We made an early 0830h start, for what promised to be a long boring day. The Garonne Canal between Grissolles and Toulouse has got to be one of the most unattractive pieces of canal in France.

As we went through Grissolles, we saw EasyVie, Tom Hollows' old barge that was moored in Moissac for many years. Don’t know if Tom still owns her, but she is looking pretty good.

As we left Grissolles, we saw perhaps the only attractive view for the day, as the trees were reflected in the millpond canal.

Given the short distance between some locks in the River Hers area, the girls took the opportunity to get off the barge for a while and go for a walk to work the next lock.

After a long day, we finally arrived on the outskirts of Toulouse and prepared to navigate the three locks within Toulouse, which are all controlled by the eclusier at the first lock. We suspect he might have been a new eclusier, or was just having a bad day, because:

1. We waited forever to be released from Toulouse locks 1 and 3, even though we had reached the top long before.

2. He gave Rita advice about how to tie up when we got to lock 2. This was different to what we had written in our Guide Fluviale on previous trips, but thought maybe something had been changed in the meantime. However, when we got there, we found that his directions were unworkable for a boat our size, because of the wide spacing of the bollards he told us to use.

3. When we approached lock 3 through the underground caverns (below), the green light was showing but the entry doors were still closed. We just waited and hovered and eventually the doors opened.

Finally, however, we got through all the locks, and reached Port Sauveur at 1730h. Strangely, the battery charge had changed from 82% to 81% during the day, so not sure what was happening with the alternator today. I had a quick beer on the rear deck, then grabbed 30 minutes of sleep.

When Rita checked her emails, she found that she had received a response from the supervisor at the Montauban Prefecture. She didn’t add anything new about the Long-Stay Visa requirement (just confirming that I didn’t have a LSV), but did say that we could return to Montauban to pickup a Receipt. So we decided to make a special trip tomorrow from Toulouse to Montauban, and hope for the best.

After such a long boring day, it seemed like a good night for just sitting on the back deck and watching the world go by.