Bikes, batteries and beastly locks: Agde - Capestang

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We spent a couple days at Agde having discovered that our battery had gone flat and we needed to buy a new one! Agde itself is a lovely old town, built from black rock which gives it almost a sooty look and gets very warm in the sun – almost burnt my backside perching on a wall! Once we'd bought our battery we went off exploring on our bikes, cycling out to the beach at cap D'Agde which was stunning … and we had our first dip in the Med, just a paddle for me, mind you, it was pretty cold in May! Mike went for the full swim though and, I have to say, he looked very Tom Hardy/Daniel craig as he emerged from the surf! I realised again why it was I loved him so much … not only had he brought me on the trip of a lifetime, he was easy on the eyes too!

We also cycled out around the headlands and marinas and stared longingly at the Med with boats bobbing along on its ironing board flat surface … soon my pretty soon!! We hoped it would be as calm as that when we ventured out! As is my wont, I punctured a tyre on my bike and Mike came to my rescue yet again, mending the old girl in the shade of a tree whilst I went off in search of water … it was incredibly hot and we felt we were melting as we peddled up the hills.

After checking all was safe and sound with the installation of our newly purchased battery, we headed off from Agde on another stunningly sunny day to reach Beziers. Despite being told by the lovely dee and Jeff, who we'd gone for drinks with in Lattes and who'd given us invaluable info on good places to go, that Beziers was a bit grotty, we decided to rest there for the night, again free of charge (I was loving that we'd not had to pay for a place to stay since leaving lattes) before leaving to conquer the beast know as Les 9 ecluses des Fontserranes (that's the 9 locks of fonserrannes to you and I - a staircase of locks and feat of engineering that we knew was going to be hard work). It was actually a nice stop and we enjoyed a BBQ in the sunshine before having a peaceful nights sleep.

The following day was sunny and hot again, our tans were developing nicely! We passed orb lock and aqueduct before reaching the 7 (2 of the original 9 are disused these days) lock staircase. It took around an hour to complete the cycle, which was particularly hard work for Mike as they insist on one crew member remaining on land to hold the bow rope and walk the baot through to each lock as the gates open. As we only had 2 of us, that meant Mike had to drive and throw ropes, I had to loop them over bollards and run back to loop the stern line and throw it to him before running forward to take up my bow line before the water came in.

The eclusier wasn't gentle either. The water came rushing in with a hell of a current that tested our strength to the max! He then waved impatiently at us to move on before the current had abated, which pinned Ozzy back to the wall and meant it took us longer to get through to the next lock. At the next lock when he waved at us to move on, we didn't. When he shouted over 'Allez!' I called back, in my best french, that we would not as the current was too strong. He left us to it after that. After completeing the 7 we were both sweaty and gasping for a glass of water!

The remainder of our trip to Capestang was peaceful and pretty and we arrived around half one, mooring up, again for free, on the canal bank just after the bridge. Capestang was a very pretty town and we were told where all the shops and amenitites were by Terry and Kath on 'Laura' a beautiful barge moored behind us. They'd been cruising the Midi for a couple years now and recommended some good stops, including a place called Ventenac further along where we could get wine for a euro a litre. I wrote down the name and marked our navicarte immediately. After stocking up at the local Lidl and eating lunch the following day, we set off in search of this hallowed village of wine!

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