Friday, September 14th
Lots to do today - breakfast, visit the Locaboat marina to check out the scene, find a supermarket to get some provisions (at least dinner for the evening), drive into Toulouse to return the hire car, catch the train back to Locaboat, fill out the paperwork, get some basic instructions, spend the first night on the boat - oops! We're getting ahead of ourselves a bit!
Not a good night's sleep until we closed the window to stop the incessant noise of passing trains. However, breakfast was easy, as it always is in France. Finding the Locaboat base was also easy, and the weather was glorious:
There was lots of activity as boats were returned, people packed, and boats were cleaned and re-provisioned:
There was even time to take some happy snaps:
Our boat hadn't arrived back from its previous trip, and besides - we were too early to collect it anyway, so we headed off to find the nearest supermarket to get some "basic" provisions - this proved a little more difficult than we expected, but fortunately much easier with a car than without (no photos - you've all seen a supermarket before).
We dropped our supplies back at base camp, and fortunately our "little" boat had arrived back - I think Prue is in love with it already! No, that's not it in the foreground:
This one is more like Sam's tinny. This is ours:
Cute, eh?!
We left our luggage and supplies at the base, and drove into Toulouse to find Avis - "conveniently" located at the main railway station Gare de Matabiau. After our Paris experience we suspected this might not be easy to find, and we were right. A couple of loops of the station - one way streets, lunch time traffic jams, etc, etc and we decided to park the car and walk to the station to find Avis. Actually, it was obvious once we found it, but a little stressful nevertheless. Rob has been to Toulouse before, but Prue thought it had an "edge" - perhaps it was the railway station atmosphere that one finds in large cities.
We ditched the car, got some directions to the nearest Orange mobile phone store and set off looking for a SIM card to keep you guys informed (no photos - you've all seen a mobile phone store before). It took a while, a little French arrogance, and a charming young French guy, and we "think" we have what we wanted.
The train trip back to Locaboat central was fast, efficient, and economical:
But was the view in the other direction somehow ominous?!
When we walked the 2.5 km back to Locaboat we were presented with some "bad" news - the heater on our boat was kaput, and we wouldn't be able to depart until tomorrow. We're now back at last night's hotel, consoling ourselves with G&T's and Campari and sodas, about to have another (hopefully) wonderful French dinner, and all on Locaboat!
Um, I think I would rather be on the boat, but we're not impatient...yet.
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