Villeneuve to the Petite Rhone

Aug 13

Villeneuve les Beziers is a nice little town, every weekend was different music groups in the town square but despite the labels they sounded the same (loud).  Bastille Day was impressive with a massive Son et Lumiere show (fireworks, lasers etc) but but very jingoistic compared to others we have attended (Marine le Pen country)? It must have cost the Commune a fortune.

However, with the plane trees ripped out it was hot and became fairly boring - primarily waiting for things to happen.  With another UK trip Angie managed to get the NHS to confirm they would operate on her - but not when -  'it is urgent so in a few months' - hate to think what non urgent is - a year - before you die - maybe? Our carpenter was running late and not very interested once he realised he wasn't going to make a big profit (should have listened to a prior warning from 'Merlot').

Peter was also unimpressed as one of the solar panels packed up - cooked by the heat at a guess.

Villeneuve les Beziers

After three weeks we gave up on the carpenter and headed east to Portiragnes to get some shelter from the sun and put in a few days resealing windows etc before a threatened storm. Angie stocked up on melons and grapes which seem to have become our staple diet. Moving on we stopped at Vias for a cuppa with 'Gladys' (Eric and Lisa) and Balestra (Barry) then on to the Ronde ecluse again, after which we traversed the River Herault for a short stretch.

The Canal du Midi is there somewhere

River Herault

Angie went into 'bird spotting mode as we moved east

Hoopoe

We shared our final Midi mooring with 'Dunvegan' - Steve was making his second attempt to get up the Rhone.

Eastern entrance to Midi

From this point I could have copied some of the photos from our trip south in 2011 but tried for some variation. The Etang de Thau seemed a bit choppier than last time.

Etang de Thau

Mussel frames

Sete marina

We headed straight into Frontignan and moored for the night - - Dunvegan passed through and was never seen again :) so hope they made it. We moored next to the jousting area by coincidence and as the town was celebrating a Saint's Day we had a grandstand view.

Parade of the Saint effigy to the church.

Then it was the long run along the Rhone au Sete through the Camargue

Lots of little fishing villages

but a lot of ''your turn to helm' stretches as well

We diverted onto the River Lez to fuel up (diesel and food) at a new Carrefour (last fuel stop for xxx kms) - first sensible supermarche ever with a pontoon 6m from the pumps, so jerricanning 360 litres of diesel didn't strain Peter too much.

At the River La Vidourie junction found a nice little greenbank mooring and we met our first proper 'commercial' for two years

La Vidourie junction

Not a lot of boat traffic but the usual wildlife kept Angie quiet

Egrets everywhere

Bulls with egrets

Camargue horses

Egret tree

Buzzard in action

We finally pulled into St Gilles ecluse and found a little wooden pontoon to overnight on off the commercial channel. Big mossies and at dusk we had shoals off fish on the surface (eating mossies - no idea what type of fish). After seeing the size of the carp, catfish and pike down south (and pike taking ducklings) Angie doesn't dangle fingers or toes in the water any more and Peter gets to clear the weedhatch.

fish shoal

All set for the Rhone,but when Peter checked the flow rates they had doubled in two days (lot of rain up North). Much dithering about delaying the trip, but at 6am the next morning the rate had started to fall so action this day and through the St Gilles ecluse at 7am onto the Petite Rhone

Agde

Jul 13

The run down to Agde was taken fairly quickly, certainly at the start which was familiar territory.  The bumper boats weren't too bad and we were confident enough to go under Capestang Bridge with the wheelhouse roof up this time. We didn't stop at Malpas this time to sightsee either.

Malpas Tunnel

Fonserannes was busy but we overnighted above it and got an early start (after two hotel boats).

The Fonserannes flight

Fonserannes ladder

Fonserannes Lift (unused)

Then into Beziers - a dire port with no facilities and a lot of dodgy looking youths - so we pushed on eastwards.

Beziers Port

Beziers town

Just after Beziers we went under the only lift bridge on the Midi/Garonne.

The three exit Ronde ecluse at Agde is a pain to manoeuvre around but Angie managed OK and we dropped onto the short canal down to the River Herault for the first time.

Ronde Ecluse

Herault canal

Then we trundled down the Herault River to Allemand shipyard in a howling gale 80 km gusts).  Angie did a fantastic job of getting us in for lift out (the deck crew had their eyes shut and fingers crossed which must have worked as we didn't hitanything).

Liftout

Considering Kotare hadn't been lifted out for cleaning for 4 years the hull was remarkably clean with virtually no mussels (thank you International Paints). Onto high chocks and straight into action pressure washing after removing fenders etc - those rope 'buttons' are heavy.

Then we put four coats of paint on over four days (two of antifoul and two black Intertuf 16). Peter also got Allemand to do some minor mechanical jobs - new rudder top bearing, bowthruster prop etc (the new  6 blade Vetus props are definitely quieter not sure about more efficient).

Angie did the fine work while Peter rolled (and rolled).

Good masking tape from Lidl

 The turnover of boats in Allemand was incredible with a new range of boats every day.

We were only 400m from Grau d'Agde plage so Angie did her morning walks paddling on the beach and in the evening there were lots of little restaurants to choose from - Angie was feeling poor so we didn't get to any upmarket ones (they might not have let us in anyway as we were striped in red and black paint). Somehow French tourist resorts are a level (or three) above UK ones and it is not just the weather.

Luckily no wind on lift in, so after 5 days we were back on the Herault river - Angie refused to do 'just a little 400m excursion' into the Med despite some deckcrew pressure but she had the wheel and control!

Lift In - a bit cleaner

River Herault mouth

Herault river

Then it was back up the Midi to Vias where Eric on 'Gladys' let us raft up for water and an electricity piggyback (for a couple of loads of washing) and then on to Villeneuve les Beziers where we have settled in for July (Angie has to go back for another sparring bout with the NHS and Peter is getting a local carpenter to look at window seals).

We would thoroughly recommend Allemand shipyard - friendly, efficient, a good chandlery and the overall bill was €300 less than Peter expected (what is not to like).

NHS Interlude

Jun 13

Our first two weeks in Castelnaudary port involved a bit of maint (after doing the cabin roofs in Carcassonne Peter needed to paint the wheelhouse roof) and a bit of social activity (Charlie and Lynne off Acadia came to dinner).

Peter pottering

The latter showed impressive stamina as they had managed to fluke a week in the VNF drydock and were in the midst of doing a hull paint.  Virtually all done in 4 days of hard work. We were surprised they had the strength to lift a glass.

Interesting stern 'cut outs'

Gale force wind as usual

Angie got her Helmsman Chair (aka barstool) - it is similar in effect to the peniches that lift the wheelhouse above a double stack of ISO containers on a hydraulic ram but Angie being light it is on a slightly reduced scale.

After a few weeks paid mooring we pulled into the non serviced end of the port ready for Angie's trip back to UK,  A gaggle of barges doing it on the cheap.

Angie's trip back to the UK turned into an NHS nightmare the original 2 to 4 weeks stretched to seven and that was just for scans so watch this space - the medical side of the NHS might be OK but the bureaucratic inefficiency and general incompetence is appalling - certainly the 'customer' is treated like an inconvenience..

Peter grabbed a better mooring in Angie's absence, much approved of by Kes who could lie out all day and Peter settled into bachelor routine thriving on scrambled eggs enlivened by salmon or anchovies (and enhanced by lots of rugby).  John from 'Tigers Tail'was in a state of disrepair (generator, motorbike, stern mods .... etc  so Peter enjoyed watching others work with the usual 'I wouldn't do it that way' comments.
.

Castelnaudary port has spent a lot of money on replacing the old plane trees - new lighting etc so in a few years it will be back to normal. The Midi overall is slowly changing with a lot of dead trees and gaps appearing as swathes are ripped out.

Whilst walking Kes early Peter managed to get some almost unique photos of the Bassins - given the usual wind levels

Petit Bassin

Grand Bassin

Balestra (Bryan, Margaret and CoCo) had been sharing our mooring and booked into Castelnaudary Drydock to do their hull - they had almost constant rain so did well to get it done.

One man, no dog and only between coffee breaks - VNF Drydock

Angie failed to turn up by mid Jun as the Air Traffic controllers went on strike so, given we were due in Agde for lift out n the 24th, Peter single handed Castelnaudary to Carcassonne to meet her. An interesting trip (for the deckcrew) as the hire boats are on the move and the eclusiers felt the oval ecluses should be packed full - but taking appropriate navigational advice from Kes all was well.

Angie arrived and after a suitable celebration at L'Italia we pushed off for Agde.

On the Move

Apr 13

The Beatles concert by a Dutch group (the 'Rabeats') was excellent, though Peter's hearing took a day or so to recover to its usual poor level.  In our final week in Carcassonne we managed to get two coats of paint onto the roof between rain showers  (and on La Capitaine's days off). Then redirection of The Economist (vitally important) to Castelnaudary and a farewell meal at L'Italia and we were off west only a day early. Saw our first ducklings of the year on 31 Mar just as we pulled out.

Angie recovering from the painting (in slippers)!

The second day of cruising the new wooden Helmsman's chair collapsed - poor quality according to Peter - but Angie claims it was down to Peter who is suffering from a winter of overindulgence - anyway we managed to extract our money back from the supplier and Angie has identified a nice (metal) bar stool that will have a multi use role - all we need is a bar..

April is developing a bit like last year, a lot more rain than sun though the nice days are almost sunbathing weather. We passed 'Ailsa' who was en route to Agde dry dock and after a week pottering arrived at Castelnaudary - lots of new tree planting on the south bank. The snow is glistening on the Pyrenees in the distance but the temperature is in the mid teens.

Peter's birthday came and went as they do - more food of course. Then it was Dinner on the narrowboat 'Amethyst' (Del and Jane) - despite a nice meal Del didn't convince us that a vegetarian diet was the answer or that all the world's ills were the fault of the American's - but an enjoyable night.  Not sure that we could 'liveaboard' a narrowboat though - strictly for short holidays.

Can I have some paté ..please

The Sagar L'Herrison (Stuart and Maggie) pulled in for a night along with Ricoheba (from Carcassonne) so we hosted an impromptu drinks party which conveniently used up all the party snacks. Just killing time now until the weather improves this weekend (more painting) and for Angie to set off to see her UK consultant at the end of the month.

Gardening weather

Mar 13

We keep on saying we won't drive back to the UK again from the Midi, then do it when the shopping list gets longer and longer. Peter blames Angie (new tumble dryer) - Angie blames Peter (boat paint) but 13 hours is a long haul even sharing the driving.  The poor Kangoo was sagging under all that and the Tesco shopping! For the first time we took Kes (the collie) - to call him a bad traveller would be an understatement - but dosed to the gunnels with 'mal de auto' pills he survived OK.

Peter got a reasonably clean bill of health from his GP (surprising given his age and youthful indiscretions), but they managed to find problems with Angie's blood tests (no not liver) so April will be more trips to UK consultants much to her fury. To add to her good mood, the cleaning skills of the postgrad tenant in the Bristol flat were limited to turning on a vacuum cleaner so it took her two full days to degunge it ready for relet. Diesel and peagé charges have rocketed and add a new boiler for the flat and we got back to Carcassonne broke as usual!

After our rude comments about the dress of our neighbour on Sirius he let us take a photo - I rest my case.

Nigel - Sirius

We managed a trip to Arles while we had the hire car as Peter doesn't want to turn south down the Rhone next August.  A good time of year to visit as there were no other tourists, but overall we felt it was a disappointment after Avignon.

Arles - River Rhone

Arles - Mairie

Arles - Roman Amphitheatre (aka Bull Ring)

Arles - Roman Theatre

Everyone on the barges was busy finishing off the Winter jobs - fitting solar panels etc. Peter did a load of minor electrical jobs (wheelhouse alarm and a panic button - must be feeling insecure) and a 240V wheelhouse socket so we can have music and Navigo on while flogging up the Rhone later in the year.  The Spring gardening is done with lots of geraniums and primula in tubs and the herbs in seed pots.

A bit bored as we have been to all the interesting restaurants that we can afford and pre-tourist season Carcassonne doesn't offer a lot other than the Cité.  Angie has got to the stage where she is washing down interior walls (?) navigating around Peter who is usually flat on his back on the sofa playing computer games.

Although the photos show blue skies we have had mixed weather over the Winter - quite a lot of rain and two light snow falls but nothing like up North (or even last year here when the Bassin froze). Angie was feeling alert and spotted this 'anvil' cloud formation one afternoon.

The first barge to leave was 'Sirius' en route to Toulouse on 20 Mar but luckily we can't go yet (or Peter would) as we have a Beatles concert on 22 March, but soon after it will be engine on and back on the cut.  We have changed our mind and will be spending a month in and around Castelnaudary (so Angie can have her UK med checks) but then it will be pottering east for a hull repaint and the Rhone.