This morning we went back to the market in Toulouse and bought some goodies for the boat, fresh meat, Toulouse sausage and of course cheese and olives. We checked out and headed with excitement to Castelnaudary to our boat.
We arrived mid afternoon and were able to get straight on to the boat so we hauled our ridiculously huge amount of luggage onboard and headed off to the supermarket to finish our supply shopping. I tell you we won’t starve. The reason for so many supplies is that regional France closes on Sunday and Monday then this week Tuesday is a public holiday so chances are many restaurants/cafes will be closed until Wednesday. I have read a few trip reports where people have trudged from town to town looking for somewhere to eat on a Sunday night. There’s no chance of that happening to us 😉
As we’d arrived early and had our boat orientation we decided to head away past the first locks to get a head start for the morning. There were 4 locks in the St. Roch locks and we managed them really well for our first time and we were all excited so decided to carry on further to beat the boats coming behind. Well of course that was easy too and we could see 2 boats in the lock behind so not to be out done we just kept on going, Leisa and I making a cheese platter between locks as we hadn’t had lunch and by this time it was 5.30. On we went like our life depended on it, greeting the lock masters cheerily and feeling pleased as punch as we mastered another lock. We had a rhythm happening!
We may sound crazy racing through the locks but for this part of the canal there are a lot of locks and not many pretty villages to explore. If you arrive at locks when there are other boats you can sometimes wait for up to 1 1/2 hours to get through. We managed this far in 2 hours without meeting any other boats. We only have 3 more locks to go until we have a huge stretch of no locks so we can just cruise and explore.
We were most proud when we got through our 12th lock and there was no one else to come through as the locks close as 7pm. We then headed to Ecluse de la Peyruque which is the next lock. We moored nearby and Leisa and I wandered toward the lock keepers house. The lock keepers wife has a little ceramics shop and some local produce. She also makes cakes and sells glasses of wine, so of course we had to support the local business and we girls sat and had a glass of wine while the boys played with the boat. We’ve also ordered croissants and bread from her for the morning and we started our local wine collection for the boat.
For these few hours today it was breathtakingly beautiful. We’ve taken a few pics and I’m sure they’ll be a little monotonous over the next 11 days.
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