Last nights dinner at Le Perigord was lovely. Having sorted out the menus we all got something that we expected and there was delighted appreciation all around. Leslie and I had the specialty of the house for dessert, a caramelized filo with apple and Armagnac. Zak and Carmen went for the chocolate crepe. Carmen’s white top especially enjoyed the chocolate sauce. Our perfect waitress swooped in with a spray bottle of stain remover and voilà, the evening was saved. As it was so hot, we had a bottle of Buzet rose with dinner but otherwise kept to the endless supply of cold pitchers of water which kept appearing.

The port at Agen is on the other side of a shady area of town from the sights, so we decided to call it a night and walked back. After a bit of star gazing we hit the sack with the agreement that tomorrow was a ‘sleep in’ day.

That was foiled by the garbage/recycling truck dumping a whole bin of glass about 50 feet from the boat. Quite effective as an alarm. We all manfully tried to put in a extra hour or two but 9:30 found us up and about (except for Zak of course). Carmen and Les headed into town for fresh baguette: warm baguette, mmmmmmm.

Leslie is a bit bruised and sore from her tumble and might be on the sick list for crew duties today. She also has a monster bruise on her arm from a stumble getting off the boat. This puts Carmen solo on the stern line.

The trip began with the second biggest viaduct in France over the Garonne. It was followed by 3 automatic locks that you have to make it through in 30 minutes.

Leslie walked the bridge to get some pictures but rejoined at the first lock. Carmen disembarked to have a look at the bridge but we had to leave her behind. She walked to the next lock only to find we had tied up on the opposite side. Luckily we pointed out to her she couldn’t walk on water so she crossed over after the gates had closed.

After the last lock you hang a hard right and then kilometer after kilometer of huge trees, blackberry thickets and high banks. It was very Amazonian. After a couple of hours (and no locks) we hit Sérignac-sur-Garonne. The port was full of boats resting during the hot part of the day. We had tomato salad and ham baguettes for lunch with a nice cool white.

We took a walk into town, visited the air conditioned info office and passed through some half-timbered homes on our way to the church. The church featured a unique spiral bell tower. Inside it was spartan but beautiful. The floor was wood inlaid in a beautiful pattern. As we were standing in the church the bells rang causing the nervous among us to start. A few minutes later Carmen dropped her sunglasses and, since her other pair was already ruined, she cursed out loud at the thought of having wrecked them. Enough of the Catholic remains in her to send her scurrying from the church immediately after.

After a wander around town we picked up some Heineken and headed back to the boat. We immediately got underway to try and generate a breeze because it’s that hot.

The canal from here on was more of the same. Dense trees and no places to stop with only 3 locks total. We picked a gentleman following solo who’s lock-handling put ours to shame. The last set of locks was after we passed over the Baise, which we will pass under tomorrow. This set of locks needed you to flick the switch to set off the lock and then hit it again to open the doors. After which you have only 3 minutes to exit the lock or be trapped.

We pulled into Buzet sur Baise around 7. We tied up opposite the port because we didn’t need water and went for the free docking. Leslie and I took a quick peek in town while Z and C rested. After we got back we had quick cold showers, while Carmen toiled in the hot kitchen making French toast. Dinner was on deck with a super sweet bottle of white. Cribbage followed and then chat and a red Buzet to watch the full moon rise.