Our Blog - Lucy Blog Update -

A little over an hour north of Toulouse is the town of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and the Gorges of the Aveyron River. While there are several medieval villages to explore in the area, we were there for the canoeing. Our "mini toutou" group was canoeing one Sunday, and it seemed like half of Toulouse had the same idea! There are multiple companies that specialize in rentals here and the courses range from 10km up to 50 km. They provide the boat, paddles, life jackets, and a waterproof container that attaches to the boat to hold your things. They also pick you up at the end of your run and transport you (and the boats) back to the parking area.

Our group at the start. We had 5 boats with 6 dogs in total. In addition to Lucy, there were 2 Shelties, 2 Pomeranians, and a Beagle.

And this is the "professional" photograph that was taken by the company, just after we departed. Lucy didn't want to get into the canoe initially but once she was in, she seemed not to be too worried about things.

A ton of pictures and videos were taken during the day by the various participants. I pulled out the best ones that had us and/or Lucy in it. We stopped at a couple of different places along the banks where there were beaches, rocks, and snack bars. So some of the pictures/videos are from when we stopped and others were taken from the boats. You'll notice in the pictures, Tom doesn't have a paddle in his hands. This is actually "by design". We were a little worried about Lucy wanting to jump out and go swimming and so Tom's job was to take care of Lucy. The original plan was to switch at lunch but we ended up staying with me in front the whole time. Tom will get to paddle next time.

One of our first stops, you can see the white cliffs of the gorge behind us. It is really a gorgeous ride down the river with these white cliffs all around us. There are also some really nice arched bridges as well. We also grabbed a few pictures of Lucy sitting in the canoe.

We stopped along some rocks for a picnic lunch. It was an interesting place in the water as well, because there were a set of folks who decided to "ride the current" at this section (without the canoe). You just have your life jacket on and float down the river a little bit. While neither Tom nor I tried it, a few of the younger folks in our group did.

Here is a group of us together ... the two Pomeranians in front, one of the Shelties behind, and us in the middle.

Lucy has known one of the Shelties, Redson, for a long time and they are about the same age. For the first couple years, they would basically ignore each other when they were at puppy school together. But since we have gotten together with this group and done walks together, the two of them have found a playful friendship and they like to play together. You would think that after a full day in the canoe, they would be tired ... but not ... they decided to run around like crazy-puppies! At first, everybody had their leashes still attached and it got to be a problem, so the 2nd video is after we unhooked them.

We had a great time and did better in the canoe than we did last time (without Lucy). Each time, we learn a bit more and don't make the same mistakes the next time (or at least, we TRY not to make the same mistakes).