Spring was in the air so we decided to go and chase bluebells via a trip on the Bluebell Railway - a 9 mile heritage steam railway in Sussex and the first preserved standard gauge steam-operated railway in the world. It's celebrating its 50th anniversary this year since reopening.
Alighting at the station on a sunny day we ventured for a country walk and after some keen exploring we had the proof - spring has officially arrived!!
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For Easter we joined Eleanor and James for 7 days' cruising down the Canal du Midi in the south of France courtesy of "Le Boat" - a company obviously aimed at English tourists! As it was just the beginning of the spring/summer season we had quite a clear run on our one-way trip from Trebes, a small French village on the canal, to Port-la-nouvelle (on the Mediterreanean coast some 112 lazy kilometres downstream). Getting a head start on our trip we flew into Carcassonne a day early to explore the amazing castle... 
and taste some of the famous local cuisine (Eleanor fishing an entire sausage out of her cassoulet):
Appropriately fed and watered for our journey we made the short trip to Trebes and boarded our boat to head off on our odyssey of wine, food and navigating the 45 locks on our trip to the sea...
With a top speed of just 6km per hour we were never going to be breaking speed records but even so, steering and getting through the locks proved a challenge to start with on our first day (an aborted entry to the first lock resulted in our entering sideways - much to the lock-keeper's disgust). After a while though, we were lock veterans and had cracked the secret (smiling confidently is definitely part of the mental preparation).
While most hands on deck were required when a lock beckoned, there were plenty of opportunities for other pursuits. In true French style the manned locks all shut down for lunch (strictly between 12.30 and 1.30pm each day) leading us to ponder how we might pass the time... needless to say the driving was slightly less steady in the afternoons..
Being wine country, there were also plenty of opportunities to literally pull the boat up beside local wine merchants - including a small canalside chateau in which wine tasting was free and consisted of liberal servings of at least 13 glasses of different styles and vintages. They also sold take away table wine dispensed with a handy wine gun - Shaun was pretty excited at the prospect of taking a fill-your-own wine flagon on board...at the price of €1.50 per litre it was hard to resist and featured in several subsequent evening meals on board.
As we slowly moved towards the sea the landscape was changing around us. We moved from fields of gnarled vines, to sleepy agricultural villages, to the city - as we passed right through (and under) parts of Narbonne, giving the locals something to laugh at on our way through.
