Sunny and warm. It was cool under the shady plane trees. The replica Dutch barge Lagom was moored above Nègra by the Locaboat base. Mike shouted “Mornin’” to the couple on it as we went into the lock. A young man worked the lock for us. It was 9.30 a.m. as we set off on the 3.7 kms pound down to Sanglier two-rise, which we did in super fast time. 1.5 kms to Aiguesvives, where a very young male student insisted we had two ropes on. He spoke a little English and told us he was going to Derby to study for a degree in Health and Safety! Mike suggested he asked the VNF why they insisted he should make sure all boats use two ropes. He said he would ask. (Doubt he’ll get any sensible answers and would he know if he did?) 10.40 a.m. when we left the bottom with 3.2 kms to go to Montgiscard, where another young lad worked the lock for us. A VNF workman was busily repairing the opening and closing mechanism for the bottom end right gate. The boat descended slowly, then we set off on a 7.5 kms long pound that was between 8” - 9” down. There were several plum trees along the non-towpath side, a nice Mirabelle with tiny sweet yellow fruits and a larger yellow variety further along, but didn’t stop to collect any. Mike had just made comment that we’d seen nothing moving all day when a cruiser came through the Pont de Deyme bridge, heading uphill. We moored at Vic at 12.45 a.m. after moving the same little blue cruiser again to get close to the bank. After lunch we went by car into Toulouse, parked at Place Jean d’Arc again and went to see the guy in the Internet café. Sorry, he said, as he handed back the two phones, they were too old to unlock. What could we do now, Mike asked? Dustbin? No, he said, go to the library and look at the photos on the wall. (Wonder what that meant? Safe disposal instructions probably!) We went back to the car and trundled back out of the city and went to Carrefour for groceries. School holidays, 50% off sales and mid-afternoon all contributed to the store being packed. We grabbed the essentials that I had on my list and beat a hasty retreat back to the boat. As we drove across the bridge at Vic we saw Lagom going into the lock heading downhill to Toulouse. Unpacked the groceries then I had a coffee and finished reading King Rat, about Changi POW camp in Singapore, a very interesting read (donated by Bill). I made a salad for dinner. In the distance we could hear a brass band playing jazz and decided it must have been coming from the péniche nearest the lock.
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