It keeps being that pretty. Sometimes I put it in black&white just for something different.
Day 10: Stuck outside of Bezier with the Monday blues again.
Theoretically we were waking early to get to the Fonserannes staircase locks for the morning run. Ben woke later than he expected, and while Eric got up to help out I couldn’t get myself to leave the nice warm bed for quite a while. But then I got up and made pain perdu with apricots and fennel and honey for captain my captain (and then for everyone else).
When we got to outside Beziers, we were told that there was a dead body in the lock, the police were investigating, and no one knew when the locks would be working again.
Locks, all open, looking down…
…and up.
Fortunately, Tish had gone out for a run and reported that the town was maybe 15 minutes walk away, so while we were sad to not get to do the locks, we get to stay in town exactly as long add we want and don’t need to worry about the lock schedules, which is a win. We tied up next to a boat of older folks from Florida who have a LeBoat captain with them, who impressed Ben greatly with his captaining. They need to depart later today, so we swapped places and put them on the outside and made the boats together. The captain offered to just turn both boats around while they were still attached, which Ben was sad in retrospect he didn’t let him do since it would have been a thing to see. So now we’re waiting for Ben and Eric to get back from the grocery before we lock up the boat and head into town.
Everywhere else has prettier railings than we do.
We spent the day in Bezier which was somewhat disappointing (and also apparently I’d lost my joie de vivre for the day). The cathedral was pretty (and had an amazing organ, which Tish and Carolyn bought a CD of)…
This lion doesn’t look very pleased about being a swag-holder.
…and this cherub looks way too mischievous to hold this table up forever.
but the church garden which was on the map was totally unkempt and underwhelming. Then we had an adequate but unexciting lunch (I had grilled shrimp, and creme brulée which tasted of caramel flavoring) and Ben and I went to find a recharge for my phone contract, and stamps for my postcards.
Creepiest. Cherub. Ever.
@Queen (Don’t lose your head!)
We all met back up at the Roman ampitheater, which turned out to be invisible under the landscaping of the courtyard it was in. It turned out both the art museums were closed Mondays. We tried the art show at the artists’ colony, and gave up and went back to the boat.
Life improved, out of the sun – we all drank wine and ate cheese we bought in Narbonne, and got our zen on.
(Mike, literally.)
(Carolyn just got her cochon on.)
and I cooked the couscous and sauteed the zucchini and leeks and shallots we’d bought in Bezier with some olives from Narbonne and lemon zest and rosemary and cumin. And I got tipsy on some lovely muscadet Eric had bought.
The boat also got its duck on (“Got any duckfood???”)
I delegated the crisping of the duck (not that duck. The tinned duck confit we’d bought at the grocery.) to Eric and retired from the kitchen. We had lovely dinner on the deck, a first for all our boat trips.
I didn’t write down “quotes of the day” like I did last time, but today’s we: “‘The USS Surprisingly Good At Not Dying Of Knives’? Sounds like a culture ship, in honor of Iain Banks who died yesterday.”