In a little over a week, we have used 13GB out of our 30GB monthly allowance on our SFR Webtrotter! At this rate we’ll be out of data allowance halfway through the month! Since we couldn’t understand how we could possibly have used so much data, we headed off to the SFR shop this morning to see what might be causing it. They, too, were also at a loss to explain it, and simply advised us to monitor our usage carefully. Not all that useful, but we’ll do as they say and see what happens. While we were in the SFR shop, their display TVs were showing the Speedway World Cup event in which Australia competed at the weekend. I was disappointed that they handled our questions so quickly, as I was quite enjoying watching for as long as I could.

When we arrived here in June, we had a letter awaiting us, notifying us that it was time again (in mid-June) to get our Control Technique (roadworthy) tests performed. These are done every two years in France, and take the place of an annual car registration. So we rang the depot that did the tests in 2015, but they said they were booked out for the week, and recommended another CoT tester a little further out of town towards Intermarche. So we rang them and got an appointment for late this morning. When we took the car in, they said it would take about 30 minutes, so we looked around for something to do. The cafe across the road was closed, so a coffee was out of the question, but the nearby auto spares store was open so we walked over there in the hope of getting a small jump starter, which we had looked for unsuccessfully when we first arrived in Moissac this year. We explained what we wanted to the young guy behind the counter, and he searched his online catalogue, but could find nothing. He then went out the back to talk to the boss, who promptly picked one up off the display shelf opposite the counter. Exactly what we were looking for, so we grabbed one quick smart. One win for the day!

Riding this wave of success (we also passed the CoT with just a couple of fixes needed in the short-term future), we headed over to Montauban to visit the Decathlon sports store in the hope of picking up a couple of foam life vests for the barge. Stories have been floating around the barge forums of increased police inspections lately, with emphasis on paperwork, life vests and fire extinguishers. We have several life vests with inflatable gas canisters, but the canisters are now out of date, and apparently the police are happy with foam life vests with a CE marking. Two wins for the day!

Next to the Decathlon store was a Mr Brico hardware store (like Bunnings in Australia), so I paid a visit in the hope of picking up a length of power cord with inbuilt switch (like those on a pedestal lamp) that i could use to install an exhaust fan in the bathroom on the barge. Three wins for the day!

On the way home, we stopped at Intermarche and I bought three fire extinguishers for the barge. Our original extinguishers are well past their use-by date, and new extinguishers don’t need to be inspected until they are five years old. At 35euro each, these new ones seemed like a bargain. Four wins for the day!

Around 4pm I went over to the Capitainerie office but it was not yet open, so I went for a little walk and happened to find Iain and Kaz at home, working on the renovations to their new house. They have done a mountain of work, and I look forward to seeing how it has progressed when we get back to Moissac after our trip down the Midi. On the way back, I dropped into the Capitainerie office to pick up a FluvialGuide for the Midi and some glasses strings to hang around your neck. While these were items that were always stocked in the old Capitainerie, it seems that Jim is no longer keeping any stock on hand. It is a shame to see the Capitainerie store rundown in this way, since it decreases the attractiveness of the port.

In the evening, we had arranged a meeting with Lacen to finalise the colours to be used for the facade rendering. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a mix-up, and Lacen did not arrive, but Raph and Isobel were there, so we had a cool drink with them instead.