Now this must be a fairly unusual sight. Madame is fishing in the Canal du Midi and her man is watching from the comfort and safety of the car.

Yesterday, after a rapid bit of shopping in Beziers, we took a stroll by Les Neuf Ecluses de Fonseranes - The nine locks of Fonseranes.  And what a marvel it is. Needing to overcome the problem of a 30 metre drop over a 132 metre distance, the builder of the Canal du Midi, Pierre Paul Riquet, unfazed, built a staircase of nine locks. It is a stunning feat of engineering, especially when you realise it was constructed in the late 1600s, but as he'd already built dozens of locks in the earlier parts of the 240 mile canal, it can't have seemed too much of a problem. Here is a very good short history of the Canal du Midi.

These days, merely using the lock presents some boat-hirers with problems. It's obviously a stressful hour when you have to wiggle your big boat into a smallish space along with a couple of others, under the critical eye of people like me, who've never stepped foot on a canal boat yet know we would do all this so much better than the hapless twit on the wheel. Tensions run high and there can be very public fallings-out between members of the crew. The least onerous role seems to be that of hanging on to the ubiquitous dog while everyone else runs about shouting. Ali has thought it would be a fun thing for us to do, taking Kit & Flynn with us. Having seen the lock business, I cannot imagine how we could possibly manoeuvre the boat AND deal with two large and excited dogs. So maybe we'll do it alone.

This flight of boat-stairs is very sweetly controlled by a young woman who looks about sixteen. It's good to see women have their place on the canal.

If you're thinking of visiting the locks next time you stay at Le Couvent, there are some lovely walks to be had along the canal from the locks, and there is also a place where you can hire bikes or small electric boats so you can explore a bit further.

Yep, finally we're into the other half of our lives - the B&B is closed for the off-season. One of the most frequent questions we're asked (along with "Is Kit really a labrador?") is how we spend our winters. Follow us through until the end of April and you'll see.

So far the best thing we've done is to move bank accounts - yippee!  We've left Cretin Agricole at last. Having had enough of battling with the indifferent bunch in the Roujan branch (open four mornings a week for banking, but much longer if you want one of their 'products') we went to the Pezenas branch to ask how we should deal with six unauthorised payments online from our account. The gum-chewing teenager who told me I should not be using a credit card on the internet (give me strength) could not have been more confidence-draining. However, the final straw came when, after (my suggestion) cancelling my card, a further two payments were made using it.

Now we are with a bank which our friend Suzelle, who works there, says is well-managed and humane. It's only taken five hours over two days, and a great deal of talking to open three accounts. This is France, after all. We were recognised with beaming greetings on our second visit, unlike at CA where I could have walked in naked for the past six years and they still wouldn't have wasted a smile. Wish us luck.

Our other wonderful thing is that, inspired by a raft of guests who were great walkers, we've decided to explore bits of the Languedoc we don't know, i.e. nearly all of it - on foot.  The wonderful Decathlon , seller of sports equipment for the masses at good prices, has kitted us out fantastically well. So, with our lunch, water, collapsible dog bowl, map, outer jackets, guide book, mobile phone, camera and (I kid you not) torch, all tucked in to our new backpacks, we set out yesterday.

Walk number one comes from a great book called l'Herault à pied .  6kms, just over 2 hours and a bit of a climb in the middle took us along the River Orb, past a pretty pre-Roman chapel, up a steepish climb (glad we had the new fold-down walker's sticks), through a long dark tunnel (glad we had the torch), along an old railway line where we stopped for lunch under five spots of rain (glad we had the jackets) before a descent back down to the Campotel car park where we'd left the car. I haven't been happier this year and the dogs were in seventh heaven. If you come to stay next year we'll have the walk available on paper for you.

This morning was sparklingly bright and rather autumnal. Perfect for going to the market in Clermont L'Herault.

Having dug over a chunk of the potager yesterday, we're ready for winter vegetable plants, so we bought cabbages, cauliflower, brussels sprout and beetroot.

It's a wonderful market, full of absolute tat and fabulous food. We settled on a spit-roasted pork joint and some roast spuds for a picnic on our way home.

On the way back to Roujan we stopped off at Villeneuvette and had our picnic under a magnificent avenue of plane trees and a brilliant blue sky. Villeneuvette is a very pretty village of workers' cottages which were part of a factory producing fine cloth from the 1600s until it finally closed in 1954. Here are some photos taken this morning.

 Loosely translated - Well brought up dog, but be wary just the same.

Said vegetables are now planted at Chateau Mal Au Dos , but we have a problem with the well & I can't fix it, so we're back to schlepping water. Drat.