Merry Christmas to Everyone

We are going to cook a goose on the barge today, in our small oven! Indeed, when we bought the goose at the 'live poultry market', we measured it to make sure it would fit in our oven! I also think we will be having 'goose' left overs for the next week or so. The smallest goose we could find was 3.75 kgs (8 3/4 pounds).

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, health and contentment.

Back on the Barge in southern France.

Peter and I are back in France on our barge.

Yesterday, we drove to Andorra high in the Pyrannees on the border. Andorra doesn't seem to belong to either France or Spain, although they speak 'catalan'. PV and I wondered how they were able to maintain their principality throughout history! Maybe it wasn't worth conquering by the different factions? Anyway, everything is duty free, as we discovered! So we spent lots of money on wine, clothes, gifts, and exotic food. We had great fun.

We even bought a whole parma ham for 19 Euros!!! (That is a whole ham for about $A25.) I now have to learn how to slice it very thinly. It is supposed to last about 6 months!! So we thought with a little effort, and some help by our friends/guests, we could eat it all by next July.

The weather was strange up there. As we climbed the mountains, the temperature started climbing and got up to 10°C (50°F), and it was raining. But then the more we climbed, the colder it got and the rain turned to slush, then huge snowflakes falling softly. It really felt like Christmas! (I have a hard time relating to Christmas when I am in Australia and we go to the beach on Christmas Day!)

Back in the Hunter Valley

We have just returned to our home in the Hunter Valley in Australia. We flew from France to the U.S. for a week to visit with my elderly Mum (94 and still living alone and doing well), and then on to Australia. My body is so mixed up time-wise, it doesn't know if it wants to sleep, eat, or poop!

Anyway, the barge is neatly tucked up in Port Castelsarrasin in the South of France.

All is well. If anyone wishes to contact us, we can always be reached on PV's phone, +61 (0)409 383 727.

Settling in for winter.

Castelsarrasin is a lovely town. Everything is at hand including the most fabulous market day every Thursday. Now if the weather would just co-operate... it has been very windy until today... and now it is raining. I hope that doesn't prove to be the norm for winter.

Windy days are NOT for barging.

Peter thinks I am super woman. He expects me to jump off the barge onto the shore with the barge going full pelt in the wind, run with the ropes to the nearest tree which is often across a paved path, wrap the rope around a huge tree trunk, and stop the barge. I have failed three times and our entry into the last three locks has been by gosh and by golly, let alone bumps and bangs.

No one has told us about the wind in the autumn months, but it is ferocious! Our barge does not cope with wind, and nor do I, so I have found out.

And then... we finally stopped on the side of the canal with great difficulty, pounded our stakes into the ground, tied our ropes off... and 2 hours later after the locks had closed, we found that the water level had dropped about 30 cm (one foot), leaving our behind high and dry on silt and the barge tilting at a precarious angle into the canal. PV called the emergency number in France, to find he could leave a message. Miraculously, by about 4 in the morning, the 'lock fairy' had heard our plea and restored the water. We were floating again.

With luck we should be at our winter port tomorrow, and we can relax. However.... our hot water system just blew up spectacularly while Peter was taking a shower! What fun and games we are having at the moment.

Barging is lovely 98% of the time... 1% is exciting, and 1% is just awful.

Spectacular Failure

Peter loves Chinese food, so as a treat, I followed a recipe for 'Chinese carmelised pork ribs'.... it was a spectacular failure with the meat, instead of having a golden glaze, came out black and as tough as shoe leather! Obviously, I haven't quite mastered the oven temperatures in the barge oven.

We are now in Toulouse and it is a blustery, autumal day. We are in the city port, but we keep getting blown around and bumping into the pontoon. It is not very pleasant.

We are on our way to Carcassone on the Canal du Midi. Locks aren't exactly easy. The bollards are too far back to reach, and the locks are deep...so I have to climb the lock ladder, Peter has to position the boat and then throw me the ropes. Sometimes I don't catch them... sometimes they don't reach me when he throws... locks have curved walls rather than straight sides, so often our barge is to big for the curve. Lock keeps are are not allowed to help. Rumour has it that a lock keeper in former years, threw the end of a rope back on a boat after placing it around a bollard, and hit a person in the eye. They sued the VNF. Hence, no lock keeper can handle ropes from a boat.

But we are persevering. The canal itself is very beautiful.

Sept. 18th - Patrimony Weekend in France: The French love their history, and on this weekend, all museums, galleries, expositions, etc. are free to the public. Peter and I visited The Monestary of the Visitation. Now I thought monestaries had 'monks', but this one had Nuns! The Sisters of the Visitation have a closed 'monestary', but open their doors (sort of... only 3 rooms and the chapel) on this patrimony weekend. So Peter and I visited and were amazed! I did not think nuns still wore the black full habits, walked with their eyes to the ground and their hands folded, spoke everso softly, and stayed cloistered the rest of the year in prayer. The one thing they were taught, was to make robes for the priests... embroidered garments with gold threads, tapestry, silk, satin,etc. in glorious colours. Each robe was an 'art piece'. This monestary had 36 nuns, aged from 24 to 102!!! An eye-opener of a trip!!

Took the bikes out today and rode for over 20 kms. My bones feel it tonight!! But we visited the most extraordinary castle!!! A real castle of a King built in the 13th century and still standing... walls, ceiling, turrets and towers, 4 stories high! It survived the French Revolution (where so many great things were torn down or just simply destroyed if they had and sign of 'wealth'), and it survived the war! There was the King's chamber (and chamber potty) and Queen's chamber along with all of her Ladies in Waiting who each had a 'room' with their husbands... and grand banquet halls with huge fireplaces at either end. They had their own huge chapel in the castle, and the 'chosen' priest lived at the castle, too. In fact, at one point, something like 400 people lived in the castle, what with servants, and guardsman, and stables full of horses and cooks and gardeners, builders, painters, craftsmen, and the Royal Courtiers, etc. And it was built by a King I have never heard about... King Rene d'Anjou!

We learn something new everyday!

Sept. 18th, 2010
We are now in Beaucaire at the bottom of the Rhone in the south of France. It is a large, very popular port. We thought we might want to stay here for the winter, but
1. we were put on a waiting list as they are fully booked
2. it is a bit noisy
3. it is VERY expensive

and then we received a phone call from a barge friend (Laura and Don) who said they had a friend who had booked their barge for the winter and paid at a very lovely, little port in a small village called Castelsarrasin... and they now had to leave for family reasons, but couldn't get their money back unless someone else booked the spot! Our friends highly recommended it as a small, quiet port in a really beautiful old town. So we took their advice and arranged to take the place of the other people. We will be moored next to the shoreline with water and electricity, and the cost is 2/3rds less than Beaucaire. We now have officially reserved the spot and paid for 6 months. We will start on our way there next Monday. It is about 2 'barge weeks' away.

So, get out a French map and find Castelsarrasin on the Canal du Midi, our winter home!

Beaucaire is in the 'Camargue' area, the delta before the Rhone goes into the Med. It is known for it's beautiful horses, flamingoes and bullfights, of all things!!! There is a bull ring in Beaucaire and they have regular bullfights, matadors, festivals, etc all during the summer. Ugh! I guess because we are coming up on the border of Spain and France, that things do tend to have a Spaish influence.

The Camargue is also known for rice and salt. So yesterday, we bought a mixture of wild Comargue rice... red, black and white! When I cooked it, the water turned black... most disconcerting, but it was very good. I seasoned it with Camargue salt... which is green. We also bought some local wines, one of which we tried last night and it was very good.

So all is well. My little tomato plant on the back of the boat had been battered by the winds (known as the Mistral) in Avignon , but seems to be recovering and the 'little gems of taste' are ripening once again!

Monday, Sept. 13

We are in Avignon, a spectacular walled city where the Pope lived when there was a split with Rome in the Catholic Church. In fact, 9 popes lived here over a period of 100 years until the split within the church was healed and they returned to Rome. But we visited the Papal Palace today. It was quite evident that in the 12th and 13th centuries, the church was into 'power and money' and sort of lost sight of what Christianity was supposed to be about!

Friday, Sept. 10th

For the last few weeks, we have been on the Saone,
spent a week in Lyon,
and then down the Rhone.
We are currently in Avignon. (I should be a poet.)

We had a really exciting day today... The Rhone is huge with a swift current, and the locks are massive. They sort of 'canalise' the sides when coming up to the lock. 65 km. an hour winds caused us to broach as we slowed down to wait for a lock to open. We ended up facing the wrong way on the wrong side of canal where the 'barrage'** is, being pushed on shore by the wind, going backwards in the current. Our motor wasn't strong enough to push off the shore against the wind. It took us over 30 minutes to painfully get the boat pointing in the right direction, and then to get it off the shoreline and toward the entrance to the huge lock.

But we are having fun.

** for the uninitiated, a 'barrage' is a waterfall. That is why you need a 'lock' to go around it, i.e. in this case to take the barge down so we don't have to go over the waterfall!

Tuesday, Sept. 7th: Barging down the Rhone towards the South of France. Bur it rained all day today which is no fun when I have to go to the front of the barge to work the ropes in a lock!! But we found a port to pull into this evening, so all is well.

Sunday, Sept. 5 Discovered 'Traboules' today.
A 'traboule' is a hidden passageway, and the buildings all over Lyon are full of them. They were used extensively during WWII by the Resistance Fighters. They were originally set up in the time when 'silk' was the all important industry in Lyon. They allowed he silk worker to carry bolts of silk from his factory to the dockyards for shipment, without exposing the bolts of silk to any inclement weather. Because the buildings were built so close togeher with narrow laneways, the 'traboules' went into hallways, up steps of buildings, across courtyards, through people's properties, etc. During the war, only the locals new about them and disguised the entrances. Many still exist today. Very interesting following them through the buildings.

Saturday, Sept. 4, 2010:

Had a fantastic day! Drove into the French countryside, outside of Lyon, with some friends... and happened upon a Medieval Village high on a hill, having a 'Hurdy Gurdy' festival! The town's name was OINGT, pronouned WANG without the G. There were over a hundred, working, playing Hurdy Gurdy's up and down the Medieval streets. It is the largest gathering of Hurdy Gurdys, and their owner/players in the world. HG's came from Germany, England Switzerland, etc. It was really fun!