We were a bit concerned as we had heard stories that French swimming pools don't allow swim shorts and men need to wear speedos.... Patrick very definitely does not possess a pair. After a quick discussion in broken French with the lady behind the counter it seemed that not only could Patrick not go swimming without speedos, but there was nowhere for him to watch us all swim. Given the swimming trunks on sale at the pool were 25 Euros we revised the plan and Patrick was only too glad to be able to go back to the boat while I bought 3 tickets for me and the kids. Then in steps another sales assistant who understood the situation and said "I can find some others... wait here!" We waited and she returned with a random pair of trunks that must have come out of the lost property box. Patrick desperately looked at the label hoping they would be a wrong size but the lady insisted they would be fine, and that there was no charge. Not only that but she marched us all through the ticket barrier despite us protesting that we only had 3 tickets! So for less than 10 Euros we all got to swim and Patrick got a "new" pair of swimming trunks. We all had great fun in the pool, though Patrick spent most of it being very careful as the trunks were a little on the large size and he was a bit worried about losing them!
Today we made an early start as the Danes had arranged for the VNF guy to accompany us (as is required) through the next section which includes a number of bridges. We arrived at the first lock at 9am as agreed but unfortunately no VNF guy. After a phonecall he arrived at 9:20. Typical French timekeeping! We both fit into the locks ok, and slipped into a rhythm of Polux going in first and us following behind. We did have a bit of a panic at the first bridge operated by one of the twist poles where we had got so used to Ola opening all the locks for us that we nearly missed the sign that said each boat had to twist the pole. We had visions of the bridge closing on us.
This section was incredibly beautiful, almost alpine like, but it was also very weedy... perhaps as a result of the stoppages in recent days meaning there was less traffic.
Some of the locks were extremely full too, with the upper lock gates looking rather like waterfalls.
At the end of the day we arrived at Joinville which was our planned stop for the night. There wasn't really enough water for us but with a little help we both nosed our way in and tied up with our sterns sticking out into the canal. It will do for tonight!
The kids (big and small) had some fun with buckets of water and generally had a great time
Dinner was boat pizza much to the kids delight!
hahah! Loving it Karen. Can't believe it's been early two months already.
ReplyDeleteDefo need a picture of the speedos though - with or without live model.
I'm working on it, unsurprisingly Patrick isn't at all enthusiastic.
ReplyDelete