Day 13 - Narbonne, last day on the boat.

Well we weren't going anywhere today as far as cruising we stayed moored and just explored the city.

We took ourselves off for a self guided walking tour of the city. This is not hard to do as yesterday we went to the tourist office and obtained a very good map of the city and some helpful info of the places of interest. If you go to Narbonne you need to visit the covered market hall, ' Les Halles de Narbonne'. This is a fresh food market with over 70 stalls such as butchers, bakers and candlestick makers, no  not really just butchers, bakers, confectioners, delicatessens, fishmongers, green grocers and wine merchants. They also have some very good restaurants for lunch or coffee or an early morning drink( it is 12 o'clock somewhere in the world). It's a shame we were catching a train and plane tomorrow for Portugal.

    The outside facade is very interesting.

    So much choice.

    

So much to see as you wonder the small cobblestone streets. It was this afternoon that I lost all my pictures so as we went out to dinner I took a few nightime shots. I did try to use a recovery program but the Internet connection was not strong enough to download the program or I was doing something  else wrong. Oh well!

   Walking into the main square we were confronted by a very vocal protest rally. We found out later it was something to do with their opposition to nuclear energy.

   Lovely tree lined streets in the city centre.

   The canal that runs through the middle of the city is very picturesque.

   Dinner spot, found this restaurant on TripAdvisor and decided to give it a try as it was family owned and run. A vey good choice and a must visit if you are in Narbonne.

    The canal and stunning sunset on the walk home. I must admit you feel very safe in this small city.

   We were moored just past here.

    The main part of the city is just past the larger building in the background. A short walk from where we were moored.

    Last night on the boat.

Very glad we stayed two nights in Narbonne so we could relax on the last day.

We had a great time with only one minor altercation with a bridge. We heard and saw some funny and at times 'OMG moments' from others on the canal. You can imagine  a whole lot of amateurs taking on boats that they haven't driven before in unknown water and having to deal with locks, bridges etc. we actually were a lot better than most we saw. 

One funny story was when we had finalised everything on the last morning and a few boats were coming in to sign off and we got talking to an English women we had run into(not literally) earlier on in the week at a lock and she said in the driest of tones- ' well we didn't do too badly only scrapped the boat down both sides and coming out of a lock ran into a stationery boat and broke its window' we all just cracked up, not at what they had done but the way she delivered her summation of the trip.

Think we will be dreaming of locks and low clearance bridges for some time yet.

Would I recommend it - yes definitely but if you want a more relaxing time you need more than two of you.