When we woke the next morning, the NZers had made an early start, but a 0900h start was fine for us as we made our run to our final destination on this trip at Carcassonne.

As we left Bram we noticed Mr Pip (the boat of Terrie and Phil Chatfield) moored on the bank. Still looking good, and hope it sells soon for Terrie and Phil.

As we headed east towards Carcassonne, we eventually caught up with the NZers at the village of Villesequelande, where they had pulled over to take on some water (which they were running short of).

Since we were not double-locking with the NZers today, we paired up with another boat, who we later found out to be Australians from the town of Benalla, about 100kms north of where we live at Taggerty. Small world.

During the day, I exchanged a series of emails with Jerry Crosby, our instructor on the training barge Vertrouwen. I started this as we sat in Bram last night (where we started our training cruise with Jerry in 2011), and today we continued as we swapped information. Good to see that Jerry is still cruising in northern France on Vertrouwen, but will move up to the Netherlands next year. We may yet catch him somewhere if we head north at some time.

The day had turned quite windy, and so when we arrived at Carcassonne, it was quite a challenge hovering in place between a row of hire-boats moored at right-angles, while waiting our turn to enter the lock to get through town. Eventually, I decided to pull to the bank and temporarily tie up, but no sooner had I moved to the left than I was told by the tourist boat that I couldn’t go there, because that’s where they were going as soon as they got out of the lock. So I pulled over to the right and tucked myself away out of the path of the boats emerging from the lock. But now I was facing the wrong way, pointing away from the lock. When the boats cleared out of the lock, I tried a few times to swing my stern around so that I could drive into the lock, but the wind and the dock walls prevent me. So, in a bold move that momentarily confused the eclusier, I backed into the lock, then drove out and to the right, then backed into my previous space (but now facing the right way), then drove forward and turned hard right into the lock. Rita on the front deck gave me a round of applause, followed by the watching crowd, and even the eclusier who shouted “Bravo, Capitan!”. Oh well, all’s well that ends well!

As we waited in the lock, with the NZers who joined us after watching my manoeuvres, I spoke briefly to the head of the Capitainerie, and she gave me good advice of where to moor if my aim was to see the July 14 fireworks tonight (which it was). So maybe my pirouetting heroics to get into the lock were not in vain. Indeed, every time we saw Stephanie from then on, she was more than helpful.

So, following her instructions, we moved through Cacassonne under two bridges, and then found a great spot free, even though the canal was lined with parked boats. I had no idea why this space was vacant, but I wasn’t about to start asking any questions. The view from the road next to our barge was spectacular, to say the least!

Looking west from our mooring, and looking east. How did we get this space?

Fortunately, the NZers also managed to get a space a little way behind us, and so we joined them for drinks in the long lead up to the start of the fireworks (below, Ginny, Vickie (the bicycle lady), Steve and Warren).

We had actually arranged to meet two other barging Steve’s at the fireworks, namely Steve and Lynda (on Lyneve) and Steve and Jo (on Somewhere). We had passed Lyneve on our way into Carcassonne, and now we were parked just two boats in front of Somewhere, so we quickly made contact with them and then joined them in setting up table and chairs for the long wait.

There were a lot of other people also waiting at this spot for the start of the fireworks, and despite the competition for prime viewing spots, everyone remained very civil.

Finally, at 2230h, after a five hour wait, it was dark enough for the fireworks to begin. They started fairly gently and then gradually built up in intensity.

When they ”set the castle on fire” we were hoping it was just part of the show!

Many thought that this was the finale, but then the real show began with much more intense and colourful displays...

...ending in some massive conflagrations. All it need was a Harbour Bridge and an Opera House to be complete. But the Old Cite fortifications were a pretty decent substitute. Having come all the way to Carcassonne for this fireworks display, we were pretty happy with the result.

Having waited 5 hours for the fireworks to begin, the predominantly French crowd wanted to all be gone 5 minutes after they finished. It was bedlam on the road behind us, but we just sat back and had another drink over the next 30 minutes as the traffic gradually cleared. Then we walked across the road to our barges and went to bed.