Saint Venant to Merville

7 kms, 2 locks, 1.5 hours

I forgot to mention yesterday, that these locks are still manned. We had to phone at the first lock (no VHF here), the lockie was right there on sight and took us through the first two locks.  He asked where we were stopping, which was just before the next lock, and told him we wanted to go through the Saint Venant lock at 10.00 in the morning.  He called the next lockie and booked it for us. 

This morning we ambled slowly up to the lock at 9.50 but the lockie (or Madame Lockie as it turned out) was already there and opened the gates for us right away.  She was wonderful.  Not only efficient but also very informative and helpful.  We were planning to stop just before the next lock and she advised us to stop at a quay after the lock because some “undesirables” tend to hang out at the first one and at the second we can stay “doucement” (possibly my favourite French word).  She also told us a little about the towns further down the river. At the Merville lock she gave us a telecommande (yay, we’ve got a telecommande again J) for the next (

and last) 2 locks before we turn off the upper Lys onto the Grand Gabarit again.

So here we are, in a quiet residential area, with a supermarket and discount men’s clothing store about 100m away.

First thing  was to find a boulangerie to buy bread for lunch (so we could finish  off the very smelly Camembert cheese which was almost walking out of the fridge), and discovered one on the corner about 50m from the boat.  It was ever so busy and the baguette I bought was only just out of the oven, not warm but hot!

My mission this afternoon was to buy some new clothes for Ian.  He is way too tall to find jeans in Portugal (well, I daresay you could find them in exclusive boutiques in Lisbon but definitely not on our little island).  So off I went to the discount men’s store.  I bought a really nice short sleeved shirt, a pair of jeans and a pair of shorts, not having any idea what size to buy so just holding them up and thinking “that looks about right”.  Well, they were all totally wrong – much too small (I can’t imagine why, it can’t possibly have anything to do with the fabulous pastries we have been enjoying on this trip).  (I also bought a pair of shorts for myself, same size as I usually buy - but admittedly a bit tight!).  I went back to the shop to change them, but those didn’t fit either, so third time round he came with me and actually tried them on, now he has a shirt and 2 pairs of jeans that fit, but no shorts.

By then it was late afternoon and I was too hot and bothered to go for a walk around the town, but I’ll do so this morning.