Narbonne

There were sounds of activity above us on the quayside early in the morning, and it turned out to be the start of a three-day braderie, or non-food fair. Plenty of bargains, though probably mostly from China.

We set out quite early seeking the tourist office, and also the office of our mobile provider, SFR, after receiving a slightly disturbing sms message saying our data download allowance was nearly exhausted: we use the personal hotspot on the iPhone for uploading this blog, and also browsing e-mails and websites. However, we were reassured by Lionel of SFR that our new monthly allowance of 20 gb starts on Monday, and that they would not cut us off in the meantime.

While I negotiated that, Diana took a picture of Saskia on her mooring through the window. The SFR office turned out to be on the Merchants’ Bridge over the canal.

Then it was serious sightseeing, starting with the Archbishop’s Palace, now the town hall. It has an archeological and a fine arts museum, but we didn’t feel like either today.

However, the courtyard was impressive, though difficult to photograph.

And in the square in front there is a fragment of the ancient Roman Via Domitia, dating from the second century BC. This was the road linking Rome to Spain back then.

We moved through the cathedral cloister, which is being restored, and into the cathedral itself. A strange building, dating to the 13^th century, but never completed. The choir and apse are there, but no nave or transepts. Terrific stained glass.

Diana was taken by this devout chap in a side chapel, who has removed his gloves/gauntlets to pray.

From the cathedral we headed for the ancient Roman horreum, which is a series of underground storage rooms, excavated fairly recently. Quite spooky, and we wondered if we would find out way out, but we did eventually emerge.

We wandered on, discussing our next move, pausing to admire this outdoor hat-making exhibition in the fair.

The decision was to take a bus out to Gruissan, a beach resort,  to see Barbarossa’s Tower, though actually it appears the Barbary pirate Barbarossa never actually set foot here, and the tower was built at the end of the 10th century, several hundred years before his time. Never mind.

It was lunchtime by the time the bus arrived, but fortunately as we walked in the general direction of the tower, we came across the Restaurant l’Estagnet, even though it did not seem very promising from the outside. 

Inside, it turned out to be excellent, serving us marvelous seafood platters for 22 euros, and a carafe of wine for six or so. In fact, we discovered later, it is listed by Michelin and well reviewed.

That gave Diana the energy to climb the many steps up to the top of the tower and admire the views from there. The more idle member of the party sat in a café by the church with another chilled glass of white wine.

Back to the bus stop, which fortuitously was right opposite the Cooperative Wine Cellar. So with 20 minutes to spare, we ventured in, enjoyed the air conditioning, and were tempted into buying two five-litre boxes of Corbieres to replenish supplies aboard.

Tomorrow morning we plan to visit the Halles covered market and stock up on necessities, then head off back towards the Canal du Midi