At last, after four days of irritating rain, a settled day – not sunny but settled nonetheless. A slightly stir-crazy Franco and Francine made good their escape from camp à bicyclettes.

We were off in search of coypus or ragondins as they are known over here. At least, the polite members of marais society call them ragondins. There are apparently much less polite names used by others since these large aquatic rodents do great damage to the banks of the canals and are regarded as a serious pest. Somewhat typically, the French have turned the pest into a resource by putting down traps baited with sliced apple and, in turn, turning the hapless trapped ragos into pâté de ragondin. Yum!

We caught a brief glimpse of just one coypu as it swiftly clambered out of its canal and began hiding on the bank that it had set about destroying. Camera not required, regrettably. We did have a very pleasant bike ride, though, which included a slightly heart-in-mouth crossing of the river Sèvre Niortaise on a bateau à chaîne (chain boat). The chain boats were an traditional old method of getting about between otherwise isolated sections of land in the marais (marsh) before the advent of roads. Two chains attach either end of the boat to either bank of the river.

We were a little timorous but keen to give it a go. Francine gamely grabbed one chain and lugged the boat, which was, of course, on the opposite side of the river, across the water towards us. Getting both bikes and both of us aboard was a tad dodgy but we made it safely and, once aboard, the boat proved to be very stable with its wide, flat hull. Francine leapt into action once again, this time on the other chain, and dragged the boat, us and our two bikes over to our destination on the other side of the river. Disembarking was an equally delicate process. I soon learned that it was necessary to place all the retrieved chain inside the boat when mooring it to prevent the boat drifting off downstream.

Great fun!

It’s supposed to be dry tomorrow. Meanwhile, today, the rain continued in an irritatingly sporadic kind of way. What better time to be given an insight into French water engineering for allotments?

The Marais Poitevin has what appears to be quite rich soil in between its plethora of canals and drainage channels. I readiy confess to hate gardening but it looks good even to me. In addition to many of the water-surrounded fields being used to raise a few cattle, the area is also littered with what we would call allotments, though the plots here are at least twice the size of our English plots. Many of the locals can frequently be seen tending their vegetable patches in pursuit of the French national love of good food. Quite frankly, so many people here seem to be growing their own that I’m a little surprised that the local grocery stores sell anything.

Having just suffered four days of rain, it is also hard to believe that watering these vegetable gardens could be a problem but, I am assured, a problem it is. Fortunately there is a ready solution to drought in the form of the network of canals covering the countryside. Linda, having recently taken on a plot of land, was keen to prepare for the hot summer weather [Ed: bring it on!] and today, in her company, we drove around a few suppliers learning a lot about French irrigation techniques in the marais.

The done thing here is for keen growers to invest in a petrol-driven water pump. Linda’s neighbour, having many years experience of such matters, was adamant that she should invest in a 4-stroke rather than a 2-stroke pump, though we’re not entirely sure why. From one side of the pump – the suck side – a pipe with a filter is tossed into the nearest handy-dandy canal. The other side of the pump – the blow side – feeds a pipe delivering the canal water to a series of spray heads supported on stands. The spray heads are smaller version of those that can be seen automatically swinging back and forth in farmer’s fields. I may not be into gardening but I do like a bit of plumbing and I’d love to be around to help set up the watering system. Great fun! We’ll be moving on by the time Linda’s 4-stroke pump arrives, though.

The land rental is dirt cheap [Ed: sorry, couldn’t resist it] at €22 p.a. and the water is free but the irrigation kit ain’t cheap. So far it’s looking like about €600-700 so I hope Linda remains keen on market gardening for a few years.