Nearly - but let me explain!
Chateau Sauvin or, as we know it, - "Chez Kelly" - figures quite a bit in our lives over the last three years at Meilhan. It is owned by two delightful blokes who run it as a luxury B and B and through various social events, they become friends of ours as with many other local people. It is a natural choice for pool parties, firework nights and other festive occasions - often initiated by them. Their expensive birthday present to me for my 70th - two 40 pint home-brew beer dispensers - is just typical of their generosity and "joie de vivre".
Chateau Sauvin is a perfect location for friends who threatened to visit us as part of their holidays. Its grand gardens slope down to our canal allowing us easy access by barge, the convenience of which, as all safe car drivers would testify, we often take advantage.
Then, Oh horror ! We are appalled at the news! An obviously very rich Russian buyer (an oligarch?) makes an offer which the owners, the Kellys, can hardly refuse and they sell the place within weeks. All bookings are cancelled without notice. For the Blairs and other friends with confirmed bookings as well as us, it causes a great deal more research and stress, at this late stage, before an alternative venue is found. In the middle of the season - everywhere is full. The Blairs seriously suggest cancelling the whole of their holiday.
Typically, Sophie and Steve set about seeking alternatives - urgently - and with their "www" skills to the fore - they finally come up with the answer - they rent a lovely house near Lauzun, with swimming pool and all that young families need. They insist on us joining them for the week. We are unlikely to refuse. One might say it was a sort of holiday within a holiday for us. I take my piano too. The house turns out to be as good as expected and offers every facility that one could possibly want- excepting, in our case, a fridge large enough to house our drinks - the pool is gorgeous - large enough to properly swim in and, at the same time, play with the smallest of children without fear of accident.
So, firstly, a week's camping at Meilhan which included a Jazz Concert in the port, a night market in the village, a visit to an inland beach at the pleasure park in Casteljaloux and a trip to Fontet on Body and Soul where we all swim in the artificial lake with its fountain, rather green looking water and where we build sand castles with the imported sand. Body and Soul takes us back to Meilhan in the evening.
The Blair's second week is spent with their friends in Agen whilst Lucie and I relax into a dreamy summer at the port with occasional visits to and from friends.
Whilst they are in Agen we are invited to Stephen and Janet Campbell's beautiful Manoir near Montflanquin, -(first met them in Wiltshire where I played piano for their birthday party)- A picnic in the garden followed by dinner for ten people and a stay over night. It's a kind of castle with its own tower and man in armour standing guard at the bottom of the classic round tower stairs. An almost medieval atmosphere. Wonderful to meet up again with family Nicks (My Niece), Alex (and their children Emily and Lucie) The weather remains fantastic. I explore the "Moat" with glee...dogs go bonkers with such space to be free. We picnic again for breakfast, talk and laugh a lot before our departure for the rest of the holiday at the rented house..
A pre-70th birthday party for me with a super dinner/barbecue. Lots to eat and drink and fun with the two littles. Sweet of Sophie and Steve, our hosts, to set this up. Cheers! Yet another memorable evening. The weather is good although we have one day when I insist on swimming in pouring rain. It's gorgeously warm in there, despite it. Memorable indeed.
Sophie and Steve grab the opportunity to take a look around this beautiful area of South West France - the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne as they have now decided to move to France as a family.. and to meet our friends Caro and Charles Lamb, who joined us for a family barbecue and bring their daughter Zoe and her two lovely children Collie and Grace. Lots of useful information is gleaned which may useful as three weeks of holiday has confirmed the urge, though there are potential dangers when one has two children who have just started school - a dog and cat to bring and a house to sell - in a slack market too. (It really ain't all plain sailing, y'know!) Living in England whilst trying to find the right property in France can be a bit of a nightmare.
We all conclude that it might be better to rent a property in the right area first, say for an exploratory year, in order to get a better understanding of the facilities and options available - schooling etc ...but it doesn't stop them finding an agent and viewing some lovely properties, whilst on holiday, just to get a flavour of what is available. We will see......
More fun back at the hired house
Check out the "Hols with Sophie and Steve" - the Blair holiday album near the top of this page in the left hand column or try....
http://tillersandtastebuds.typepad.com/photos/hols_with_sophie_and_stev/index.html
For me I worry about what I will find beneath the waterline which has been seen by no-one since we had the hull re-coated once with something black, just before leaving for France three years ago. “Body and Soul” was at that time, still under warranty. Then there are the anodes – ah yes, remember the anodes? will they be completely dissolved and obsolete after several months in brackish water and two days in the salty Etang De Thau? – and how long has this fatal electrolysis been going on? We dread finding the steel hull, once a proud and substantial 10mm thick, perhaps now only paper thin…. only a matter of time and down we go in a heap of rust and confusion. Then there’s my wobbly rudder which may, for all I know, be about to fall off. How will I fix it? Will there be someone available who can if I can’t? Of course it almost goes without saying - the new replacement “Erbespacher” central heating appliance has failed us. So hot water is going to be a problem and there is no agent in Castelnaudary to attend to it.
At 9am sharp on the 30th of April both “Body and Soul” and “Vertrouwen” hover nervously around in circles in the large “Bassin” (or lake) beside the dry dock, waiting like patients in a dentist’s waiting room, for their turn to go in, but with fate in their own hands.
The entrance gate to the dry dock is a curious black metal contraption which, on the face of it, could not possibly work, but we watch, fascinated as he shows us how it does. Imagine, if you will, a fifteen foot double feeding trough for cows, with large lugs on it at either end and a metal grid across it acting as a bridge upon which people can walk from either side. Firstly, the man must fill the empty dock, so he shuts the sluice gate at the far side of the dock to stop the egress of water. He then opens two “valves” on either side of the trough to let the water in to the dry dock. The dock slowly fills up and the water level rises. The trough remains empty and rises with it, like an empty teacup when in a washing-up bowl, until it floats out of its slots in which the lugs are positioned. Our Frenchman, having had the foresight to tie a rope on to one end of the trough, and with the aid of a colleague who has mysteriously arrived in time, leads the floating gate into the dock and beckons us to enter therein. Our man in a wet suit – “what is he doing” – I ask - “why is he wading in up to his armpits, into the gap left by the absent gate?” - George shrugs his shoulders unhelpfully. Then it clicks. He is shuffling across the gap using his feet to clear any debris that might have accumulated there and which may prevent the gate from being watertight when slotted back in to position behind us.
I slowly drive “Body and Soul” into place on the right-hand side, as arranged, and soon “Vertrouwen” is beside me on my left. We are nervously jostling for position and trying to stay still at the same time, using the white markers painted on the dock sides as a guide to the whereabouts of the unseen plinths beneath us. The gate is now back where it came from and they are about to sink it into place by pulling the plug within the troughs. The troughs fill and the gate sinks into its slots which makes it relatively water-tight. Lucie is shouting hastily translated orders but we cannot hear them because of engine noise. We turn off our engines and sink slowly, quietly and carefully, like a couple of swans on a nest full of eggs. The new man sees that we are nervous, he is smiling as Lucie is explaining that these are not just holiday vessels; these two beauties are our homes – and not to be messed with. (this picture shows the dry dock refilling after we had finished with it)
It is a dry dock alright but it is a very wet and muddy one. We make it worse with our pressure washers so we decide to spend an afternoon flushing and brushing the mud away into the small stream which leaks past us from the gate through a channel cut out for that purpose. This stream becomes very important to us, not just for this, but as the general conduit into which our domestic waste is piped. With great prudence and perspicacity, George has arranged for some waste pipes to be ready for this task, which we attach to the appropriate orifices on our stranded homes. Well, it’s one thing to be wading knee deep in mud but quite another to be knee deep in …. well you will have got my drift?
On “Body and Soul” there is no sign of there having been any paint whatever, there is therefore no old paint to remove but instead, once the surface crustaceans and weeds have been flushed away, there is a layer of what I can only describe as a hard calcium substance which clearly must be removed too. I decide to get it all back to the steel and then to stabilize it with an anti-rust product which the Dutch barge owners use and recommend called “Awatrol-Rustol”. George uses the same. We may yet live to regret it, but it seems to do the trick. More alarming is the uncomfortable number of rust “pock” marks on the sides of “Body and Soul”. I suspect some nasty electrolysis causes this through a lack of anodes. I later arrange for an excellent local “ferronier” to weld on four new ones which we bought in Agde as a precaution. So we now have four new and four old anodes which should be enough. I wish I had bought at least two more to be sure. 
We have been so lucky so far to have friends around us who are, by the very nature of boating, enthusiastic, practical and helpful. No sooner has the problem arisen, George volunteers his help and advice and we try hard to apply an “isopon” coating on to the hole, which we can only feel but not actually see - to at least stop the leak, temporarily. This is smartly followed by more help from another couple, Bill and Sylvia on the barge “Biesbosch” who had shared a winter in Briare 2006/7 with us. Bill actually ditches his plans for continuing their journey towards Toulouse and spends nearly two days plumbing the new tank in for us. I am left in awe of their kindness and skill. Plumbing has never been my strongest point but my role in all this was the ticklish problem of removing the three stairs into Body and Soul in order to gain access to the tank ready for its removal and replacement. It was all quite alarming and very messy, with the added inconvenience of having to get water from a hosepipe through the kitchen window and boiling kettles for hot water - Not something one would wish to happen to anyone but because of the camaraderie and goodwill, there is much learning, laughter and good times are had by all. (see above “not so dry” dock party!)
We roll on four coats of International Paint’s “Intertuff 16” on to our hull in addition to the anti-rust solution and we also prepare and repaint the blue stripe above the waterline. Then George shows me how to restore the red livery paintwork on our upper sides using “T-Cut” followed by polish. Both “Body and Soul” and “Vertrouwen” now look wonderful and attract many admiring comments from passers–bye. It has all turned out to be a great success and we both fervently hope for a good three or perhaps four years grace before having to do it all over again.
Here we are in Venice, belatedly celebrating Lucie’s 60th birthday as promised. It rained on the first day but it didn't seem to matter at all. This is a truly magical place. Even if one is unencumbered by a classical education, it is never too late to be impressed by the odd Canaletto, Whistler or Ruskin in the books, even if you can’t afford to see a real one in the Guggenheim museum. We wallowed for three days in the atmosphere, the history, the architecture and the Venetian way of life. The markets, the food, the coffee and the wine and, being serious canal boat owners ourselves - with all this water about the place - immediately make plans to bring Body and Soul over for a year of Venetian indulgence. Dream on, they say, so we do.
Here I am, your tour leader, leading you through the junk and piles of stuff, through real Venice which has this strange mixture of glory and decay. Somehow, despite the huge number of tourists that are flown in by their thousands on cheap flights every hour of every day –it works and, somehow, without actually joining in, we become two of them. 
much more to come
Our second Wintering has been a great success. We’ve had a very interesting and pleasant five months getting to know Briare and enjoying our surroundings since the first of November. The weather has been pretty dull and cold throughout and that was something of a surprise to me. Frankly, it was colder and more damp than the River Ouse in the UK. Thanks to our Jotul wood burner and an inexhaustable supply of free drift-wood, we have been kept warm and dry. Today is different. The sun is shining and the sky is blue, the forcythia is blooming and the willow trees are in spring mode. We are excited about our next adventure to the Southwest of France which starts on the first day in April after a farewell party at Beaurin with Lucie’s family. We start with the lock in the town centre.
My blogging skills are improving daily which is such fun. I hope soon to add audio to the blog so watch out for the commentary to go with the pictures – or even some music – Yeah! We are still awaiting the fixing of our “bimini” – which will give us much needed shade over our cruiser stern for our trip to the South and much better than the collapsable umbrellas we have had to date. The unexpected gusts of wind on the river Soane and Rhone can play havoc with them! 
