Now that our guests have left, Frank is feeling better and we have no other commitments, we decided to finally get out and do some barging (apart from going up and down the river), since it has been nearly 2 years since we have got away on an extended cruise. So we booked an appointment with the eclusier to leave the Tarn at 11am, and headed up to the canal again to head west. As we left the port area, Kaz Noble got photos of us coming and going.

It was nice to be out and just puttering along, noticing all the small details. Like the small snake that was left on the lock wall as we descended.

As we passed Valence d’Agen, we noticed that all the sets had been erected in readiness for the annual Au Fil de L’Eau performance.

One of the things you often see along the canals, but rarely capture on film, are the herons that fly off from the bank and then fly along in front until returning to the bank, only to repeat the performance when you catch up with them again. I didn’t quite get all the performance, but at least got the start.

We continued cruising till late afternoon and had reached the town of Mouynes. At that point we decided to stop and treat ourselves to dinner at “la Poule a Velo”, if we could get a table. We phoned ahead and got the last reservation. There were no mooring spaces upstream of the lock at which the restaurant is situated, so we went through the lock and tied up at the waiting pontoon downstream. Technically, you’re not allowed to do this (in case someone wants to use it for locking), so we stayed on board until the locks officially shutdown for the evening at 7pm, and then headed up to the restaurant. The meal was again excellent, and as good as we had remembered from 2011.