April 2010 Boat Jumble (vide bateau) in Moissac Port

Moissac Port boats on the move again

Noble marine is very busy Iain and Kaz are doing a great job, running this their new business for almost a year now, and they are going from strength to strength.

This coming winter all their moorings are full, with lots of names down for 2011 and 2012 a must to get your name down early if you need winter or summer moorings now. We have booked in again for this year and look forward to more friends joining us too. We wish you both a great season to come.

Mike's surprise birthday party in Toulouse April Fool's day, great way to start the month off

Ursula arranged a surprise birthday party for Mike and their friends, this was lunch in the Irish bar in Toulouse, a great place to arrange a party, we all enjoyed sharing Mikes birthday, always a great celebration. So many of our friends from Carcassonne were here too the bar was filled, lots of bubbles drunk on this day.

Son Mike took this stunning photograph of Tina's home

David, Maureen, Tina and John after our Easter feast

We had some good fun with Tina this month and lots of entertaining also. It's nice to see the warmth coming back into her smile, it's been a long hard winter without Steve, he is so missed. Tina is so positive has lots to look forward to, she hopes to rent out rooms soon for paying guests, what a setting to wind down, paint, or just relax. David and Maureen came to visit us on Easter Sunday and Tina said bring them here we have loads food. We had a great time. Maureen has a new camera and was excited to practice here with the views.

Tina and I had time for art and photographs this month and lots of cooking

Moissac arts festival weekend was a great success which I really enjoyed, always inspires me to get my paints or pencil's out. I loved my extra art classes this month with Tina and Patricia. I have almost finished my Oz painting, can't wait to see the end result.

Vide bateau (boat jumble) - Moissac Port

I think so many more festival's here this month than in the summer months. Moissac is so busy and it's nice to see everyone out and about and enjoying some really good weather. A great turn out for the Boat Jumble (Vide bateau) sale this month. Tina and I made over a hundred scones to be shared with everyone. I had fun making more a few days later, but in this heat the boat became over heated. Nice to see so many people turned out for this event. All the boaters that were in the port made a dish of food to share and what a feast we all had.

Party time in Moissac Port with Willem

An early birthday cake Tina and I made for Willem

Willem arrived for a visit from Chagny it took him around 6 hours to drive up from his boat. He stayed with us for five days, we had a great time catching up and sorting out my lap top (and Tina's) with problems we had at the time and as always he teaches me some new skills with photo shop.

Willem helped Iain and Kaz build up their new web site, he has been an angel sent to us all. He has a wonderful ability to turn learning into lots of fun, he often inspires me with idea's, without Willem it would be hard to carry on writing. He's my number one fan and encourages me to continue as do my many web fan's THANK YOU.

Andy and Barbara home on the river Garonne in Thouars-sur-Garonne

Our friends Andy and Barbara visited us in Moissac and the following week we were invited to visit and stopped over night in Thouars-sur-Garonne, which is close to Buzet, (2kms) this part of the canal is one of our favourite moorings.

The following morning after breakfast we set off in search of the asparagus festival, we were not disappointed and bought some delicious fresh asparagus - enough for us and the port for a week I think

A great atmosphere here at this festival, we now know why while asparagus is more expensive than green, they don't allow air to their white crop it was very interesting. I tasted quite a few of the chiefs recommended new recipes not too much we had been invited out for lunch. We also bought lots of strawberries here also, Andy and Barbara knew at lot of people here as we wandered around this village.

Port of "Pont-des-Sables" Canal de Garonne

After the festival we drove on to Pont-des-Sables were we all joined David and Rosey for drinks on their boat. John and I thanked Andy and Barbara as they had to get back to Buzet. We stayed on Suki all enjoying a lovely Sunday late lunch in Pont-des-Sables all too soon it was time for our two hour drive back to Moissac.

New boat yard in Pont-des-Sable

Halte nautique de Pont-des-Sables - 47200 Fourques sur Garonne - Tel : 05 53 89 25 59

An impressive new building for the boat yard and new hard standing to lift boats up to 40 tons is still in progress, but almost finished when we visited. Good news for for boaters who need up to a 40 ton lift in or out.

Howell reaches the big 60 this month - we had many days of celebrations together.

Starting with some bubbles on the Moet on the day of Howell's birthday, he would not take a day off from his house renovations, so his party and celebrations were squeezed in around trying to get their home finished to move in next month, we enjoyed a great meal out in Agen.

At the moment Maria and Howell are renting a house from friends, this house could not be better placed as it's around the corner from their new home, I guess lots of celebrations to come once they move in and their family come to join them for holidays and a well earned rest too.

Maria and Howell working hard - Maria shouts come see we have a water fountain in the bathroom.

You can see each week a difference to their new home - but this takes them both long hard working hours. But they always have time for their friends.

Howell's 60th shared with new and old friends - lots of speeches and birds (the flying kind)!

Maria cooked a feast for 13 of us for Howell's 60th birthday in baking heat, bless her she did a wonderful job and set up a bedroom as the dining room. I baked a special birthday cake for Howell also, great day.

Moissac and my Sat or Sunday market shopping, always fresh produce.

Coffee time in the square here is always good fun, especially the hot chocolate shop. A new cheese and whiskey shop has opened next to this cafe, nice to try some different cheese's. We don't like whiskey. They sell many bottles here, though it's not cheap.

John try's to keep his weight and his heart healthy - loves this area for cycling

John loves nothing better than to go into the hill's for a 60 km cycle ride, blows the cob webs away he tell's me. I miss not being able to cycle, but I stick to the cycle paths. I am sure when my knee is right again I will be off.

I shopped for lots of furniture and bargains with Maria, Howell. I have learnt more this month about where to go for all my bargains in France, Maria being a dab hand at shopping. Many more social gatherings at Maria and Howell's they are real party people and introduced us to lots of their friends, so our list of people living in this area is vastly growing.

Where has mum gone now! She has left us again, these chicks survived out of 12.

It's great when new life comes into the port always fascinating which of the ducks are good mothers, one kept going off and leaving her chicks for us to take care of. Lots of boats are now on the move, we feel sad we are not joining them for a cruise just yet (We hope to later in the summer). I have some medical problems pressing and worrying us so this needs to be sorted before we can cruise, also my knee is still giving me problems, staying in the port is necessary for now, thankfully we have a good GP.

Work, rest and play in Moissac