The most interesting town we encountered during our boating week was Nerac.
Located on the river Baise, south of the Garonne, the Lot and the Dordogne, about 95km south of Bergerac. We moored for two nights at the port here. That's us, the Noddy boat in front of the big brown 'gabarge', a new version of an ancient river barge, now a popular tourist trip.
It was Saturday, market day. The food section of the market was in the centre of the village and a huge brocant, or flea market, was located in the parkland next to the river.
As you would expect, I was taken by the white crockery and the cookware.
The china was 15 euros per kilo, which made it pretty expensive, but if you were after replacement pieces or individual items, the stall had just about everything.
It wasn't the market we actually stopped in Nérec to see, it was the Chateau de Nérac. This was the home seat of King Henri III of Navarre who became Henri IV of France. The kings of Navarre feature strongly in my current reading, the Accursed Kings, so I was interested to get a sense of a castle of around 1325.
And what remains of the chateau is right in the middle of the town. It nestles at the end of the main bridge over the Baise. These days, the town's main street curves around it.
Here is an illustration of the original fortified castle as it stood right on the banks of the river. In this drawing the river was at the rear and a moat, fed by the river, surrounded the castle. The section that remains today is highlighted.
The 3D model gives it a bit more contrast.
It was a pretty big structure but the internal spaces were quite modest.
Some a lot more modest than others.
Large fireplaces everywhere, of course.
Old tiled floors, but who knows how old. Probably recent - say 18th C.
Originally this view from the balcony would have looked across the internal courtyard at a similar wing on the other side.
Service and servant areas would have been on the ground level, private quarters off the balcony above.
The following day we retraced our route up the Baise to the point where we had to cross from the river into the canal. It is a double lock and yet another upward lift, but at this lock we have help.
This lock has a lock keeper. He takes my rope in the first lock and passes it back to me so I don't have to get off the boat. He then goes to the top of these steps, operates the lower lock and the gates begin to close. Once we have been lifted to the level of the second lock, the gates open and we move through.
And there he is ready to take our ropes again for the second stage.
We give back our lock key for the river locks and have our name checked off the list of boats that have been on the river.
Up the canal we go for the last time and at our very last lock of the trip - we had an audience - a cast of thousands.
Tomorrow, dry ground!
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