Sedan To Mouzon

2 locks, 10½ miles, 2½ hours

The day started with me returning to the bike shop to have a new tyre fitted which after riding it flat it was knackered.  Now you would think a bike shop would have spotted this, but no because its an electric bike its way more difficult to remove the wheel.  To replace the tube he had put in a continuous tube which I didn’t even know existed which can be done with the wheel on.  I did wonder why he had only partially inflated the tyre, obviously he knew fully inflated it would show the tyre damage.

So this morning it took him an hour to do the job properly while I waited during which he was gabbling away in french to his mate.  At one point they said something about me / English, looked at each other and laughed.  I faced his mate out (he was the smaller guy) and with finger in his face told him very loudly to STOP TAKING THE PISS.  He looked away and the job continued.

I was presented with a bill for €62 €22 for the tyre and €40 for labour.  I refused to pay it. I crossed the €40 out wrote €20 and put €42 on the counter and left. 

After a late and aborted first start due to a sudden rain storm we set of at lunch time saying our goodbyes to Albertine and Rival.

The cruise to Mouzon was uneventful and scenery much like the Nene again so no photos.

We arrived at Mouzon and another boat we were moored near to at Sedan made room for us to get on a low wall so we could get the dogs out.  My rear rope was taken by another boater which caused more problems than it solved as I wanted a loop passed back but got a single.  In the end I redid it so I could pull the front in against the back rope.  I suppose having a 30’ 8 ton boat you have no appreciation what it takes to move 60’ and 27 tons.

At Mouzon the captinairs office had good WiFi and was eventually able to download the Bluetooth drivers all 300mb of them to make my laptop BT work.  I can now use BT GPS dongle with my mapping programs.

So a funny sort of day.  Oh! and to cap it off SFR our mobile internet provider won’t let me have a better deal because I don’t have a French bank account.  I have written to them stating this a restriction of trade and they are discriminating against a fellow EU citizen.  I know of an Irish man that has it.  I don’t suppose it will get me anywhere, but gotta try.

That’s my day.  Finally its been mostly torrential rain since 6pm with a good set of thunder and lightening shows.