Oldies On Tour

Wednesday 30th June

We woke up to another glorious morning, though still rather windy and for breakfast, it’s back to normal as we are both full from the gastronomic delight of last night.

Our target today is to get to Beziers, about 20-kms but there are two obstacles that could hold us up.   Firstly there is the single lane, 160-metre “Malpas tunnel”, this is then followed by a flight of locks dropping 20-meters, known as the “Fonserannes Staircase”.  The issue with the staircase is that there are set times to travel through them so arriving at the appropriate time could prove difficult, still we shall see.

Winding our way through several villages and numerous vineyards before we came across the Malpas Tunnel.   The “hype” in the book suggested it would be difficult to navigate being wide enough only for one boat, and sounding your horn was essential, but to us it looked  rather like a big bridge as we could see out the other end!!!  We were expecting a long tunnel similar to the ones in the English canal system.   We think had we blinked, we would have missed it!!!

Onwards and upwards heading towards Bezier passing similar scenery as we wound our way along the canal when suddenly we arrived at the top of the “Fonserannes Staircase“ .  Our canal guide book is very informative but along the canal itself there is very little to identify where one is.  Unlike the U.K. canals where every bridge has a number to identify your position, there is nothing and that’s why we were surprised we came across the locks so quickly!! 

We arrived too early so moored up for lunch until we could pass through.  The times going downstream, that’s us, are 1300hrs to 1530hrs and we were in pole position but alas, no, 2-big hotel boats took precedence and therefore we were in the 3rd flotilla, still we got through.   We have done many staircases on the English Canal system and they are hard work, well for one of us!!  but going through these was easy-peezy , there were two very nice lock-keepers on hand to press all the right buttons, all we had to do was loop a rope onto the bollards and hold on.  We went through the staircase in about 40-minutes without raising a sweat.

Our journey continued navigating through 5-more maned locks, through Portiragnes and was now was heading out towards the Camargue region, you never know, we might be lucky and see some of the famous ancient breed of the white horses, alternatively we could stumble on black bulls seen in this region🤞🤞🤞🤞

It was getting late now and this area doesn’t have many moorings, we have steel pegs of course for such eventualities but we weren’t too fussed having to knock them into the ground, instead we found 2-suitable trees to tie onto, and this is what we did “in the middle of nowhere” as the song goes.

We had had enough, out in the baking sun all day is tiring and dinner was calling.  Instead of the 20-kms we had originally planned to do, we travelled 35-kms, no wonder we were shattered.

After yesterday’s gastronomic feast, we were down to earth tonight, cold meat salad, followed by a game or two of Crib. (Hazel I lost every game accept one!😢😢😢😢😢Christine)

We have just read in the canal’s manual, “It Is Forbidden To Tie Up To A Tree” Oops 🤭🤭🤭🤭 that’s just what we’ve done, to late now😁😁😁

Tuesday 29th June

The sun was shining as we woke up on our first morning after a reasonably comfortable night in our new surroundings.  A good sized comfortable bed was only spoiled by the limited amount of bed covers causing a little grief in the middle of the night to one of us, hmm!!!

During the customary cuppa in bed we suddenly realised we had cereal, but no milk, bread for toast, but no butter or marmalade, oh dear🤭🤭🤭 and as we didn’t see any shops whilst walking about last night, headed off “before” breakfast with a plan to stop at the first place we came to with a shop.  Our chart told us the next shop was in Ventenac-en-Minervois, three and a half kms further downstream.

Arrived and moored up ok then headed to the shop which was on the quayside. We found a shack selling all manor of general groceries etc., but was very small so headed into the village.   Again up hills, again nothing, as dead as a doe-doe, so it was the shack or nothing.  To be fair we got what we needed so we’re happy, Christine could have her porridge and I had the usual Bran flakes but the shop also sold fresh baguettes, so naturally we had to have one which we enjoyed for breakfast.

We’re off, winding our way through the countryside, passing numerous vineyards but no wine to sup as we went😡😡😡, note to self, must get some as soon as possible, after all we are in one of France’s major wine region. 

When we collected the boat from “Locaboat” christened “Daisy” incidentally!!!, we noted all their other boats moored in their Marina and as we chugged along at 8-KPH, we passed another boat rental company, and their marina was also full of hire boats, we presume COVID has caused all this, but as I say, every cloud and all that, the canal isn’t busy!!!

Our next stop  30-km’s further on at Capestang, an old canal port that has re-invented itself into a mooring destination with bollards on both sides of the canal, plug-in points and water points. This place has history going back to Roman times but that’s for another time.

After lunch we decided it was time to un-leash the bicycles, one was supplied so obviously we were “forced to get a second”!!!!   The last time I had been on a bike was about 5-years ago and I fell off so this was a challenge that has to be taken.  So with Sat Nav set for the local “Intermarche” and set for “bikes”, we were on our way.   Apart from the Sat Nav falling over in the basket, it was plain sailing as we wobbled along, well we were going down hill which helped!!!  We arrived but first I had forgotten my pesky mask so I waited outside whilst Christine bought me a packet of them.   That’ll teach me to forget them, these are heavy, thick and just plainly awful.

Shopping complete including fizzy and plain water, wine, Pastis, bleach and washing up liquid; all heavy items that had we to get back to the boat.   Fortunately these old fashioned bikes had a shopping basket on the front, though I’m not too sure if they were designed for such weight!!!  so off we wobbled even more than before when we spotted a sign pointing to the canal for pedestrians, obviously a different route than we had on Sat Nav, still we went that way.    Travelling twice the distance, navigating steps and a reshuffle of our loads as the basket on Christine’s bike came apart, we arrived back on Daisy, still the good news was, neither of us fell off.   Will we use them again?? I wonder!!!

Back on board and we’ve decided to stop the night, we are opposite a restaurant that seems to have a nice menu, so we may be tempted.

Daisy has a way of her own, steering in a straight line takes all our concentration. I suspect she is keel-less and a rudder the size of a small spoon, her reactions to the helm are extremely slow but to ensure she goes where you want, one has to anticipate when to correct her but hopefully we have the measure of her now and she will do as she is told🤞🤞. The prop is electric running off batteries and they are charged by a generator, a sort of hybrid, halfway to being eco friendly I suppose.  

The lure of the restaurant was too much so we went across, fortunately they had a spare table as they were booked up and by the time we had settled into our aperitifs, the restaurant was heaving, obviously very popular.

After a superb meal washed down with copious amounts of local wine, we staggered all of 20-meters back to the boat and bed.

Saturday 26th June 

We were away by mid morning with a plan to stop the night in Tarragona but stopping in Xalo (Jalon) for lunch at a small restaurant were we especially enjoy their “Menu del Dia”,

Parking in Xalo on a Saturday morning is difficult as they hold a rather large “flea market” and with people seeming to come from everywhere, finding a space was, to say the least, interesting especially as the majority of the Spanish park, shall we say, un-reasonably!!!!

Walking into “Del Hierro” we were surprised to find it empty, maybe everyone was at the market!  We went in with the intention to have change, have something different from previous occasions, we always had the same.   After careful consideration and much pondering, guess what, we had the usual; not in our plan!!!

As usual we thoroughly enjoyed the food, some atmosphere with other diners would have been nice but hey, one can’t have everything in life!

We arrived at our hotel early evening, checked in and decided to stay in as we were both tired and not hungry enough to search for food.   Obviously ChristIne had foreseen this and had brought a “little picnic” for us to have in our room whilst we caught up with the qualifying for the Styrian Grand Prix.   

I would now like to say we had an un-eventful night, but alas no.   We were woken up by probably the loudest clap of thunder we’ve ever heard and if that was not enough, it repeated itself, over and over again.  It was so loud we missed the torrential rain that accompanied it; Naturally there was lightning as well!!!!!!

As is the way in Spain, we woke to blue skies, brilliant sunshine and no sign of the wet roads, so after an enjoyable breakfast we headed to Andorra, a place we wanted to re-visit.

Several years ago we had stayed there in December on our way to the U.K. but leaving (or entering) on the French side, the Pyrenees are bigger and higher and being a large ski resort with most folk arriving by air through Toulouse airport, the authorities needed access so  the “Tunnel d’Envalira” was completed in 2002.  The road, “El Pas de la d’Envalira” over the top gets blocked by snow so when we went in December we were forced to use the “toll” tunnel.   Disappointed as I was, there was no choice but I vowed to return to drive over the top one summer.  This was the summer and boy was it worth it.  The scenery was stunning, the excellent road twisted and turned its way as it went higher and higher until we arrived at the summit, 2408-meters.  Naturally we had a wander round but boy was it cold; shorts and lightweight shirts didn’t “cut the mustard” and to make things worse, the bar/restaurant at the top was closed.   On reflection, as we drove past the ski resorts everything was closed, only open in the winter perhaps.   So back in the car.

Whilst in Andorra we noticed the price of diesel, around €1.03, unfortunately we had only filled up a little earlier; got that wrong!!!  But at the summit there were 4-petrol stations within 50-meters of each other so we had a “splash” put in before descending.

On the way into Andorra we noticed the queue of traffic waiting to get out, it must have stretched about 7km, so we didn’t hang about in case there was a similar queue on the French side, but when we approached the boarder crossing, we just drove through, result but unfortunately further down the road there was a bit of a queue as there was a French Police road block.   Again as we approached we were just waived through, we suppose they were looking for someone special, not a couple of oldies!!!

Motoring along nicely when Sat Nav mentioned a 12-minute delay ahead because of an accident and when we hit the back of the queue, Sat Nav lit up very red and It took us an hour to get passed where the accident was.

When ChristIne had booked the hotel, she told them we would be a late arrival, good job as we were but not only due to the accident, but also due to the “cock up” by Waze.  Waze directed us along a narrow track with many potholes which also doubled as a tow path and naturally we followed it to the letter.   After a couple of km’s ChristIne pointed to an old rusted gate in the trees saying this was the place, but Waze said to carry on, which we did until it told us we had arrived at our destination; a lock and a Lock keepers cottage??? Fortunately there was a cyclist coming along so I stopped him to ask.   He told me he had ridden his bike along this route, every morning and evening and hadn’t heard of our hotel.  I must have looked very disappointed so he got his ‘phone out and googled it and was surprised to find it was back along the track by the rusty gates we had seen.  A three point turn and back to the rusty gate.   I got out and of course the gate was locked but in the distance there was a building and someone there so a loud shout to get their attention and someone arrived with a key and explanned this was not their entrance but that she would come in the car to show us the way.   Apparently this has happened before and always when Waze is used!!!

Five minutes later we were checked into this rather grand old farm house called the “Chateau de la Prade”, but don’t be fooled the the “Chateau” bit, a Chateau it was not!   They didn’t do food so we drove to the next village and had a rather mediocre meal though with excellent wine.

We had a very comfortable night in this rather grand room, enjoyed a nice typical French breakfast before heading to the boat yard in Bram.   Though we were collecting the boat in Argens, we are leaving it in Bram so decided to take the pain of the 1-hour taxi journey at the start, that way, when we leave the boat we are straight into the car and away. 

Our start time was 1400hrs so plenty of time to-get across and be ready for our “lesson” on the ins-and-outs of the boat and instruction on how to drive it.   

With all the formalities out of the way we were off, our target was to get to a village about 4-km’s away, moor up and sort ourselves out before getting really serious.

It was a windy journey, the boat had some interesting foibles but we arrived at  “Paraza”, not where we were heading for, we missed that one!!! Still an ideal mooring for our first night.   

After dinner we wandered up into the village, steep hills and nothing at the top, dead!  So back to the Quay where we had a glass of local wine in the only bar before heading to bed

Friday 28th May and we hit France after a reasonable night.  Because of the curfew and the stringent lockdown, the “partygoers” go for it “hell-for-leather”, partially because they can but more probable to catch-up the time they have lost, and being right outside our window, we were either roasted in the room as no “air-con” due to COVID and no noise or, cool and comfortable but deafened; some choice!!!   The good news was that midnight everything stopped.

After getting the receptionist to print of our PCR test results, negative naturally, we were heading out of Pamplona by 0930hrs.   Our route was a little torturous but the scenery going through the Pyrenees was quite spectacular, reminded Christine of England; the greenery, corn fields and grass, not to mention the grey clouds!!!!

We “popped” onto the motorway just at the boarder and straight into the peage plaza on the French side.  There were both Spanish Guardia and French Police everywhere, but no one stopped us as we drove through, why-oh-why did we pay €190 for PCR tests👹👹👹👹

At lunch time we stopped for a meal on the motorway but to our horror they were only selling rolls and the like, no meals at all!!! The lockdown in France is still stringent.

We arrived at St Cloud mid afternoon, loaded the scooter together with the various accessories then helped Mike and Catriona load their van with the last of their belongings; they had to clear out as they had sold this house after several years on the market.  Our car was full and closing the tailgate was a slight problem so with some creative re-adjustments, we were done.

We all stayed in a “budget-chain” hotel on the outskirts of Angouleme with the car parked right outside our door, and after booking in, met up in the hotel garden for a catch-up chat accompanied with Champagne, naturally:  Couldn’t have Cava in France!!!

Originally we were due to get a “take-out” delivered to our hotel but quite recently “Macron” relaxed the rules (slightly) and the curfew was changed from 1900hrs to 2100hrs so we went out only to find half the population of Angouleme had the same idea!! Still eventually we found a table in an Italian chain restaurant; the limited choice of food on the menu was disappointing but the wine selection was very good, helped by a good choice from Mike.   Of course we were the last to leave with the staff shushing us out as 2100hrs had come and gone:  Oh well one has to take chances occasionally!!!!

Back at the hotel, we took our chairs back out into the garden again and continued nattering, after all we hadn’t met up for well over a year.

Tomorrow we will head straight back to Spain so that we are still within the 72-hours of our PCR test, after all we don’t want to have to go through the same palaver again, this time in France.   We have decided to head for Soria, in the Castile and Leon region and spend a day or perhaps two there as we haven’t been there before and it looks very interesting