As expected, at the stroke of midnight Rita stopped reading and came to the bedroom for a surprise Pinch’n’Punch attack. But I was waiting, and moved my arm out of the way, and counterstruck with my own Pinch’n’Punch. I claim it as a victory, but Rita swears it was a draw, since she says she also touched my arm. Since it was also Swiss National Day, I graciously allowed her to claim the draw.

We woke again about 8am to get breakfast out of the way before the Agen locks opened at 9am. As we were cleaning the table, we spied another boat approaching from the west, so we quickly finished, got started and unmoored and out to twist the twister. We were the first through the locks from either direction, and went over the Agen Aqueduct without touching the sides and without using the bowthruster – not bad for so early in the morning. We reached the first lock east of Agen just after 12noon, showing that getting through the 4-locks at the end of the day is worth a time saving of 3 hours the next day if you continue on to St Christophe lock that evening.

We continued on to Le Bessou, just near La Magistere, where we stopped for the day in the shade of some large trees.

Later in the afternoon we went for a bike ride to La Magistere. I had heard that it was a lively modern little town, but on this day it was eerily quiet. Given its closeness to the nuclear reactors, it was a little bit spooky.

After dinner, we went for a ride around Lac de Bergon by the side of the canal. Lovely lake but alas, for Rita, no swimming allowed.