summertime goes south

23rd October

"Everything must have an end,
Like an ocean to a shore,
Like a river to a stream"

'The Famous Final Scene.' Bob Seger

Port-Saint-Louis to Port Napoleon

Port Napoleon is a short 6nm trip from Port-St-Louis and we arrived around lunchtime. The Rhone from Avignon to Arles is picturesque but we had to run the gauntlet of vast quantities of debris washed down by the flooded river. After Arles the river runs through the flat landscape of the Carmargue and there are no bridges or habitation on the river in the last 25 nm so it can feel rather lonely. A lot of the wooden debris fro the floods ended up in Port-St-Louis so we had to be careful when motoring in the harbour basin.

Port Napoleon is a rather bleak but huge marina with good yacht facilities, shore-side accommodation and a restaurant but little else. However, even in mid-October, it boasts an active population of mosquitoes, the size of B-52's. After dark we had to barricade ourselves in the boat to prevent being made a meal of, so we decided to move out as quickly as possible.
We found our mast and boom surprisingly easily but one small snag, the VHF antennae from the top of the mast, is missing. We couldn't source a replacement at Port Napoleon so decided to leave the mast off until the spring when I can bring one from the UK and fit it without going up the mast. Summertime was hauled out on the 21st October and we spent a day clearing her up and making ready for the winter. Our timing proved fortunate as that afternoon the Mistral arrived and blew at up to 30/40 mph with higher gusts, making life unpleasant to say the least.
We stayed one night in the marina's comfortable accommodation and left for Marseille, about an hour's drive away, on the 22nd. Our American friends arrived at Port St Louis the day before we left and on our last night, joined us for an enjoyable dinner. We swapped 'war' stories about our experiences on the canals and hope to meet up with them next year, as they will spend the winter moored in Monton, close to the Italian border.
Our plans are to spend 3 days in Marseille before hiring a car and visiting Nimes and Carcassonne. We also plan to visit Dominique, a friend we haven't seen for many years who lives in the mountains of the Massive Centrale.
We fly back to the UK on 6th November, marking the end of the first instalment of our odessey.
The trip has been thoroughly enjoyable and a real experience for us both. The rivers and canals provide a constantly changing scene and the towns, villages and cities, a huge variety of experiences. The friendliness and willingness of the French to help us, with one or two exceptions, made our trip even more enjoyable.
I have a number of observations, every town seems to have an abundance of florists, showing romance is alive in France. More surprisingly there also seems to be an abundance of Doner Kebab shops which makes you wonder about France's famed culinary skills. Incontinent French dogs and their owners' unwillingness to deal with the results, adds to the risks pedestrians are faced with from the unreliable pavements and the optional nature of the Highway Code. The dangers of smoking don't seem to be appreciated by most of the French, making eating 'al fresco' sometimes unpleasant. The most frustrating thing however, is the long and inconsistent hours when things, not just shops are shut. I can only agree with Linda who suggested that the national motto should read 'Liberte, Egalite, Dejeuner'.
We are already looking forward to next year when we will start earlier. We are planning to launch Summertime in early April and have some real sailing along the Cote d'Azur then northern Italy, Corsica and Sardinia and points south.

"Hark now hear the sailors cry,
Smell the sea and feel the sky,
Let your soul and spirit fly
Into the mystic"

'Into the Mystic' Van Morrison