Honnecourt

Breakthrough!  Well, would you believe it, late last night Ian discovered, quite by chance, that with this (expensive) Orange Mobicarte Sim card we bought 10 days ago, we can have access to all the Orange wifi hotspots throughout France!  All we had to do was phone a free number to get a password and “Voila” – we were connected!  So, not expensive after all.   This is not taken off the 5Mb  Sim card – it is absolutely free!  And a whole lot faster.  So we are back in the real world again.  

Streaming!

Interesting thing is that each time we connect we have to phone for a new password, which is sent to our phone.  That means we cannot share the password with anyone else, unless they are sitting right next to us.  Hmm, clever!   This is where we are getting the signal from

iBoost pointing at a house across the canal

This morning I took a walk through the village.  Yesterday evening Ian described the village as “dead”.  Well, it was Sunday.  Today it was just as dead!  There is a  total of 4 shops: the post office, a hairdresser, a café/bar, and a bakery/grocery store.  All closed.  In an hour I saw a total of 3 cars and one tractor!

However, way back in my memory I remembered this name, Honnecourt, and in my ambles today I remembered why – way back about 40,or nearly 50 years ago, when I was studying French at university, one of the courses was on French culture and Villard de Honnecourt featured as a mover and shaker of the 13^th century.  He was renowned as an architect /mason/builder. This is a reconstruction of one his inventions, a saw to cut large pieces of timber by one man. 

Not long after I got back a big barge appeared and started manoeuvring behind us, we rushed out to ask the skipper if we should move to give him room to tie up.  No, he said, he is waiting for the lock.  And right then, the lock gates opened and a barge came out.

This afternoon we had decided to go for a bike ride to the next town. No sooner had Ian got the bikes off the boat, and I had hung out the laundry,  than it started to rain!  So we had a shower instead.  Some of you may know we do not have a permanent shower on board and this is our solution:

Two big reinforced plastic sheets – one forms the shower curtain and the other is taped up to make a “shower basin” that we stand in. 

Then we have a TurboShower, a 12 volt shower unit that Ian bought in South Africa at a caravan/camping shop.  It has a small submersible pump which you put in a bucket of hot water and a shower head on the other end, press the go button and you have a shower.

Bucket with pump submersed

The Turboshower: shower head, submersible pump and electric connection to 12 volt supply

Once we have finished showering, we shake the water out of the curtain, bail water out of the basin, and hang both outside to dry.  Easy peasy!

After that Ian went for a ride anyway, even in the rain.  He rode as far as the next village, Vendhuile, but that was even more lifeless than this one!  The big problem is that he has run out of red wine, and coke (mixer for the rum)!!!  So tonight he just has to get used to drinking pink.