The morning dawned cool and we were off before 0900h, because we knew that the concert barge would be let out of the ecluse at 0900h, so we thought we’d get a head-start on our journey east.

But by the time we got to the first lock, at Negra, Tourmente arrived just as we were in the locking process. The captain of Tourmente, Sam the Man, came up to talk to Rita in the lock, and asked it he could pass us, since he needed to get to Trebes for the next concert as soon as possible. While he was talking with her, she found out that he also runs concerts on the Canal de Garonne (independent of Convivencia), and after Rita described next year’s band tour, he dashed back to his barge and returned with some publicity material which we exchanged for a business card. Before we left the lock, we had agreed to stay in touch with each other. Another contact made for next year.

After we left the lock, we looked for the first safe place to pull over and moor, and 15 minutes later Tourmente steamed past us on its way to Trebes, as we took notice of the advice on my cap.

Because of the increased levels of traffic on the Midi, compared to the Garonne, one thing we now have to get used to is double locking. Because of our size, we normally get to go in first and take up our preferred position, with the smaller hire-boat finding space beside and behind us. It all seems to work fairly smoothly and, as we were to find out, you also get to meet some interesting people.

As we cruised south-east, we arrived at Port Lauragais in late afternoon. Port Lauragais is a one-of-a-kind port de plaisance, since it is part of a large motorway rest area, which also contains a Canal Museum, a motel, two restaurants, a shop and spacious park and picnic areas. The facilities are first-rate, with power, water and shower/toilet facilities. Many people look down their noses at the Port because it is not a traditional port, but its facilities are hard to surpass.

Another major advantage of the port is that it is very near the summit of the Canal de Deux Mers (Midi and Garonne), where the water powering the canals enters from a mountain dam built especially for the purpose back in the 1600’s. So in the afternoon, we went for a ride to the summit.

The French countryside abounds with windmills. They add viability to some marginal farms, and grace the horizons with their languid rotations.

Right next to the windmill farm is the old hilltop town of Montferrand, looking down over fields of sunflowers, maize and fennel. The old towns and the windmills coexist peacefully.

Along our ride we found an old barge moored near the Ocean ecluse which must be the most inaccurately named barge ever. A more accurate name that we spied last year was Costa Fortuna.

This is the place where the water enters the canal, and magically some molecules head west to the Atlantic and the rest head east to the Med.

After a relaxing ride around the grounds of the summit basin, we returned to Port Lauragais and decided to try out the restaurant in the the port, La Dinee, for dinner (mainly because the two near the summit were closed on Tuesdays). La Dinee proved to provide quite good food and reasonably priced, and we could also keep an eye on the barge from the restaurant windows.