events

And then here's a lock, though not all of them have a handy white line down the centre.  The white line is probably indicative of the number of cyclists/pedestrians that there can be at times, especially weekends.

Oh, I forgot to mention buildings.  That's the other thing you see.  I wonder if my growing sense of bordom, ennuie is starting to show?  It did start to be a problem for me, there just isn't so much happening when you're following the canal.  Which is restful.

In fact, and this wasn't so common, one of the buildings was a restaurant just next to the canal and so I stopped to have lunch.  Nothing special, whitebait, followed by something I don't remember, with a petite pichet de rosé.

I also met a couple of people, a group of english people on their boat who were interested in the bike, and then the same french couple I'd met day's earlier when I'd stopped to buy some honey - they were going to the Tourmalet to see a bit of the Tour de France.

By now I'd done 90km and it was hot, really hot in fact, with little shade for the last hour, and I just didn't fancy another three or four hours towards Toulouse in search of a campsite.  So, the nice woman who ran the Tourist Office here at Boé said it was OK to sleep on the grass behind it.  There were toilets and, for 1€, a shower I could use.  The only downside was that I couldn't put up my tent until after 6.00pm.

It turned out to be a lovely place to camp.  The park with a few swings, which is just to the left emptied, and I had the place to my'self.  Until a belgian couple showed up an hour or so later.  They had really nice Farhad bikes and had cycled here from Belgium taking in the Dordogne and the Lot valley's on the way.

Then a french couple who I'd seen several times during the day.  They were riding old french shopping bikes.  I asked them if they were following me and they said 'perhaps'.  It became a bit of a running joke since I saw them again and again over the next few day's. 

So, only two other tents, one of which was so far away I couldn't see it, with lots of space and good views.  If you rollover this image you'll see a view back towards the canal.

This is also back towards the canal from my tent.  The trees, very fragrant and full of bees, were limes.  The leftmost houseboat you see was owned by a nice fellow who put my Powermonkey to charge.  If I haven't already explained the Powermonkey is a battery that I can charge and then use to charge everything else, like my iPod, phone and GPS.  Thing is, I have to charge it at least once a day since the GPS is a power hog and needs a complete Powermonkey charge every day.  Consequently, getting the Powermonkey charged is a daily task, and a nice one, in that I have to go and ask someone to do it, and that inevitably leads to conversation.

The French guy from the houseboat I didn't really get to chat to, he was busy when I gave it to him and on the phone when I collected it back an hour and a half later.  Pity, his boat looked great, very spacious with only a kitchen, a stereo, and a bed with mosquito net on it.  He was listening to Chopin and reading Proust, so the very model of a Frenchman.