We had secured a mooring spot in the Agen basin, but unfortunately it was near a picnic table in the adjacent grassed area. Around midnight, a group of two guys and two girls arrived, probably after a night at the pub or similar, and started chatting. That was OK, and soon everyone on the boat was fast asleep. But I was awoken around 2am, when the chatting turned into an argument, that was soon quelled, but which then turned into singing and a dance routine by one of the girls on top of the picnic table. Being a visitor, one can’t really tell the locals how to behave in their own town, but after another hour or so, I decided to turn on the outside lights on the barge, and then go and sit on the deck. Eventually they got the hint, and slowly wandered off into the distance.

Not everyone on board had heard the night singing (different levels of selective deafness), but I was a late riser the next morning. So after a leisurely breakfast on the rear deck, we finally left Agen around 1100hr. Doug and Krista quickly got into the swing of things and found the best seats in the house before we had even left Agen, up on the front of the cabin roof at the bow, away from the engine noise. Up front, all you can hear is the lapping of the water on the bow and the breeze in the trees.

Once more we crossed paths with barge Anna, as we were making our way to our lunch stop at La Magistere. On the way, we had a hire boat trailing us by a variable distance, catching up some times and then falling way back. As we approached the last lock before La Magistere, they were way behind so once we had entered the lock we pressed the button to start the locking process, at the same time as they sped up and started honking their horn. Obviously, they were trying to double-up in the lock with us to save a few minutes, but on this occasion they had left their run too late. Once we had cleared the lock, we went for another few hundred metres, then pulled over to the bank under some trees to have some lunch. As Rita was setting the table on the rear deck, the hire boat caught up with us, and the skipper started abusing Rita and hurling obscenities at her in French. She tried to explain in French why we had not waited for them at the lock, but to no avail, and he kept abusing her at full voice. But now he had crossed the line, so I came out of the wheelhouse, and once again used my exquisite knowledge of time-honoured Australian colloquialisms to tell him where he should go and what he should do with himself. I’m not quite sure what impression this exchange had on Doug and Krista and whether they thought this was a routine occurrence, but once again hire boat impatience had raised its ugly head. After that we settled down to a delightful French lunch of bread, pate and cheese. We took our time in the hope that the hire boat had raced off into the distance, and that we would not see them again.

After lunch and a rest in the shade, it was time to untie the ropes and start our afternoon journey to Pommevic. The day was warm, and Doug was keen to try his hand in the locks, so Rita took him under her wing for the next couple of locks.

As we cruised through Valence d’Agen, we heard a fire engine siren, and as we approached the next lock we saw smoke on the bank of the canal. It turned out to be a small grass fire, but this still required a fire engine call-out. Coming from a land of huge bushfires, where the sound of a fire engine in summer often spells big trouble, we were glad that it was such a small incident.

We arrived at Pommevic about half an hour before the locks closed for the day, and pulled into the same waiting pontoon as we had used on the trip west. We tied up, but then stayed on board until the locks had closed for the day, just in case someone needed to use the pontoon to wait for the lock. We then went for a walk back along the canal towards Valance d’Agen to show Doug and Krista the sets that had been erected on the canal bank for the annual "Au Fil de L’Eau” production. However, the walk proved too long for Rita’s ankles (which were giving her trouble again), and so we turned around halfway and headed back to the barge. Along the way, however, we saw some interesting sights. The reflection of the two chateau in the canal emphasised the beauty of the buildings and grounds.

The setting sun also gave a brilliant display of light on the face of the lock near Pommevic.

Along the way, Doug found a mass of blackberry bushes and so took the opportunity to gather something for dessert. While he was picking blackberries, we continued back to the barge and started setting the table for dinner.

By the time Doug had returned and dinner was ready, I think he and Krista were starting to understand just why we rave so much about this barging lifestyle.