Day 14: Amphorae, drunken revelry, and our last night on the boat.
Started the day with a pleasant quiet breakfast, opening up the boat and watching the canal. Ben made a goat cheese and rosemary omelet. I reheated the last pain perdu and made the last bag of Russian Earl Grey and it was very peaceful.
Eventually Carolyn got up and we strong-armed her into helping us go through the first lock so we could make it to the amphora museum in time to have time there before it closed for lunch between noon and three.
We made it through three locks in efficient order. We tied up outside the third lock and headed in to the museum which turned out to be quite nice. They had exposed excavations, some wonderful dioramas, and tiny bronze amphora necklaces. The indoor museum took the hour we had before lunch, but the tickets are good all day.
Poor headless lizards!
When we got back to the boat, there were two boats ahead of us which made it into the lock and then blocked us, meaning we couldn’t make it in before the lunch break. So we sat on the boat and decided to get drunk. Kendra made lemonade concentrate and then we came up with the brilliant idea of something we ended up calling vin-de-walls shandies (with the white wine from yesterday, and enough lemonade concentrate to make them into a passable wine cooler). Ben made amaaaaaaazing omelets (I chose chicken with herbs with fresh goat cheese and rosemary).
We all got drunk and cheerful and when the lock opened we went through the next two with another boat and went to take on water in the town, and got even drunker.
We went to check out the textile museum and found it was tragically closed. (Permanently, it looked like.)
I came back to the boat and took a nap while Eric, Kendra, Aatish and Carolyn headed back to the amphora museum. I woke up to the news that Eric had fixed the lock we were going through, using the boat hook and an umbrella. I don’t even.
We made it through the remaining locks but one, landing just outside Narbonne city limits at 7pm. On our way into town, I did a photo essay of their extremely pretty railings, entitled “why can’t we have nice things too?”
We eventually found a tasty-looking restaurant. Aatish’s moule gratin was amazing, my crispy duck in a pancake with foiegras on top was underwhelming. But the company couldn’t be beat.
After dinner it was time for the sad task of returning to the boat and figuring out how to pack all of our belongings back into our suitcases.