Tillers and Tastebuds

What do we do all day?

“What do you (we) do all day”, I was amazed to have been asked this by a friend who is also retired in France but has a house and large garden, swimming pool and several neighbours. I can’t really remember how I replied exactly – I was so taken aback by the question – but as anyone living on a boat could have explained, our lives are stuffed so full of variety and interest,  I’m afraid a couple of hanging baskets and the odd flower pot is about all we have time for. As for our neighbours, they change as often as either we or they move our respective vessels and we find ourselves entertaining new friends – of all nationalities – several times a week.

In fact it is quite scary how quickly the time goes by. It was surely only a few weeks ago, that we were commenting on the Christmas decorations in Briare, where we wintered last year! Now, in Capestang, they have them up already, to switch on on the first day in December.

By April ‘08 we will have been in France for three years and we will be setting off Westwards again towards our original destination – the river Lot, Castelmoron, Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Figeac, Cahors etc. If this area is as nice as we think it is, we will probably base ourselves and settle there. Toulouse city and airport are quite close by as is the TGV (now currently on strike!).

Me thinks a quick statistical review of our travels so far is in order, to remove any ideas about us being bored or missing the garden! This is for my benefit particularly, because I honestly wonder how the time has flown, since arriving in France, April 2005. Both of us are now pensioners, so perhaps this time loss is something to do with old age?  I prefer the adage, “time flies when you’re having fun”…

Left England 24^th April 2005. 26^th April Relaunched Body and Soul at Laroche Migennes. The lock shown here was our first in France. The river Yonne is on the right, the lock is on the left and we are about to descend. It beats shooting the barrarge! (behind us on the right)

I have spent most of today retracing our travels since we arrived in France and find that we have covered 3100Kms of navigable waterways and been through 937 locks. This is probably at an average speed of less than 3 kms per hour (including the time taken in locks) That’s quite a lot of diesel, I might add, and around 4000 photographs.

The above is Capestang Port De Plaisance where we will spend the winter until April 1^st 2008.

Sundry news and photos from Body and Soul and the Canal Du Midi

Here we have reached Castelnaudary, spent two nights there and are refueling before turning back to Capestang for our unplanned winter mooring.

We find the dry dock which may prove useful when we return this way next year. The system works simply enough apparently. You book the time and date in advance by phone. You pay your fee/deposit and the nice man comes to fill up the dry dock and let you in. You enter the lock and tie up in the exact spot over the concrete plinths which will support the barge once the dry dock is emptied. Then the nice man opens the sluice gate at the opposite end and lets all the water out - slowly we hope - and Body and Soul gently sinks on to the plinths beneath her. We then spend the next few days scraping, priming, undercoating, and topcoating our beloved barge whilst living aboard her. Simple, and we will let you know what really happens next May!

 

Re-connecting and catching up after the loss of our "Motherboard"

I have just re-read my last blogging effort dated way-back-when our previous lap-top was working fine. There is so much to catch up on.In truth we were only just beginning to get used to the huge benefits it brought us and were steadily learning more about "Skype" and having a great deal of time-consuming fun using it, when - zap! One day we switch on and nothing, but absolutely nothing, happens on screen at all. A lot of time passes between this sort of schism and finding the fault, then the solution and then deciding how best to restore what had become so important to us. We had to miss "the Archers" too, on digital radio 4! Could it ever get worse?

Sophie lent us her ten year old lap-top (bless her) but this had limitations for what we can now expect to do to-day, but we were able to save our photos.To the possible relief of you all, that is, our avid readers, blogging can now continue. Yes, despite a French keyboard and a French Internet service Provider - we are back in the blogging business. Here is a rough guide to our journey from Briare to where we are now, with some good pictures to go with.

  Castelnaudary is where we have booked a session in the dry dock in May 2008. Hopefully we will be sharing this expense with our new found friends at Capestang, who also need their Bottom scraped! More about George and Sue later!

This is me, having a terrible time with some undrinkable French beer! - somewhere between locks.

I am losing weight and we both feel very healthy!

Carcasone Port De Plaisance which we visited not long after deciding to buy Body and Soul in 2004. This time we took the town by barge and canal, having flown in last time by Easyjet! It was a weird feeling.

Latest from Capestang and Body and Soul

Here are two views from the stern of Body and Soul. They show the bridge across the Canal du Midi at Capestang, clearly taken in late autumn, with most of the plane tree leaves off the trees after a windy and cold day. Our plan is to stay here until April 1st.(08!). Then we will be traveling up the canal towards Toulouse and - the place, now closed, where we had booked for this winter.

So, although we did not intend to be at Capestang, we seem to have fallen on our feet again because it really has some great advantages. Apart from the obvious essentials, (ie the town itself has great atmosphere and facilities which include supermarkets, hairdresser, DIY shop and oodles of food shops, not to mention two chemists, a tourist office, dentist, doctor and so on....) but its location on the canal is not bound by Locks (écluses) which are shut from November. This means we can take 30km trips either way before reaching any locks during the winter. We have already made two trips, downstream towards Bezier which, apart from being in glorious sunshine, enabled us to collect lots of wood for the central heating. What a success our Jotul (nicknamed Joey!) has been!

There is a great crowd of boaters here already and we have made many new friends - So many new contacts and a lot of very helpful ones too. Me and another guy called Geof who plays the clarinet, did our first gig together on Eddie's boat for Halloween. Geof is ex-guards musician and plays very well by ear. His favourite music is Stacey Kent, Billie Holiday, type stuff! We are trying to find a string bassist.

Eddie Bunker on his cruiser "Vee Brooks" is an amazing engineering talent, Irish from Dublin and one of the best. The Capitainerie is run by a British Company called "France Afloat" and there is much help from them. On the negative side we are having to pay a mooring fee in excess of what we would have liked. It gives us water, security and an address for "snail mail", but we have to provide our own electricity.

Our address therefore, please note, is: Body and Soul, La Capitainerie, Halte Nautique, Quai Elie Amouroux, Capestang, 34310 France.

 Here is a picture facing downstream towards Columbier and Bezier.

Now we have invested in a new Honda generator to make us independent of very expensive shore line charges. It is petrol driven and very quiet. So far so good. Both Lucie and I are seriously considering the purchase of a water filtration plant but have only seen one type so far which is quite expensive and difficult to install. But this would make us totally independent of moorings and their charges. More advice needed.

This is John and Irene who we tied up to for a night at Carcassone. Their widebeam is the only other widebeam, similar to ours but a meter shorter, that we have come across. We had many stories to swap with this delightful couple. Hopefully in this "Long Village" we will meet again. They told us of their near tragic end on the étang De Thau - the inland sea which we ourselves had to crossed in order to get to the Canal Du midi. The weather turned nasty on them and they had to beach their barge "Moet Chandon" and get towed off by the lifeboat. It cost them lots. Poor dears! There, but for the grace of ....etc etc. We had an easy ride, it seems. That was with Clive and Aileen on board in September.