contentedsouls

We had a fabulous evening on the Danish barge with Kurt and Bente. Now that is quite a vessel! They are starting to do B & B on the Somme for the first time this summer with their two, en suite, double bedrooms. Their prices are incredibly cheap compared to all the others I’ve seen. I soooo want that range, galley, wine cellar, garage. I wouldn’t want to drive it though and it’s not exactly a ‘park it anywhere’ boat.

We decided to stay an extra day on Monday as Mike wanted to finish his solar panel mount and I wanted to attack the painting on my starboard side panels – the conditions were perfect.

We booked the man in a van for 10.15 on Tuesday and I bagsied the helm for the first lock. It was awhile before anyone turned up so, with the wind getting up, I ‘sat’ on a moored boat for awhile. The lockie eventually arrived and saw us down the first 2 locks before announcing that we were outside his jurisdiction and he was handing us over to the Amiens lockie for our 3rd and final lock of the day. Lunch closures are 12.30 – 1.30 and, despite the delayed start, we were at the 3rd lock (in our favour) by 12.15. No lockie; clearly too close to lunch for him to risk opening the gates and letting us down!!! So we moored up and  Muttley and I found a fabulous footpath. Returning at 1.30. Still no lockie and we said we’d give him until 2.00 before ringing to see if we’d been forgotten. He turned up at 4 minutes to 2.

So we cruised on into Amiens

A lovely city centre mooring where I persuaded himself to take me out for a (very) belated birthday lunch – mixed seafood starter followed by moules and frites for me