outside is the huge city square, normally filled with the bustle of a market, while just off the square, in the busy university quarter, is the Cathedral St Sernin. The opera theatre and a brace of luxury hotels are also located in this area, just near the Tourism Office de Toulouse. Very handy.

Having bikes in a big city works well in France since they are ‘Velo Aware’ and have bicycle lanes, even on the major boulevards within the centre ville area. A short ride away and you are at the wide, gently flowing Garonne River, bordered by lots of restaurants and bars in, or outside of which, one can take in a cool drink or a snack under the shade of luxuriant plane trees.

We also started the team’s gourmet experience that night with decanted and aged Bordeaux reds, crisp Burgundian chardonnays and grilled sea salmon. The next morning we headed off through the very centre of the city on a 54km cruise to Montech.

We needed to be ahead of the game on this long day of travel in order to get to Montech by the time the locks closed at 5.30pm. Unfortunately we were delayed by eclusiers insisting we wait for another boat following us some 45 minutes behind. This was in the attempt to conserve water during these days of drought conditions. I am all in favour of water economy but it meant that we ended up, once again, falling one ecluse (lock) short of our targeted destination. Not all was lost though. The team mounted the bikes and headed into Montech, only 3km distance, to explore and hut for fresh bread - a must have each meal.

They arrived back for drinks on the back deck and d dinner of ‘Agneau en croute’ - lamb stuffed and roasted in a pastry case, this time with Burgundian pinot noir reds and south west sauvignon blanc whites. The night was suddenly very quiet after the traffic bustle of Toulouse and everyone slept in the next morning - arising as we arrived in Montech for a brief stay to shop for some necessities.

Since we had our car garaged in Montech, I retrieved it to take the team to our favourite local vineyard to taste and buy some of their excellent white and red wines. The team took up the mid morning wine tasting challenge with energy, returning to the boat with several cases of award winning wines.

We lunched on our regular favourites of a mixed platter of French delicacies - foie gras, pate en croute, quiches, jambon fume and a range of fromages, washed down with the local sauvignon or cider from Brittany before moving on to the Pente d’Eau, the double tractor that pushes water, and the boat floating in it, up or down a concrete trench that by-passes 5 normal locks. I had arranged with the VNF (Voies Navigable de France) for us to use this UNESCO heritage listed tourist attraction as a highlight of the canal experience and the operator was waiting for us at 10.00 in the morning for the 30 minute trip.

The afternoon cruise was gentle, in dappled sunshine through avenues of over-locking plane trees, planted 100 years earlier to protect the draft horses whose job it was to pull the barges. Just 14 km together with some 8 locks making a trip of some 4 hours, depositing us in Castelsarrasin by early afternoon, enough time for a wander through this market town to the bar in the town square where panachés were to be consumed. Panache you ask ? A Panache is a shandy, beer and lemonade mixed in different percentages depending on the whim of the barman, but very refreshing on hot days.

There is a lot to be said about having a group on board as they create their own fun and provide great company while enjoying the hospitality of the trip. Sue, Paul, Di and Tony were a great team, full of fun and energy and willing to try anything and everything. Paul was the bike bound explorer, even at one stage riding some 15km from a lock on the way to Agen right into town in search of mushrooms. He failed the test, arriving back at the boat with snails !

Each day of the cruise was a travelling day with the towns of Montech, Castelsarrasin, Moissac, Valence, Agen and Serignac the evening stops and with a return to Agen the final destination for the team to take a hire car and head off to explore Provence. En-route we had the famous abbey church and cloister at Moissac, the market town of Valence, the fantastic ‘Gold Fish’ restaurant at Golfech, the Petanque at Serignac and the 27 room museum at Agen which features its lovely roman statue of Diana and its collection of Goya paintings as well as its well established fame as the centre of the prune industry in France. Brought back by crusaders, the plum and its derivative the prune are used in all sorts of confiture, cuisine and chocolat here.

Food and wine dominated the interest in the evenings with favourites such as coq au vin, Boeuf bourguignon, lapin, Cassoulet and other plats principale sandwiched by fois gras and tartes au pommes. We also served wines from major regions - Bordeaux; Medocs, St Emilions, Margaux and Sauternes - Burgundy; Cotes de Beaune, Fumés, Sancerres - Champagnes of course - South West Merlots and Sauvignons (these are varietal ‘vins de pays’ not place named AOC wines) and from the bottom of the Rhone - Beaujolais, Chateau Neuf du Papes and Cotes du Rhone. The team tasted Armagnac, Pastis, Kir and an assortment of aperitifs at bars and restaurants but the highlight was a dinner at the ‘Gold Fish restaurant at Golfech where the chef is a distinguished Officer de la Legion du Rotisseurs du Langedoc - or some similar gourmet association.

The Gold Fish restaurant was sublime. Menus were 13, 17, 23 or 28 euros for 2 or 3 courses and up to 38 euros for gourmet menus of 3-5 courses. We mostly chose the middle price range and were astounded at the range of foods that were then presented including additional plates of hors d’oeuvres and little cleansers between courses. The tastes were subtle and mouth watering, the service was friendly and unpretentious and explanations of the dishes were slowly and carefully explained for the non French speaking among us. We have a number of restaurants we especially like in the south west of France, this one has taken the top of the list.

The last town we stopped at before turning back for Agen and the end of the cruise, was Serignac. This is a small village noted for the weird spiralled church steeple and the fact is boasts a free port. A wooden quay about 50 metres long is punctuated by water and electricity stands provided free to pleasure boaters who are encouraged to therefore utilise the town’s commerces. We have been here a number of times and delight in taking guests up the ‘boulodrome’ for a game of Petanque. Invariably as we begin to play on the deserted pitches during the mid week days a member of the local club will wander over to chat and give hints about the game. These retired gentlemen stand to the side with Gauloise cigarette dangling from whiskered mouth, beret rakishly pulled over wispy grey hair and old working clothes showing the labours of the wife’s many patches and repairs. Quietly they will encourage, offer encouragement and suggest new tactics, then quietly and politely take their leave to join their friends for a pastis at the bar.

The team loved the game and the town and celebrated that night with rabbit ragout and some of the wines they had searched out as a result of their recent education while cruising. Wonderfully, they would also jump up to do dishes at the end of a meal before we could get to the sink. We left Serignac after lunch on the penultimate day for the trip some 9km and 4 locks back to the quiet canal mooring we use while in Agen and barbecued chicken for dinner, which was washed down with a fine Mersault white wine - among other delights.

Accompanied by a light drizzle, Paul, Tony and I trudged off to the car hire office the next morning to pick up their Renault Scenic wagon, a diesel people mover of moderate proportions and with lots of little hidden storage spots in its floor and seat backs - creative cars by Renault.... Packed and ready, the team assembled back at the boat, packed the bags into the car and departed. A great week for us with 4 lovely people whom we were genuinely sorry to see go.

We took little time to start Van Nelle and head back toward Castelsarrasin via a stop at Golfech to do washing and cleaning and to pick up the car from Moissac then, three days later, drive to Toulouse to pick up another WA couple for a four day cruise, the last of the 2003 season.

Neville and Margaret Bebee were our last guests for the year. Neville, treasurer of the St George Bank in Perth was surprised by Margaret’s organisation of a two week trip to France to celebrate their 10^th wedding anniversary and, having always wanted to experience the canals, had tried to contact us via our advertised email address. Unfortunately, the email address on our web site had been deluged during the year with junk and spam mail and we eventually had to abandon it. 400 to 800 e-mails advertising everything from cheap viagra to ink jet cartridges, get rich quick deals and travels jaunts would arrive each week, an impossible pile to sort through for genuine mail, also very expensive to handle via a mobile phone. Fortunately, a friend of Neville’s had realised we had a phone number and called us to alert us to Neville’s request to join us. We made some calls and finally all was arranged.

Picking them up in Toulouse at the sumptuous Grand Opera Hotel on the Capitole square I asked if they had visited the Capitole building, right across the square. It turned out they had not, passing it as millions do, blind to the amazing beauty lying free within. We did a quick visit to gaze at the paintings and sculpture before reclaiming the car from the subterranean car park and heading for Castelsarrasin.

Neville is a keen cyclist so was happy to jump on the bike at every opportunity, but unlike many of the guys who have travelled with us, was not over keen to drive Van Nelle and both he and Margaret were happy to sit and watch the passing scenery as we visited Moissac and Valence before again arriving at Agen where they were to take the train to Carcassonne and from there to continue up to Paris and home. We arranged train tickets and hotel arrangements for them and relaxed in their company for the four days we had them aboard.

Unfortunately, on the day we were in Valence we took the bikes for a ride to the gare (station) to arrange tickets. It was closed and on the way back to the boat, I, trying to avoid a large concrete pillar, turned the front wheel sharply and applied the brakes hard. The immediate effect was for the front wheel to deform into a pretzel shape. This rather surprised us all since it had carried Paul Scott over many rough kilometres and my bulk over as many. There was little I could do after slightly re-shaping it so I returned to Van Nelle while the others continued exploring.

We celebrated the final night aboard with another chicken barbecue and some fine wines before seeing Neville and Margaret to the railway station at Agen on their departure day. With them safely aboard we departed Agen for the final time. It took us only two days to return from Agen to Castelsarrasin where we reversed Van Nelle from inside the port to our winter mooring in the mouth of the canal, ‘en face’ to the passarelle that takes train travellers from the town side of the port to the ‘gare’ or railway station.

I felt quite drained after our arrival at Castel and spent a couple of days just ‘vegging’ out before getting back into organisation mode to do the few maintenance tasks that were immediately required. Heavy jobs like chipping the tiny areas of rust and repainting decks and hull can wait for good new year weather as can the re-varnishing and repairs to the trim of the roof sections. The ventilation fan in the bathroom had just decided to fuse so a replacement was needed, leading me to buy two, one requiring a rewiring job so being useless but I didn’t find that out until the packaging and its plastic body had been made impossible to return.

I figured we needed an early Christmas present and the local hyper market was offering DVD players at only 100 Euros so we now have one of them and a few movies to go with it. This enables us to use video hire shops to get new release movies and select English as the language, something you cannot do with movie theatres and video tapes.

We are now a week in Castelsarrasin, we have dentist and doctors appointments for regular check ups and small repair jobs and we are planning a major trip to see friends in Italy where they are building a theme park for the locals. Some time in Tuscany, a visit to the Chianti region, Pisa, Florence and a couple of days en-route at Marseilles and the Italian Riviera should be fun n’est pas ? Someone has to do it and we are ready and willing to take up the challenge.

Before that however, I will update the web site ( www.mcdaniell.com.au ) with these journal episodes and some pictures and ensure that those of you who may want to contact us can get the e-mail address