After a restless night listening to all the new noises outside (it’s amazing how your half-asleep mind can conjure up fantastic stories to fit the noises you half hear in the night), we slept in a while, and then Stuart and I went up to the Capitainerie to enquire about the Tarn. Seems it was still slightly above the officially safe level, but Lionel indicated that we should be OK to go down to the Tarn tomorrow through the double-lock under the railway and road.

We then plan to go for a trip south on the Tarn, and then moor on the river for the night, before coming back to the Montech Canal on Friday morning (must coordinate that with the Hawthorn-Carlton game at midday on Friday). We will probably then stay in Montauban over the weekend, even if Hilda May returns to Moissac, and finish assignment grading, and wait for Theresa who is coming in on Monday. So a day of more assignment grading for us, while Stuart and Christine headed into town, where Stuart wanted to grab some video and photographs of Montauban to sell to a media-stock website. In the evening, we went down to the art-deco Club Nautique on the banks of the Tarn for dinner on the outside deck.

One of the things we learned today is that there are a number of different ways to get into the town of Montauban from the port. One of the problems with the Port at Montauban is that it doesn't have direct access to the main part of town, which is over the river to the north-east of the port. It is also cut off from the town by the railway lines. We had read in several places that the only way to get from the port to the town was via the red route shown below, which crosses under the railway lines and meets the main road into town near the Hertz hire-car depot. While this may be true if travelling by car, it is not the only way if walking or riding a bicycle. If you are walking or riding a bike, you can either go via the red route or via the blue route, which heads out to the north from the port and then goes through an underpass (which is about 2m high at one end down to about 1.6m high at the other) and then joins Av Marceau Hamecher. From here you can ride north and then have the choice of three bridges to approach the main town area. You can also take the first left turn to get to the railway station. If you are walking, then you have a further option via the green route, which goes via steps and a path along the side of the locks down to the River Tarn (the entry steps are hidden from view and easy to miss if you don't know they are there). Once you get under the road and railway line, you come back up a flight of about 20 stairs to join Av Marceau Hamecher (those steps would be a bit of a barrier if you were riding your bicycle). From here you can walk down Quai Adolphe Poult, and the adjacent parkland along the river, for a more picturesque approach to the city.