a ride to vianne

While the Canal de Garonne offered beautiful scenery and the chance the ride alongside the boat, the river Baise is quite different. With thick vegetation growing on both sides, it's often difficult to see what lies beyond it. But life in the river system is interesting enough. The trees and bushes hang deep, often brushing the boat as we cruise past. Dragonflies zoom along side us, often hitching a ride. There are lots of birds, particularly ducks who must welcome tourists like us who can't resist throwing out some bread.

Enjoying a break after our ride to Vianne

The speed limit drops from 8km in the canal to 6km in the river, one method of protecting the bank. There are less little towns scattered between each port but the places we are arriving at are a bit bigger. We had been warned that Lavardac offered the last big supermarket on the way to Valense-sur-Baise so we decided to stop in here. We had also been told that Vianne was a lovely town but because the port was too busy on our way through, we decided to ride the 4km there from Lavardac. After sussing out the supermarket, which was surprisingly big considering Lavardac appears to be only a small town, we set out for Vianne. There is a Friday evening market, which was being set up as we arrived. After trying in vain to find some wolf carving mentioned on the tourist maps, we sit down for a beer and wait for the market to come alive. From what we have read, Vianne is a very small town so it seemed unlikely the market, which was filling the square, would be very busy. But given a few hours, the place came to life. The market itself was a bit different to what we had thought it would be - not arts or crafts or the like. But it was fun all the same. And a local newsagency produced an English newspaper - the first I've bought while being here.

The market had several food stalls, most expansions of the surrounding restaurants. There was a temporary bar set up at which the locals gathered from quite early on. It seemed we'd jumped the gun with our drink earlier. After dinner we headed home before it got to late. The 4km had us more than ready for bed when we arrived back. There is a port here but we decided to moor up the river a bit, at another spot closer to the supermarket. This means we only have the facilities on the boat for the night.