Paris

We seem to be having trouble with our laptop so I don't know how long the blog will continue. Keep your fingers crossed. We spent the day yesterday turning in the boat and then killing time to wait for the train to Paris. Four hour some train ride to Paris and then dragging out bags though through the subway system. We got to the hotel, got to our rooms and Gary poured some absinthe he scored in Narbonne. We have a spoon, sugar cubes and everything.

After a couple of drinks the four of us, (Gary, Carole, Lara and myself) went for a late night Pomme Frites. We made the mistake of getting four waters that cost us about 7 dollars a piece. Next time I'm getting booze. seriously, its cheaper. In big European cities watch your euros. They seem to fly out of your wallet.

We're across the street from a "buffalo grill." with statues of wild bill and crazy horse. Hehe... we've found the American west in Paris. I wonder if that's like finding Paris in Las Vegas.

We're going to go exploring today. Hopefully this computer will let me tell you about it. Last two days in Europe and then back to snowy Spokane. Sorry you all there are having crappy weather. We've been reading about it while we put on our sun screen.

Carez

our to sea...

(editor's note. Two postings for the last several days made at once. You may want to go read the prior post first)

Pics HERE.

We made it though the “Big Turn” on the way to technically our last stop on the trip, Narbonne. The turn was a bit crazy. It was where the canal connected to two rivers. You had to go the wrong way up the river and make a huge loop around some barricades in the water so you didn't run your boat into a bog ol' sand dune that was hidden right in the path you would think would be the most direct route.

We're heading south, or east, or something. Not exactly sure, but the goal is to go first to Narbonne, and then past Narbonne, and make out way out to the sea. At least we think that's the goal. The truth is we have options and in the group dynamics its quite hard to make a decision. Small groups discuss and agree and move to tell the larger groups what they have decided. The problem is that the larger group had their own ideas. Some want to consult maps. Some want to consult the boat people. Some just think they know what to do without consultation. Nothing really got resolved until we all had a meeting in the same place. The group call was to push on and make it to the sea.

However, when we pulled into Narbonne and finally figured out that we still wanted to keep going, the next lock was closed. So we headed though the city thinking we'd go to the next lock with time time to kill but then one of the girls spotted a flea market, and believe me, the boat stopped.

The market was pretty cool. Lots of clothes, sunglasses and household goods. Kind of like having a French Wall Mart on the street. There were tons of store around too, but of course they were closed. It's the several hours time in the afternoon where nobody does anything. I'm not saying its a bad thing, but I have to admit its a hard concept for this American to get used to. What? They don't want to take my money? People actually sitting in the store watching me trying to get in and give them my money. That's just weird to me.

While the girls were shopping, Gary and I were searching for bottles of booze. The boat was tragically out of whiskey and we were challenged to change that. We wandered in and out of little streets, eventually settling down in a bar for a drink, thinking we were beat. We did have a nice drink in the bar, noting the knot tied on the bartenders shirt. That bar was later nicknamed “the knot”.

I wandered around more, found a newspaper and then saw Lara. It was about time to move onto the next lock but we decided to make one last jaunt through the area in search of booze. A peek down a nearby ally, we spotted a regular grocery store. We headed in and it wasn't long before we found the booze and wine. Whew... we didn't have to go a day without some Irish whiskey. Narbonne is a beautiful city. We'll get a little more time there on the way back. It's where we'll turn in the boat.

We got out of Narbonne, though the next lock. Lara and I decided to take a bike ride. The boat is damn slow, between 5-10 mph. So while the boat is plugging along, people can ride ahead on bikes or run. There are several runners in the group and they make way better time than the boat. So Lara and I did about 10 kilometers on the bikes, which was really fun. We could stop and take pictures and just take a leisurely ride along the canal. Then when we get to the next lock, we can fill it up before the boat gets there and it saves tons of time. Plus its just fun to get get out and ride.

So after some kilometers of traveling, we finally get to the end town. There isn't really a good place we can dock and we were warned not to take the boat out on the open sea. This boat can't handle that at all and we'd probably get run over by some big ass container ship.

So we parked up under a freeway in what seemed like a mega-industrial area. Not a real exciting place to park. We knew we were going to stay the night there but wanted to see this little town we made it to, so we took a couple of hours and walked around the town.

I immediately saw a sign for a casino and REALLY wanted to find it. However, once we figured out where it was (some 2 more kilometers away) there wasn't time to walk up and see the French casino. Damn...

So we explored the town and made it back up the canal to the last lock, which of course is closed. I really don't understand why you can't go through the lock ( or why it closes) when its a lock that you operate yourself. I mean there's no French dude there that needs a lunch break. You fill it, you drive the boat through, and you tell it to cycle. Why can't we go through after 6? Grrr....

We parked for the night by a nature preserve and good lord was it windy. The boat was rockin' all night long. The morning however was GRAND. The sun was out and the sky was blue. Its shorts weather for sure. There is a path from the reserve that leads out to the sea, so after breakfast we all made it all the way out to the sea. Shells and dunes everywhere. Dylan and Johanna actually ran into the sea and took a little dip. I considered it to be WAY too cold for that action, unless maybe you're a polar bear or a Swede.

After our beach combing and polar bear club meeting, we headed back up the canal to Narbonne. We will sleep in there tonight and turn in the boat tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow afternoon, Carole, Gary, Lara and I will take a train to Paris for a few extra days in the city. The rest of the clan will head back to Germany. Looking forward to internet in Narbonne!!!

On To Paris...

Next time the story about the pirate.

Carez

whoa dude...

pics here

I got up early this morning and tried this morning to get back to the cafe where I was going to get some pottery, a cup of tea and some reliable wi-fi. In my rush to get the new blog entries and gallery online yesterday, I forgot to open itunes and update my podcasts. It would have been nice to catch up on American news, such as the Sunday morning shows from last week. I have a feeling by the time I get to internet again it will all be old news. Anyway they were supposed to open at 8:30 am and I was there, waiting. They weren't open. They missed out and so did I.

We set out to put in some serious kilometers today. We've all noted that when we come into these little towns on the hunt for the same things we're always looking for, (local goods, groceries, internet,) people say they are all in the next little village just up the canal. You know, around the next corner and over the next hill. The sun will come out tomorrow. We can only hope.

We went though several “do it yourself” locks and got to the first little village where we thought there was going to be a big outdoor market. Come to fine out the market was some 20 kilometers away. Hmmm... There was a little stand with bread and we all went to town on some great baguettes, aoili, olives and wine. The wine we got the wine from this church looking winery where we tasted several selections from the barrel. These were 2007 tables wines you could get in big plastic jugs. (3, 5 and 10 liter containers for 1 euro a liter) Now considering that is crazy cheap it was tempting,but this wine was too young for my somewhat burgeoning pallet. No body at all, and even a little watery. We ended up trying more and actually getting a bottle of some 2001 in a 1.5 liter bottle. We didn't have any problem finishing it.

We decided we had mined this community for all its experience, and of course were told by people hanging out that the next that of course there were plenty of things to do in the next town. We were of course a bit skeptical but off we went. We ended up eating lunch at a very nice restaurant from the “great dishes” section of the menu. My meal came with salad and bread with exotic spreads. One of the crazy things on the plate though was a little dish of candied thyme. This was like thyme jelly or something, and it was great. I really wish I knew how to make it.

Ixtla and Johanna didn't join us for lunch cause they somehow made there wa into a house of one of the locals. We were told the house was beautiful and these people had a giant dog with a slobber problem. I saw the dog later and really, it did. Johanna a got a taste of the dog's lonesomeness. Her leg and the dog got along very well. We visited a large book store where they have everything from cheap paperbacks to very expensive first editions. There was some donald duck book they wanted 400 euros for, and when I mentioned that to the group, several of them thought I meant 400 year old donald duck. In the book store there was a really crazy book about Colorado, with pictures from the 1800's and current pics side by side. That was very interesting to thumb through.

We said goodbye to the little village after our bookstore adventure and were on a race to get though more locks before they closed. On the do it yourself locks, several of us would ride bikes ahead of the boat and fill the front of the lock, so by the time the boat got there, it would be ready. On the last lock for today we were racing to get though it, Carole and Gary had it filled and then right at six o'clock some French dude comes out and says its closed. We were right there and because we didn't make it to the lock by exactly 6, closed for you buddy. I think they do it toget folks stuck in their town to spend money or something. Hmmm... It worked I guess.

We're going to push ahead to make it out to the sea and tomorrow we have a huge and very challenging turn to make. These boats are fairly hard to pilot, I can tell you from experience. They react very slow and you you don't every really know where straight ahead is on the steering wheel. Dylan and Juergen are doing a great job driving. (Dylan is a freakin pro) I'll let you know how the big turn goes.

One funny thing is that the description in the book for the end town of Narbonne said to watch out for blue and white boats cause they are often piloted by inexperienced skippers. Uh yeah, that's us. It's funny to be sitting in one of the boats they are talking about, reading about how inexperienced boat drivers can be bad news. Yes they are, and here we are in our big ass white and blue boat. Back off buckaroos!

More as we get closer to the Mediterranean.

Carez

Day Three and Four

Day three. More days, more kilometers, more locks. The race is on and the weather has taken a turn for the worse. The sun is off and on, but its windy and constantly spitting rain. It makes going though the locks much more challenging and hanging out on the upper deck of the boat not nearly as pleasant.

One thing about France is that the mid day break is very important. Things just close down. Shops, information stations, and most importantly for us the guys who operate the locks just stop working for about an hour and a half in the afternoon. We got “stuck” at a lock for an hour or so, but lucky for us, its the only “decorated” and fairly interesting lock on our trip. If we had to be stuck anywhere, I was glad it was there. The lock director is an artist who builds art out of metal, wood and other materials. The images in the gallery show quite a few of them.

Today we pulled into Homps, which is about the half way point. Some have been concerned that we have been moving too fast. We're a the half way point on Monday, and our trip goes until Saturday. This concern is obvious. The end of the line is the beach at the Mediterranean Sea, so the other argument is if we get there too early, no biggie. We'll just hang out on the beach. The other point of view is we should just go slower, taking time to go though these little towns we are passing through and do some exploration on bikes or foot. You know, see and buy shit. We've been in stores that have great wine selections, though I've made jokes that they have no Washington wines. We've been in fields and vineyards. We've been in some great restaurants. We've been looking for internet ( a series of tubes) access points and laundry facilities. No luck yet, which is why y'all haven't been able to read all this crap I've been documenting till well, you know when you're reading this.

Traveling though the south of France is still very interesting. Some things about riding on a boat though beautiful ancient canals are completely romantic. No doubt we've had had a wonderful time so far. In fact, as its happening we're often sitting around talking about how cool it is to be with people we love and do all this stuff. We roll down the canal in a big ass boat enjoying the views. Nobody is arguing, even with the semi-crappy weather, that we're not having a good time.

That being said, there are some things about this process we are all struggling with. It's not the fact that we've been averaging three bottles of wine and one bottle of Irish whiskey per day. It's not the several games of spades at night on the boat, or the zucchini jam I bought on the side of the canal. Nope. Its the fact that when we came into this port, and we knew we had certain chores to do. Not the standard chores of doing dishes or making your bed. These are port chores we could only do while plugged into the parking dock of the port. Some of the chores involve actually plugging into a real electrical outlet so your computer doesn't slug along for hours to process a web gallery. This chore worked well.

However, here's the kicker. One of the chores we were quite concerned about was to figure out how to empty the waste water. You know... the “water” from the three bathrooms on the boat. When you flush on the boat there is a little toggle on the pot for in flushing, and then adding water to the toilet. Eight pumps a piece (for each flush and fill cycle) will finish the process for you. Hooray right? Flushed toilet. Well, Carola went and talked to a mechanic on the doc to ask how we get rid of the waste water. She came back and told Juergen and Dylan that someone should have explained to them about the pumping system. They reacted with confusion and went into the boat to check the manual. Unfortunately what she didn't tell them was that she was kidding. In fact when we use the toilet and toggle and pump, the waste water goes directly upon flush into the canal. WHOA DUDE. Yeah, that was the reaction of all of us. We thought the thing worked similar to an RV in the United States. You know, the poop goes into a big tank somewhere, and then at some point you pump the poop out and it goes to the proper place. Finding this out as made us all a little weirded out about going to the bathroom at all. Especially as we see all the other boats on the canal. I mean they told us explicitly not to touch the water in the canal, but they didn't exactly tell us why. Now, unfortunately, we know all too well.

Here is a shot of a graphic a graphic on a can of beer somehow telling preggo women to not take shots. Being a huge fan of foreign signs I hope you enjoy it. I know I did.

In Homps we went to an incredible restaurant and ate like kings. I had a four course meal with duck again. This one was the best I had ever had. We actually went back later to the same place where I spilled a glass of a fantastic licorice drink called Pastis all over the table. We laughed about it and the waiter graciously brought me another one without too much humiliation. I was still VERY embarrassed. Then a few minutes later Hemingway was filling her water glass and dumped a ton of water all over the table. This after I knocked the centerpiece off the table too. I knew it was time for me to get out. The rest of the clan stayed and had a good time. I came back to the boat and wrote the gossip you just read.

We left Homps this morning and we're off to try to find laundry and internet. We walked around a castle and have been cruising up the canal. Very fun.

Now I'm sitting here in a coffee shop in a very small town along the canal. I asked the woman serving us wine and cheese where I could find internet to blast off the crap I wrote to y'all. She left and came back with her wi-fi key. Oh bless you! Feels great to put up the new stuff. Hope you're all doing well. I will keep letting you know about our adventures as I find electricity and access to the series of tubes.

I love this sign on the can. No shots for pregnant women. Mkay?

Until next time...

Carez