Ooh-La-La

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We have finally arrived in France - but not without some drama!

What are the chances of travelling to the other side of the world and bumping into your neighbour? Less than winning the lottery I reckon. Maybe I should buy a ticket. So we took a flight out of Rome to Amsterdam. And we are standing in the line at the departure gate for our flight and I happen to turn around - and standing right behind me is Jen Feltham (one of our neighbours). "Hello" I said and we both had a good laugh - what are the odds of meeting like that?

Well that was the upside of the day. Unfortunately in my haste to make our connecting flight to Toulouse - I left my phone behind in the terminal at Schiphol airport! Bugger! Fortunately the  lady who discovered my phone (who must be way more tech-savvy than me) managed to find a way to email me and I now have her to thank for arranging its return to me - she is sending it to our Airbnb in France where I will be able to collect it when we get back from our boat trip.

Anyway, we have now picked up the boat (our home for the next 11 days) - and we are cruising the first ever built canal - the "Canal du Midi". The canal was a massive undertaking designed to link the Mediterranean with the Atlantic ocean, thereby allowing shipping to avoid the straits of Gibraltar that were controlled by the Spanish and subject to trading taxes and some piracy. It was designed and built by Pierre-Paul Riquet along with 12,000 workers who only had shovels and pick-axes to complete the job. Construction on the canal started in 1667 and took 14 years to complete - a much bigger construction than Transmission Gully and with a lot less time between design and delivery!

Our home for the next eleven days

We liked this particular boat for it's design and engineering. It has three outside areas for relaxing - back, front and up top. So always a way to get the best view and find some protection from sun or wind. You can pilot the vessel from the top deck or from inside if it's raining. 

On the engineering side - this is the only boat model that is fully electric - everything is battery powered. There is no LPG for heating or cooking, it's all electric. It has three motors - one for main forward and reverse motoring and it also has bow and stern thrusters. These motors are electric too - so its very quiet running. Mains 240 volt power is also supplied (via an inverter) from the batteries. There is a small diesel generator that runs solely to charge the batteries that are doing all the work. With the bow and stern thrusters, it really is easy to maneuver even in strong winds - a great comfort when trying to squeeze through some of the narrow tunnels and arches under very low bridges.

Brenda relaxing with a chilled white wine at the steering station on the very spacious top deck

A view of the canal from the road bridge in the picturesque town of "Le Somail"

So our first day of sailing (why do they call it "sailing" when sails are the one thing we don't have?) - has brought us to Le Somail. We have planned a one-way trip going westwards from Argens to Negra (about 135 kms). However, to get to Le Somail we have had to travel eastwards - in the opposite direction. And we did this because Le Somail is home for a world-famous used and collectible bookstore called "Le Trouve Tout du Livre". The bookstore specialises in used and rare books. It was originally created by the Gourgues family in 1960 in Paris, essentially oriented towards a service of research and sending of books by correspondence. Then a desire for more space and a better style of living led the Gourgues family to relocate "Le Somail" where this Ali Baba's cave of books with a unique atmosphere was opened in 1980. 

So first thing tomorrow morning we plan to explore the converted wine cellar which now houses this massive collection of over 50,000 books. I think Brenda is salivating already!

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