Pente d'Eau de Fonseranes: The Last Leg

Sunday morning, and we wake to the boatload of Spaniards as jovial at breakfast as they were last midnight. They are having wine with breakfast and playing Spanish music—it's hard not to like them. Today, we need to cruise for around 45 minutes to get in line to go down the "Pente d'Eau de Fonseranes," seven conjoined locks. The Spaniards cast off first, but before they go, they give us hats and hop on board for a selfie. We give them our business card and shout "adios amigos." They are heading upstream. After our breakfast and a quick stretch of our legs on shore, we cast off and head downstream, arriving at the lock around 10:45, and are third in line.

These locks are only open for an hour, twice a day in each direction. Once we are down, it'll be about two and a half hours to Port Cassafières, and we

need to be there by 4:30 p.m. The lock will open just after 1. We're very close to Béziers and on the "must-see" list for visitors. So, we will be tackling these seven conjoined locks with an audience of a hundred or so people. We are by now a competent team of boaters and will put on a good show for the crowd. Just before the locks open, a message comes through on WhatsApp—the Spaniards sent the selfie.

The lock master arrives, there is a discussion about boat lengths and which side of the locks the three of us will moor on. A French couple has the longest boat—they will be first in and moor on the right. The English couple will be second in, mooring on the left, and we're, third in and mooring on the left. When each lock opens, we exit in the same order into the next subsequent lock. For some reason, boats one and two swap their order around lock four. We repeat this operation seven times. The locks extend 300 meters in length and take us down 13.6 meters of elevation. As we descend, our view of Béziers is interrupted by the concrete lock walls. All in all, the descent through the Pente d'Eau de Fonseranes takes about 30 minutes, and we have a great sense of accomplishment at the bottom. However, we still have five single locks ahead of us before we end our adventure at Port Cassafières.

Fifteen minutes later we are cruising past the port of Béziers. The English couple is mooring here for the night and leaves our small convoy. Just past the port is the first of the five single locks, we enter with the French couple in second position. The Frenchman is only plodding along; we would like to

pass him, but there is no opportunity until the last lock, where they offer for us to exit first. Once past the last lock, we are able to increase our speed and make it into Port Cassafières by 4:35. It's just enough time to get the boat checked and engine hours recorded so we can pay the bill. We're staying onboard overnight and have taxis booked for 10 in the morning.

For our last supper, Robyn cooks a salmon pasta, and we break out the French champagne we'd been saving for the evening. We end the evening with shots of French limoncello. In the port, we cross paths with an Australian family we first saw at Homps, then at Capestang. We name the woman Mrs Paspaley, as she was wearing a beautiful Paspaley pearl necklace each time we saw her.

Monday morning, and it's our final shared breakfast on board. We pack and double-check we've not left anything, then head to the Le Boat reception to wait for our booked transfers. Paul and Wendy are headed to Montpellier airport en route to Paris for a few days before they head home, and we're off to Béziers for a couple of nights before flying to Portugal. At 10, the cars arrive, and we get a final group photo before going our separate ways.

Next stop Beziers....