We left St Dizier this morning at about 1015, the first lock was just round the corner. The VNF guys (French waterways) were frantically trying to clear the mass of fallen leaves around the lock gates. At the second lock, as well as more guys doing leaf clearing, there appeared to be some general workmen, and also 3 or 4 French gendarmes, who wanted to speak with us. We'd never seen so many authority figures at one lock before! I was very worried about why the gendarmes were there - frantically tried to think of any indiscretions I'd performed during our short stay in France so far, Was it because I'd shown disgust at the sale of whole skinned rabbits, complete with the eyes, in the supermarket? Or was it because we were flying the French flag upside down? Or had we not drunk our full allowance of red wine for the week?( couldn't see how this last one would ever happen!)
It was none of these - the Gendarmes wanted to see the boat papers, etc, checked our names and curiously our uk address, and whether we had life jackets on board. They also wanted to check whether we had fire extinguishers and if they were in date. Luckily, Tim had bought a bargain basement mini fire extinguisher from Lidl before we left UK, and we have it fastened near the galley as you go down then companionway, so one Gendarme carefully inspected it, and pronounced it ok. He asked if any others we had on board were the same, and we nodded 'yes' knowing full well they were on the boat when we bought her, and weren't exactly in date, but he didn't check them! Phew, a lucky escape! Anyway, they were very nice to us, and wished us Bon Voyage.
Since we arrived in France almost 5 weeks ago, this was the first time that anyone had checked us out. No customs or port police at Rouen, we could have smuggled anything the country!