The 39metre peniche,
Monique, passing Jude's boat dwarfed even
Nordster. It came up
from Avalon, and is heading towards Toulouse. To get it through all the
locks, which are a maximum of only 29 metres, it was cut in half. So at
Toulouse it's going into dry dock, to be welded back together. Then it will
float back out again, and the owners will continue living in it as they
previously did. Apparently they have done this several times before
when they 'want to move' from one mooring to another.
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| Tight fit through bridges, especially rounded ones. |
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| Cut in half! |
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| Front half in lock....... |
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| and out. |
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| Tensioned straps holding the two halves together. |
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| and being joined up again! |
It was amazing to watch, the whole procedure taking over an hour for just one lock! Heaven knows how long it will take them to rise the four chambers at Saint Roche lock at Castelnaudary! Incredible to think that those straps are strong enough to hold the two pieces together while in motion. There was an awful lot of manhandling during this whole process. I bet the deck hands are tired at the end of a day. They claim to aim for 10 - 15 kilometres distance a day. Crumbs, that's more than we do most days. Especially if there are multiple locks to negotiate. Thanks goodness our barge is under 20 metres long.
Tashi seems to appreciate her new Cool Mat, which she's certainly going to need, as this past week has really hotted up - to 28/29C.
We finally managed to tear ourselves away from Villesequelande. Stopping for a few days in Carcassonne.
We had good, interesting days and bads days in Carcassonne. We saw an enormously long train pass over the canal full of cut tree trunks. We lost count of the number of carriages.
The supposed 'trainer' for boat rental company Canalous, frightened and amazed us in equal measures. He threw the boats around so fast that the waves rocked and pulled us offshore. Then three successive days he banged along ours, and three other private boats moored down here below the loch. Tempers were getting frayed, not helped by the soaring temperatures, now regualrly reaching 37/38/39C. Too hot to do anything requiring much movement.
It never ceases to amaze us how some boat hirers just never seem to understand their boat movements. They seem to think that you can drive it like a car. Just point the front and the back will follow. NO IT WONT. No-one has told them about the pivot point! Still they prove entertaining on the whole. This one in particular today, where the people after much faffing etc tied up, got on their bikes and rode off into town. 1/2 hour later we looked out and saw their having come adrift was almost blocking the canal entirely. So with Stephanie's help we pulled in back to the quay and retied it. They did have the grace to come and thank us and present us with a rather nice bottle of red wine!
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| Oops! | |
We were joined during our stay by a beautiful traditional Dutch Tjalk.
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| Dated 1884 |
Carcassonne got in the mood for summer with street decorations.
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| An unusual use for umbrellas! |
Some ex-boating friends, Pamela and Charles, invited us to share their 'house-sit' for a weekend, (but we decided to stay just the day) in the village of Laure Minervois, on the outskirts of Carcassonne. It was a beautiful old house with a lovely garden and swimming pool. Let's hope we will be lucky enough to find such a gem.
We had a visit from this colourful insect.
We lingered in Carcassonne longer than we had intended. There were two reasons for this. The first was having taken final possession of Val's car, we had to sort out transfer of ownership. At this point, the much famed French beaurocracy took over, and there was much tooing and froing, both travelling and by post, to get everything sorted. So once the car was legally ours we had to submit it for a Control Technique (MOT). Of course like anything all this paperwork cost us money, and while we needed two new tyres for the car, the garage in their wisdom replaced all four!!! They also replaced the necessary wheel bearing. So an expensive excercise.
The second reason for our delay was prospective buyers for our beloved barge
Gesina. They came for a second visit, having initially looked at her in Villesequelande. This time they came armed with questions and a tape measure. They spent the day with us, breaking for lunch among all the other holiday makers. Subsequently all was agreed and paperwork sorted and signed. So that will be the end of our barging days. We don't hand over the boat until March 2020, so there was time for more cruising.
Can't say we were sorry to leave Carcassonne as we experienced the usual trouble with uninvited 'borders' on our boat, both during the night and in broad daylight climbing onboard just to take 'selfies'!!!
