Things come in threes Mut, so break a match stick and you should be back on track (breaks your run of bad luck
) I've had screamers that you lean in to before on French waters and I think your right about fish towing line around, especially given the number of breaks you had but from less savvy end tackle anglers.
For the same price as a french trip head to the St Lawrence on either the canadian or US side. I'm over there next week for 10 days and if I don't do 200 runs it's a bad trip, average size of 22lb and they're uncaught river carp, it's absolutely worth the experience - 80lb power pro braid straight through and you feel every second of it!