Bram - Castelnaudary 14 April

We have 18 locks to get through today of which one has 3 chambers,  and the last one  4 chambers,  so we were waiting at the first lock of the day at 8.40. Locks only open at 9.

Leaving Bram, a pleasant place to be, friendly travellers and staff, electricity but no bathroom.

En route to Castelnaudary we have had beautiful views of the Pyrenees, tops covered in snow. Wonder how our walk to Pamplona will be, did not bring snow boots!

I LOVE Castelnaudary! It has a proper tourist/marina office, with wonderful bathrooms with hot showers, open all night, washing machine, hairdryer, wifi etc etc. 

One of the best thiings with travelling this way is meeting with ordinary people. Here in Castelnaudary we have the two French couples we met in Bram behind us and the boat front of us a couple from Germany in a beautiful Dutch type boat. They have been travelling in the boat for 3 summers and have been all over France Belgium and Holland, and Germany of course.

Carl in the shadow but the couple from Germany enjoying a sundowner in the background.

And a better photo of Carl preparing the vegetables we were given from the English couple last night. The wine, Ancely, comes from Homps.

Settling down to a glass of wine, 3 people, from Montpellier invited themselves to a sundowner. We wonder why they they did not invite themselves to the French people in the boat behind.  Anyway, we presume they were only joking and said "next time". 

While waiting on a bridge for a lock to open, a very narrow bridge it was too, an army coloured jeep came rushing by. Inside were two  foreign legion soldiers fully dressed in the recognisable uniforms. I especially noted the headgear. Foreign Legion, in French, written on the back of the jeep. Do not know why I got the shivers, maybe because I was close to falling off the bridge!