The routine on the EMMA was very relaxed and, as we quickly found, virtually the same every day. At around 8am, Rene or Christophe would take the van and go to a nearby boulangerie for the breakfast pastries and for the daily bread needs. At 8:30 we would have breakfast. At 9:30, off on the daily excursion, returning for lunch around 1:30. At 2:30 or 3:00, we would begin to cruise and most of the time we would sit on deck and read,nap,etc. Stopping at 6 or so, cocktails became the order of the day until dinner at 8. Repeat tomorrow.
Our first excursion was to Carcassonne, a walled city that is quite remarkable. Much of it is now restaurants and tourist shops but still it amazes me that something this grand was built centuries ago. We toured the cathedral and the palace and wandered the streets, buyng a few souveners. Lunch was a real treat: couscous with mint,fresh spinach salad with peas and cheese, roasted red peppers with garlic,anchovies and olive oil, a bowl of radishes, fresh crusty bread with camembaert and blue cheeses. A local rose wine, perfectly chilled. Wow!
We began to cruise in earnest now and went through our first set of locks, a triple at Thebes. The day was sunny and we all sat on deck and enjoyed the cruise as the canal meandered rather than go in a straight line. For virtually the entire trip, the canal was lined with beautiful trees on one side and sometimes on both. This was welcome when it was hot.
We stopped for the night at Aguille lock where the lockkeeper had a number of his "works of art" on display. He takes what appears to be scrap metal and fashions sculptures. Several are of nudes, one woman and two men. Turning a crank makes the woman ride a bike and the men urinate.
We had a chance to talk to Liz. She is Irish from Belfast. Many (16-17) years ago she came to France. At that time "her marriage was not working" and she met Rene who was working in the rental boat business. As she put it, "there was the sun,the wine and Rene" so she stayed and worked with him. Around 1998, they bought the EMMA, at that time a flat bed barge. They spent 3 years making it what it is today. The first summer on the canal was 2002, just after 9/11 and they booked only 7 cruises, each with one couple. It was a tough year. In 2003, 10 weeks booked, most with 2 or more couples. Since then they have done very well. This year they will take the EMMA out of service in July and August, paint her and travel a bit on their own. July and August are crowded months on the canal as it fills up with rentals, "plastic boats" as she and Rene disparaging refer to them.
We ate again on the deck and noted a new table cloth. She has enough tablecloths that we never saw the same one twice. Appetizer of very large figs, split and filled with goat cheese and thin slices of ham, served with a local white wine. Dinner was pork roast on a bed of spaghetti with baked onions and beets. We drank 2 bottles of red with dinner. Following the cheese course we had cherry cobbler for dessert.