We left Homps at 9:30 for the market in Olzenac to be followed by a visit to the village of Minerve. Liz thinks today is the best excursion day. I know now she was right as we enjoyed both, especially the market. Like many small towns in France, the market comes once a week. This one had clothes and other "stuff" as well as a veritable panoply of foodstuff: Cheeses, sausages with a variety of casings like pepper,cheese,olive, every kind of olive, breads fruits veggies,meats,fish. You can also buy ready to eat "stuff", like paella. My favorite was the chicken roaster with the drippings going onto either potatoes or onions.
Minerve is an old walled city built into the wall of a cliff. We wandered a bit and did not stay long. Back for another outstanding lunch: a grilled sausage about 3 feet long,curled on a platter, salad of "lamb's ear" lettuce, a fabulous casserole of escarole baked under a crust of bread crumbs, bacon and onions. for cheese, we had two, a Basque cheese with cherry jam and a blue cheese. Naturally, 2 bottles of local rose.
We got underway about 2:30 but as we approached the Homps lock, we got into a bit of a problem with 2 "plastic boats". There is a canal rule that commercial vessels (i.e.,EMMA) have priority at the lock. As the lock began to open, 2 plastic boats began to go in, saying they had been there first. The lockkeeper closed the gate, trapping them between the lock and EMMA. Then the yelling started, especially from a scrawny old fart on one of the boats.(Notwithstaning his scrawnyness, his squeeze was a real piece of eye candy!!) Liz came up from the kitchen and gave it right back to him. Eventually, they moved and we got in the lock.
We anchored at a lovely spot, not far from the oldest canal bridge on the canal. Ron, Grag and I walked to the bridge.For dinner we had warm shrimp in a cream sauce in a crisy,open wrapper. A local white with this course. Our entree was cubes of lamb with ratatouille and a "sausage" made by stuffing eggplant with ground lamb and spices. After the cheese course, we had creme brulee which was excellent. Our dinner ed was a simple "vin du table" but it was excellent, our best yet on the cruise.