The last three days of this trip were spent tidying up and doing jobs on the boat, interpserced with drinks with Alex and Louise on Ricall. Our longest time on the boat to date finished with a return trip home, stopping at Alençon.
We left the boat and went for a tour of Duras and Entre Deux Mers wine cop-ops, stopping for a nice lunch at Au Fil de L’Eau at St Foy La Grande. It was another hot day, creeping up to 29 degrees, and even the restaurant windows opening out onto the Dordogne did not give much air. As we arrived at co-ops we were generally greeted by tractors dumping the new grape harvest into hoppers. There was a yeasty smell in the air and sticky roads and paths where grape juice had spilt. Later in the afternoon we dropped Pat and Chris at Bordeaux airport. Along the way we saw stationary traffic on the motorway. The signs on the return trip said that the journey to the A62 would take 36 minutes, where it would normally take 5-10, so we opted for a detour through the city centre. The detour took 1 ½ hours. The traffic lights in Bordeaux seemed to take forever to change.
We declined the request to finish our museum tour at 09:00 and moved off to Le Mas d’Agenais for coffee and lunch. Here we turned round and returned to Buzet for the evening.
We had been trying to get certain parts of our navigation system working for about three years. The Raymarine dealer turned up in the morning. He spent some time pondering over the fluxgate compass before replacing it. But we were unable to calibrate it on the canal, so he had to set it roughly, manually, and wait for us to reach a wide river for a proper calibration. He took the chart plotter away for an extended bench test. We had another long cruise in the sunshine, finishing for the evening at Halte La Falotte, a short way downstream of Villeton. This spot advertises free mooring and a mineral museum. At thought we should give it a first try, so went up the steep steps at 18:40, leaving Christine to finish making dinner and promising to return in about 20 minutes when it was due to close. The lady that runs the museum (with her husband) was extremely passionate about her collection of rocks, shells and fossils and was intent on explaining every last detail about each cabinet. At 20:00 we made our excuses and left. Dinner was ready, but definitely needed re-heating.
Another sunny day, cruising with the screen down. We left early and reached the first lock as it opened. Further downstream a hire boat came tearing after us, obviously intent on overtaking us before the lock. We arrived at the double staircase lock first and were shortly up on the canal level heading back to Sérignac. This time there was plenty of space at the moorings. The warm sunshine continued into the evening and we had dinner outside at Le Prince Noir.
The weather brightened up, sunny and warm again. We cruised to Vianne for lunch, the onto Nérac for the night. We enjoyed a good walk through the park, along the river, and returned to the boat for dinner.
While I went off to photograph Sara and Kevin’s wedding the others went for a walk to Damazan, and, incredibly, came across a cricket match. Apparently there is an active league in these parts. The church ceremony was in Aiguillon, the civil ceremony in Damazon and the reception at Chateau Bachac, all quite a drive from each other. The weather was overcast, with a slight sprinkling of rain in the early evening, but with the temperature a cooler 23 degrees or so, at least we did not melt in our suits. I got back to the boat at 01:40.
Back to Buzet for lunch and goodbye to Ray and Adrienne. After a rapid boat tidy up we drove to Marmande station and met Pat and Chris. We fairly soon found the Marmande wine co-op at Beaupuy and bought some more bottles of Chateau Benoit, plus a bag in box of red, which we all thought much better than the higher priced bottles. We also purchased one bottle of must, the just pressed wine juice, tasting rather yeasty and still bubbling. Later, at the boat, the plastic bottle looked rather larger than when we had started. On trying to remove the stopper there was a loud bang, followed by half the bottle of juice hitting the ceiling. Dinner on board involved several wine samplings.
We left as the lock opened at 09:00 and cruised down the Baïse, back onto the Garonne Canal and off to Sérignac. This time we found the moorings fairly full with the usual suspects. There was a 17.5 metre gap, just big enough to take us, and we squeezed in. On the way we passed a silo and there was a huge explosion that rocked the boat. We thought we had hit rocks or run aground, but there was no sign of any problem, or even any exploding silos. After a walk around Sérignac we went to Le Prince Noir for dinner, and were welcomed like old friends. The evening was a little cooler and we ate inside. The food was the usual excellent standard.
A short cruise on a hot day to up the Baïse to Vianne. Unusually, there was only one boat moored when we arrived at lunchtime, although the moorings were almost full by the evening. We walked around the town and, for once, intended to buy something at the glass shop, only to find that it was closed until next year. The temperature went up to the high 20s and we all sat under the shade of a tree next to the boat to keep cool. Before dinner Ray and I played some music outside. After a short while we looked up and found the wall above lined with people listening and clapping.
