Winter in Toulouse

Returning to Carmen after a few months in England it is clearly colder than London.   It lightly snowed this morning and is below zero Centigrade now. Le Photo below is from an early February day 2012 when the temperature was below freezing, and ice formed on the 

Later in early February 2012 the ice formed across the whole canal and thickened to 5cm (2inches).

Technical Port at Ramonville

At Toulouse Carmen had been occupying a berth reserved in summer for a hire boat company so when I decided not to cruise in spring but to have the barge surveyed to the new European Norms I had to find another mooring.  In fact the Technical Port at Ramonville is perfect because only boats that are having work done can stay there.  Strangely though it is quieter than Toulouse.
Work is continuing to finish the back cabin, get the back bathroom in commission and make small changes to comply with the new European regulations.

Toulouse Dry Dock 1-14 March 2011

Carmen was built in 1925 so her hull is 86 years old.  Barges of this age need to have their hull examined every seven to ten years to make sure they are still safe and Carmen's next survey was due before September 2011.  During the first half of March I profited from the old 19th Century dry dock at Demoiselles, half a kilometre from Carmen's winter mooring, to gently lower the barge onto five supports.  Here she was examined by an 'Expert' using thickness echo sounding.  It transpired her hull is in very good condition indeed, although she needs a small number of changes to comply with the new stricter European Norms.
Later, back at Toulouse she passed the handling tests necessary for the Norms.

The 19th Century covered Cale Sêche (Dry Dock) at Demoiselles, Toulouse with Carmen inside

Toulouse for winter 2010-11

Carmen is moored in Port Saint Sauveur for the 2010/2011 winter.  Although too big to be in the port proper she does get her own two pontoons with locking gates on the quay.
Toulouse seems a delightful City which sadly being so busy on trying to finish the back cabin, I have not really had the opportunity to explore yet.

Montauban September 2010

Carmen  moored on a grassy bank at the bottom of the leg down to Montauban.  In 2010 that was as far as we could go, as although the double lock that drops down onto the Tarn had been refurbished after many years, it had not at that time been completely dredged.  Dropping onto the Tarn is an adventure that will have to be delayed until 2011.

The river Tarn at Montauban

Agen to Moissac

On 8th August Bev joined Carmen at Agen.  After spendning a day exploring Agen, in my opinion a much underestimated city by fellow bargees, we watered the barge and headed east.  At Saint-Jean-de-Thurac Bev very much enjoyed eating at the "Poule a velo" restaurant in the old No 33 lockhouse.  At Valence-d'Agen we saw the spectacular sound and light show loosly based on the town's history put on each August by the town's inhabitants.  It involved 380 of the local inhabitants and was performed on the canal banks with the audience of thousands in tiered seats on the right bank.  Quite incredible and very well worth a visit.  The next day we reached Moissac and the following day dropped down onto the river Tarn where we spent the rest of Bev's visit either exploring the town or cruising and mooring "au sauvage" on the Tarn.  Bev was privilidged to see a great deal of wildlife including a red squirel perched on Carmen's mooring ropes eyeing Bev in a very speculative fashion.
Carmen is staying at Moissac for the next two weeks.

Moissac to Buzet

Door joined me on 8th July as planned at Moissac.    We cruised the river Tarn the next day and discovered  and lunched with her friends Dirk and Aagje moored in a remote spot on their beautiful small Luxemotor Marie-Helene.  The next day we motored on to Pomeric a nice little 48hr max mooring under the plane trees.  The next night we moored at La Gravere and then next day to Agen.  This town is described as not interesting by fellow boaties although it looked just the opposite to me.  Door had her own boat before and was missing cruising so we continued on, however I look forward to exploring Agen on the return trip. We arrived at Buzet-sur-Baise where we watched the 14th July eve celebration fireworks last night  from the comfort of the terrace of Carmen. 

Buzet is where the locks are situated to drop down onto the Baise to explore the rivers Baise (only a short distance for us as Carmen is 5cm too wide for the upstream locks) and Lot.  So far local information says that the water level on the Garonne which links the two rivers is too low for us to get into the Lot at this stage of the season but I will investigate further.