Moissac to Agen
| 2010/4/28 |
Flew to Toulouse with Richard and Lorraine, got Eric's taxi to Moissac, arriving 18:30 in 30C, enough time to buy some supplies and have beer and pizza in the town square. |
| 2010/4/29 |
After some boat maintenance (bought and connected to French gas bottles) we went down on the staircase double lock to the Tarn. Travelled north to the confluence of the Tarn and Garonne, nearly got stuck on the mud before anchoring for the night near the bridge. It was a beatiful afternoon, finished off with Champagne and dinner on the deck, sitting in the middle of the river. Overnight it rained and got a bit windy, turning the boat on the anchor a few times, but we stayed securely at anchor. |
| The Tarn |
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| 2010/4/30 |
After a late breakfast we travelled in the opposite direction as far as we could on the Tarn. It's a beautiful setting, rather like a wider Thames. Had lunch on the mooring by the lock then back into the port by 16:30. |
| The Tarn |
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| 2010/5/1 |
A public holiday, but the market and some shops were still open. Heavy rain overnight and grey skies, but still around 20C. Shopped in the market, coffee in a very nice coffee shop, lunch on board, then a walk along the canal and back along the river. Somewhere during the day we managed to: fit a new 13 amp socket; clean the boat; take off the anchor chain and mark out the 50M length in 10M lengths; have dinner; sort out a plan for a new bimini. |
| 2010/5/2 |
Left Moissac at 10:00 under grey skies - cloudy and around 25C with rain showers for most of the day, but brightened into a nice evening. Stopped at Valence D'Agen for lunch. This is a strange place: a car boor fair filled the town centre; two restored lavoirs; a modern town hall that would grace Paris; what looked like abandoned film set props alongside the canal; and an 1892 public abattoir being renovated. Moved on later and found a great country mooring near Lamagistere - only slightly spoilt by the view of the nuclear power station. |
| Lamagistère |
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| 2010/5/3 |
Had a late start, stopping briefly at Port Boé for lunch, then on to Agen in the afternoon. We moored next to Linda and Peter on Elsie May. Good moorings alonsgside the basis, but no room to get into hire base with water and electricity. Drinks with Linda and Peter then dinner on board. The rain came down quite heavily during the afternoon and the temperature dropped to 12C - 14C. I put up the satellite dish after dinner, but the wine, wind and rain conspired to make it fall over one side. I retrieved it less the LNB. No amount of dredging could find it, so off to bed in a bad temper. |
| 2010/5/4 |
Temper improved markedly when I bought Peter's spare LNB from him and it worked. We walked to the Macdonalds and all got up to date with e-mail, then trudegd throught the rain to a restaurant we found in the Michelin Guide called Le Marmoton - a small, modern restaurant with excellent contemporary cuisine. We did not feel like eating for the rest of the day. As the rain fell even harder we decided to move on to Sérignac-sur-Garonne. It's a small village, about 1 km from the canal, but has good moorings for about 4-6 boats with free water and electricity. Richard and I walked to Le Prince Noir (a very nic looking Logis) and booked a taxi for the next day. |
| Sérignac |
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| 2010/5/5 |
The temperature dropped to 9°C, no rain but a breeze. We went by taxi to Intermarché in Agen, while Richard and Lorraine collected their hire car. We all went back to the boat for coffee and they departed for a short car tour. We took advantage of the free water and electricity to do several loads of washing and drying, as well as some more boat chores. The rain started up again mid afternoon. Decided to stop one more night and take advantage of the electricity to catch up on washing. |
| 2010/5/6 |
After a dull morning it started to brighten up and we left after lunch, continuing to Buzet-sur-Baïse, arriving mid afternoon. As we passed over the River Baïse we could see that it was in flood - so no hope of going down there. Apparently there had even been a small snow fall a short way up stream. The first marina a Buzet is a hire base, with a very good pontoon to come alongside the Capitainerie. For €4, plus €2 each for water, electricity and wi-fi it is good value. We walked to the town and found it getting ready for a festival, then along to the other marina and met Walt and Gail on Les Vieux Papillons. We had tea and Agen prunes with them and their friends from Louisianna. |
| Port at Buzet |
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| 2010/5/7 |
We cycled to a small village and looked at the Garonne in full flood. The weir next to the lock on the Baïse at Buzet was a raging torrent, and is normally a trickle. After lunch we walked to the Buzet wine co-op, tasted various of their wines and bought a small selection. At the other marina an English couple runs the port and has a small restaurant, so we booked a table (it was full) for a fish and chips dinner, washed down with Buzet wine and finished with an Anglo French quiz. Our table won - and the prize was another bottle of Buzet wine. |
| Buzet vines |
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| 2010/5/8 |
Continued to watch the inconclusive election results on TV and nursed slightly sore heads from the night before. We are just planning a gentle trip to the next port for a change of scenery. A short cruise to Les Barthes, where we stopped in a small basin next to a pizzeria. |
| 2010/5/9 |
We cruised up as far as Pont Les Sables looking for a good place to pick up Roger and Angela the next day, but eventually returned to Lagruère, where we stopped alongside a small restaurant where Rick Stein ate on his French Odyssey. We had dinner there - good value at €32 for the two of us. |
| Lagruère |
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| 2010/5/10 |
Moved back to Les Barthes and cleaned the boat while waiting for Roger and Angela. They finally managed to persuade a taxi to take them the 4km from Tonneins station to the boat. We set off fairly soon after lunch and arrived at Buzet late afternoon, where we stopped at the smaller moorings. We booked a table for dinner at the Auberge du Goujons. We had some thunderstorms and heavy rain as we walked there. The restaurant is small and specialises in local produce. We had some lively discussion with the owner about a preference for red wine, even with fish, but he did bring a superb white. Surprisingly, most of his wines were not from Buzet. |
| Roger & Angela |
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| 2010/5/11 |
A resaonable cruise to Serignac, stopping in the rain for lunch. Managed to persuade the other boats to move along at the moorings at Sérignac to take advantage of the free water and electricity. We barely managed to get a satellite signal, but were glad that we did as we managed to see the final machinations in the setting up of the new government. |
| 2010/5/12 |
In the morning we moved on to Agen, walked around the town and selected a restaurant for dinner - then went to a completely different one as the first was full. La Part des Anges was a very plesant and busy restaurant with simple and tasty food. |
| Agen cathedral |
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| 2010/5/13 |
Roger and Angela walked over the footbridge to the station and caught the 11:54 to Bordeaux, when we headed off back towards Moissac. We stopped for the night at Pommevic, a small village with nothing much there except free mooring, water and electricity. The weather brightened up into a very pleasant evening. |
| Pommevic |
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| 2010/5/14 |
Set off for Moissac on a beautiful morning. We were delayed thirty minutes at the second lock while the gendarmes recovered a body from the lock. Then we were delayed a few minutes more when one of our ropes snapped and the lock keeper had to stop the lock. We got back to Moissac around lunchtime, filled up with diesel and moored outside the capitainerie - a reserved spot for us while the sunshade is being built for the rear deck. Cleaned the roof (again), strolled round the town and dinner on board. |
| 2010/5/15 |
Bought a few things at the market, bought our train tickets for Monday, then discovered that the ash cloud may close UK airports for a few days - and if they don't the BA strike will cancel our flight anyway. We we started making mental plans for alternative ways to get back. Did some maintenance work on the boat. |
| 2010/5/16 |
Heard more uncertain news about the ash cloud on TV. Spent most of the afternoon planning alternative escape strategies. Spent many minutes on the mobile phone in the morning waiting for British Airways to answer, only to be told that they had no information about the ash cloud moving over Heathrow the next day. I asked why they did not just look at the weather forecast or BBC news and there was silence. They offered to change our flight to today for about £500. When I suggested that this was better for them than having to put us up in a hotel the next night they did not seem to appreciate the logic. |
| 2010/5/17 |
As predicted, Heathrow closed overnight. But the BA morning Toulouse flight took off and we were able to check in on-line. So as of the time of writing we are about to head off to the airport. Plan B is to get a train to Calais on tuesday. Later the same day - caught the flight which left on time and arrived home exactly as planned. |
