Today was a bit different as we cruised in the morning. Diana decided to walk and the Americans to cycle, so that just left me to enjoy the boat ride. Boats sunk in the canal is not just a UK thing, I don’t know if the VNF removes them or chases the owners to get them removed.
Diana captured this photograph of a Château in the distance across the canal as she walked the towpath and also a photograph of us as we approached the second lock of the day with little old me all alone on the deck watching the world go by. This is where she got back onboard, as the Americans were on bikes they carried on . You can see by the sky that its a much better day.
Nicole was waiting for us at one of the locks with some supplies she had collected in the motor, the American couple were also there waiting to re-board. Although the locks are set from the boat by twisting the hanging pole, the controls for closing and turning the locks have been removed from the lock chamber and now someone has to go ashore to press a button on the control hut. In this case Nicole who was already ashore did it for us.
There are several aqueducts along the canal and they are mostly very similar with railings both sides, in the UK the HSE would have a field day and want them all meshed in in case someone fell through them. Maybe they look after their young children in France and the older ones have more sense.Parts of this canal reminded me very much of the Canal du Midi lined on both sides with nicely spaced trees.
Where as other sections were like going through the Amazon jungle with the tree canopies meting over the canal.
Not only does this area grow a lot of fruit trees all under nets but there is also a couple of places still growing tobacco but not as much as in the past
There is quite a bit of wildlife on this canal as most of the time its quite rural, even with towns and villages in most cases it just skirts round the edge. We saw lots of Kingfishers flitting about and also White Egrets as can be seen on the banks of this dyke.
I said earlier that the lock cottages are no longer occupied as houses, well this one just proved me wrong, I don’t know if its a VNF employee or not but its nice to see them being lived in, so many are just boarded up if not put to other uses.
We arrived at our overnight moorings a little after one o’clock almost opposite this large silo, I wonder when they last transported by water. We were supposed to be moored by the bridge next to the electricity point but another barge was in our spot, luckily Rosa carries lots of power leads.
We had some time to spare before our next excursion so we went for a walk round the village, as you can see it has some very old buildings
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A little before 3pm we set off to the Lapeyrade Estate to hear about the production of Armagnac. We visited here last time we were on Rosa so it was all very familiar, It really is a cottage industry and they have barrels of Armagnac going back decades. When someone wants to buy a bottle they call in and say what year they would like, the lady who runs it decants what you want from the appropriate barrel, corks and seals it with hot wax and applies the appropriate label, all while you wait.
This year they were about to harvest the grapes so the harvesting machine was standing ready to go.
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After that we drove to the medieval town of Nérac, again somewhere we visited last time we were on Rosa, but this time with Nicole we looked at different parts of the town. From the outside the church looks more like a town hall than a church .
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All that remains of the old castle of Nérac from the time of Henry IV
This time we walked around a different part of the old town with its narrow streets passing the river lock.
This definitely wasn't here the last time we visited, it was by the carpark just outside the old town
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