Smooth sailing and few surprises as we retraced our wake back west to Montech along the Canal du Midi after five days in Castelnaudary.
Day One, to Port-Lauragais: First La Planque lock and then La Demergue and the triple lock at Laurenz. At the double lock at Roc, the kind éclusier let us in even though it was past noon and he was supposed to be lunching.
What makes a village one of Les Plus Beaux Villages en France? Believe it or not, there’s an official list – even an independent association. Our friend Anne, who grew up in in the area, recommended we take a drive with daughter Wendy to Auvillar, about 20km by Twingo from Moissac.
The old Occitan market town with its river port was picture-perfect on this hot and sunny afternoon. So I did my “Japanese tourist” thing (according to Wendy), and here are the results.
Built in the late 1600s (in the time of Louis XIV) to replace the original fortified gate, the clock tower (below) welcomes visitors to Auvillar; it also houses a waterway museum. Its bell strikes the hour.
Canal de l’Aisne à la Marne, Canal latéral à la Marne, Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne:
Ropy run to Reims, Lynn and Kim for lunch, close but no champagne at Billy-le-Grande, super-chaud in Chaussée, stranded in Orconte
Berry-au-Bac to Sillery port (10km from Reims)
For today’s 14 locks, we’d be experiencing a different automatic lock system – one that’s activated by twisting a perche, or rod, that’s suspended from a gallows-like contraption over the river.
On our first day out from T&K Marina, passing through Sonning, Shiplake, Marsh, Hambleden, Hurley, Temple and Marlow locks, we were extremely pleased to find a mooring near Cookham Bridge, exactly where we enjoyed spending several days last summer.
Fresh from three months in the Antipodes, we’re back in Singapore for less than a couple of weeks – better make the most of it! I’ve always fancied living in the hip Tiong Bahru district, and so jumped at the chance of staying at our friend Matt Chapman’s gorgeous flat in Eng Hoon Street while he was away. Thanks again, Matt!
Tiong Bahru is the city’s very first public housing estate – built in the 1930s by the Singapore Improvement Trust (predecessor to the HDB, or Housing Development Board). In recent years, this district has become one of Singapore’s trendiest and therefore priciest residential areas.
The Tiong Bahru Road block shown above is typical of this Art Deco estate.
I’d been speaking airily of us spending “most of February” in New Zealand, thinking we’d hole up at our apartment at The Oaks Club on the shores of Lake Wakatipu in Queenstown, South Island. But no – the apartment was only available for the second week of February, having already been booked out by the agents for the rest of the month.
Some things have changed since we first visited Queenstown in 2006. Not our awesome view over Lake Wakatipu; and my run along the lake path – either turning right to jog the couple of kilometres to town, or left to Frankton – is still as lovely as ever, though the number of cyclists seems to have increased tenfold.
Saint-Malo, in the province of Bretagne, is a wonderful destination to visit and revisit – apart from being the home of our daughter Wendy. This time, we were there to drop off our Renault Twingo for the winter and spend the first part of Wendy’s birthday with her.
It would be a mistake to think that Le Mans is all about the 24-hour race and nothing more. For one, it has more than a kilometre’s worth of 2,000-year-old Roman wall that’s still largely intact, and a gorgeous old city area full of artists and galleries. We spent just the one night here, en route to Saint Malo in Bretagne. .
We wandered around quite extensively today, visiting both the gorgeous 16th-century Notre Dame en Vaux, and the mainly 13th-century St Etienne cathedral, whose builders incredibly dispensed with walls in favour of acres of stained glass window. The market was closed, unfortunately.
In one of the nearby squares, we lunched alfresco at people-watching spot Le Comptoir Licorne: a €12.50 set consisting of a vlammekuech (a thin, pizza-like base topped with cream, white cheese and either savoury or sweet additions), a drink and a delicious crème caramel.
Waking up to the English rarity of a clear blue sky and warm sunshine, murder – nay, multiple and grisly murders! – was the first thing that crossed my mind.
You see, Wallingford is one of several villages featured in the TV series Midsomer Murders; it was Inspector Barnaby’s home village of Causton. Both the Town Hall and the Corn Exchange (now a theatre) were used in the episodes “Death of a Hollow Man” and “Death of a Stranger”.
