penguin

That's all really helpful! Thank's everyone. I'm currently looking at the smallest Horizon boat, as it will just be the two of us, but we are aiming for a little luxury if we can manage it. I've already ordered the information pack, the Le Boat guide to the canal is extensive, which is a great start. I've also equipped myself with a copy of "The Canal Du Midi: A Cruiser's Guide" - which is a lovely little book describing the canal and sights along the way, and nice to have an independent perspective.

I'm thinking about hiring a boat and cruising down the Canal Du Midi (Narbonne to Carcassonne). I was wondering if anyone has done the trip (or has used Le Boat) and had any tips or recommendations on what to see in the area. It certainly feels likely that someone on here will have!

Perhaps I'm biased, but I suspect Pont Aven will become her spiritual successor, in that regard. Appropriate given the heavy inspiration taken from Bretagne

That's been the most interesting part of the recent orders, since PEGASIS fell through and the securing Honfleur was rumoured to be delayed, I wonder if funding from the traditional French/Breton organisations has been trickier to come by/negotiate. That would certainly explain the turn towards a posh HP agreement from Stena.

On my most recent trip, there were equal numbers of Genderame and migrants in the car park opposite the port. In contrast to the beach car park where there was neither visible.

ha, you can tell it's a Friday

Based on connemara's break with tradition - should we expect Spanish names, if they do get placed on those routes

We had a similar experience on MSM on the Saturday overnight before Easter. We were parked deck 5, with no mezzanine and even so it was only full about half way back! Certainly quite a contrast from high summer!!!

I don't see how a shipping company could afford to decommission the ship and dispose/store the waste, when the UK State has struggled so much with it's ageing power plants. We still don't know what to do with the old storage pools at Sellafield (or even what's in there).

and they already know the numbers of irish registered lorries using their UK - Spain routes, so armed with that knowledge, a freight centric service should be low risk.

I think this is more about the ownership of British registered vessels. They are british registered companies, but with foreign owners. Much of the criticism really falls to defras door, as they give most of the quota to the large groups, leaving little for your average fishermen.

That's not how it felt

Ordinarily I can't see Etretat's deck being much of a problem as it's so enclosed. Having said that, the only time I've been was in a force 8 storm, so I had a thick coating of salt and ash to contend with!

try https://letsencrypt.org/ - it's a little bit of faf to set up (haven't done it myself I'm afraid) but basically designed for this kind of scenario to provide no-cost certs where you don't need all the serious stuff, just a secure connection.

(speculating wildly) Perhaps a gentle start on the Spanish ships where the schedules would allow time to be caught up, should there be any teething issues.