Just when you think that you have worked out how to use the lock at Arzal - the bridge breaks down !

Passing through the lock at Arzal is,well, an experience. The first time we went through was tense but we thought that we had worked out how to get through without too much stress.However our new found confidence evaporated when we found that on this occasion one half of the bridge had broken down and so to add the the general melee, boats needed to manoeuvre around the half which would not go up !
Initially things were going well for us, the guy controlling ( I use the word loosely) the lock waved us in and we secured ourselves to the port side. Much relief all around. Unfortunately he came back 2 minutes later to tell us that there were too many boats in the lock so we would have to  back out. Whaaaat ? Of course by this stage the usual scrum of French boats were piling up behind us and they did not seem enamoured about reversing (or indeed even slowing down) . Some still tried to wiggle their way in , only to be told by the lock keeper that they would have to "wiggle" their way back out again - at least that's what I think the gist of their conversation was. The phrase "herding cats" springs to mind. So there we were trying to hold position against both wind, tide and several French boats . There was only one thing to do - the problem was that I couldn't think what it was. In the nick of time (and before any damage was done) we were waved back in again. Now we were very happy to get back in again, in exactly the same place that we had been 10 minutes before - oh well it helps to pass the time I suppose.