16 June 2012 Day 9 Ventenec-en-Minervois to…………….

Purchased baguettes from ‘the shed’ for breakfast

Ian’s turn to be Helmsman today – no locks, a few bridges to duck under

First port of call – Le Somail not only so that we could have delicious chocolate croissants and coffee but so that we could utilise their wifi, to update the blog, catch up on emails and skype family and friends.

Also gave us a chance to explore places in the village further, such as the hat museum that we hadn’t had chance to look at previously

We continued on our journey late in the morning and had planned to stop off at one of the restaurants that we had spotted on the side of the canal on our way up. The first one we came across wasn’t open for lunch so we continued on to the second at pk176 – by the time we reached it – L’Auberge de la Croisade, it was 2:30. We were just in time as they were just closing but said they could still serve us, but our choices were restricted to fish and or chicken. We were more than happy to accept that, and several hours later, we were all very replete, having accompanied the meal with bottles of rose and indulged in delicious deserts

and coffee and chocolate. We declared, as we have each time we have finished a meal out, that this was definitely the best we have had, maybe this one was because the waitress cleaned the table of crumbs between courses with a ‘ramasse miette’.

After rolling down the hill back to the boat we decided not to continue on our journey immediately but to rest and continue to enjoy the next to perfect setting and ambience. Sun shining, breeze blowing, parked beside the tree lined canal. The trees along the canal are plane or cypress whose roots serve to stabilise the banks of the canal.

On the move again heading for Capestang hoping to top up the water supplies. Unfortunately there was no space next to the water outlet for us to pull up so we decided to continue on to Poilhes in the hopes of filling up there. When we arrived there were two boats pulled up beside where the power and water outlet was so there was no room for us. We decided to ask the people in one of the boats if they would mind moving so that we could get access to the water.  They were about to sit down to their dinner so we had to wait half an hour before they would move their boat. Some of us explored the very small village whilst waiting, hoping to find a store but unfortunately it had closed at 7pm so we had missed it.

We did have enough food on board to snack on for dinner, which we had whilst travelling further along the canal, mooring on a quiet deserted section of the canal between Poilhes and Colombiers, just short of the Malpas tunnel

It was very serene travelling along the canal as the sun was setting with no one else in sight on the canal.

Whilst the locks close at 6:30 pm, we were able to continue on until 9:30 as there were no locks on this stretch of the canal and we are allowed to continue motoring until dark.