Monday 3 Sept - shutters, Carcassonne parking, acrobats, siphon pump

We had forgotten how quiet it was sleeping at La Maison, and so we had quite a late rising. As I was in the bathroom looking out the window over the canal, I realised that something was not quite right. On closer inspection, I found that the top hinge for one of the shutters was not connected with the shutter, which was hanging at a precarious angle on the lower hinge. I tried to get it back onto the hinge, unsuccessfully, so ended up tieing it back in place with some wire to prevent it from falling. I then inspected all the other shutters on the top floor and found another that was in the same situation, so I made a temporary repair to it as well. We'll have to get them fixed properly next year.

We then went down to the Capitainerie to remind Jim and Sandra about the ICCs that would arrive from RYA, and asked them to scan them first and send us electronic copies (just in case!) before mailing them to the Capitainerie at Carcassonne. While we were there, Iain dropped in so Rita decided to get some of his special chutney before we left Moissac.

Then it was back to Toulouse to drop off some stuff from the car at the drydock, before driving to Carcassonne to leave the car at Des Jacobins carpark, until Rita needed it to drive up to Dijon next week. We were happy with the price we had been quoted of 20euro for 8 days!

As we walked back through Carcassonne, we were impressed by the hanging umbrellas over the pedestrian walkway. Not only were they colourful, but they provided shade and reduced the temperature by many degrees.

While waiting for the train back to Toulouse, we had lunch at La Bristol bistro, and then went to see Steph at the Capitainerie about our mooring location for next week, and to let her know that we were expecting some mail deliveries to us addressed to the Capitainerie. We then hopped onto the train to Toulouse. After we reached Toulouse and were walking back to the drydock, we saw these street acrobats from the local Circus School performing at a set of traffic lights. Because they were much better value than the guys that wash your windscreen at the lights, we made a donation and noticed several other pedestrians and motorists doing the same.

When we got back to the barge, we noticed that the diesel spill had not been removed from the engine room bilge, and the strake had not been painted (in fairness, Serge said he would paint up to the strake, and I just assumed that would include the strake - apparently not). We also learned of a probable delay tomorrow morning in leaving the drydock, because of a turnover in the covered dock. Rather than ask Serge again to do anything about the diesel spill, I went online and ordered a siphon pump from Amazon that I thought might do the job - I got it sent to Carcassonne. Serge also said he would put some blacking paint in a small tin so that I could do the strake myself later.