Carcassonne to Puichéric – 27 km

In the last hour before the locks closed last night, a horde of hire boats arrived in the port at Carcassonne, docking in the crowded harbour, with a gusty wind on the beam (from the side), with mixed success. One crashed into the boat next but one to us, but missed us. They all seemed very jolly, with children running around yelling well after 10 p.m., music (or rather rap) blaring, and jovial dinner parties taking place on flying bridges.

We worried that if they all tried to get into the first lock at 9 a.m., the chaos would be complete. So we determined to get going early and put ourselves at the head of the queue. That would have worked, but for Alouette.

Alouette is a very upmarket hotel barge, taking just four passengers for a modest 28,000 euros a week in the high season.(yes 28,000 - you could buy Saskia twice for that!). The staff passenger ratio is one to one, and the chef highly qualified. All wines are, naturally, included.

So our quick getaway plans were thwarted, and we went through with a large British (blue ensign) flagged boat with a powerful bowthruster, and a hire boat, whose first lock entry was rather alarming. Collision protection in order.

However, we sorted ourselves out and proceeded in an orderly manner down to Trèbes, where there is the Pont de la Rode, built 340 years ago (1686) by the great fortress builder Vauban. It still looks pretty solid after all these years.

We had to stop for lunch just before the three-chambered lock on the east side of town. Fortunately there was a little shop selling home-made jams and confits, as well as wine, so we spent a few euros there. Meanwhile, of course, Alouette was making her slow and stately progress down the lock.

Never mind. Here we are going down.

Here is the lock chamber filling.

And here is the patient lock-keeper waiting.

Despite the wind, which was blustery all day, making getting into the locks and tying up quite tricky, we made good progress. We were quite surprised to see these boys jumping in the canal – partly because it hasn’t been a very warm day, but mostly because the water looks distinctly murky and uninviting. But I suppose teenagers don't notice that sort of thing.

We overtook Alouette, but to no avail. She simply sailed past us and into the next lock. The hotel barges always have priority. However, now we have a cunning plan. She has stopped for the night and will get the first locking at 0900 tomorrow – but we are two locks further down the canal, tied up to some trees in the wild. So we should be safe.

Carcassonne – 0 km (about 14 yesterday from Marseillette)

No blog yesterday because really it was an extremely uneventful day. The only thing of particular note was a small group of people travelling in fancy dress with donkeys on the tow path. Surprisingly they were carrying their own bags, rather than loading them onto the donkeys. Otherwise, we arrived, found a good spot in the port, plugged in, did a wash, went shopping and chilled out.

This morning was quite different. Eager tourists on the first little train up to Carcassonne's citadel: apparently it is the second most-visited site in France, after the Eiffel Tower, and it was easy to believe. 

It is certainly spectacular, though of course much restored in the 19^th century.

This is M. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, responsible for the restoration.

It was a grey morning, but that made for easy sightseeing, and the sun was coming through by the time we had finished.

The restored figure at the gate is Madame Carcas, after whom the town is named. She apparently rallied the population to Charlemagne’s cause by ringing  the bells, hence Carcas sonne. The original statue is rather weathered, as you can see, but I doubt if she would be very pleased with the replacement!

Inside the town, which somewhat reminds one of Mont St Michel for the proliferation of tourist shops and gridlock of visitors in the narrow mediaeval streets, the top attraction is the Chateau.

We queued up, paid our money, and took the tour. It is certainly impressive.

We could see St Nazaire’s cathedral across town, and after we had finished with the Chateau, we walked over. But of course, being Sunday, there was a service going on and tourists were banned. We could hear the singing faintly.

By this time the tourist numbers were building up, so we paused for a little refreshment then returned to the little train stop for the trip back to the boat.

First, however, it was lunchtime, and one of the randomly chosen bistro’s specialities was paella.

Tomorrow we will start heading back down the canal, retracing our steps, but trying to stop and explore different places on the way.

Le Somail to Marseillette – 39 km

This was one of those days when not a lot happened, but it took quite a long time for it not to happen, if you get my drift. So this will be a short post.

We set off early but again found two even earlier birds waiting at the first lock. This stretch has several double and even triple chambered locks, which take quite a time to negotiate, but take three boats at a time. Our two hire boat companions were reasonably competent and we were with them till lunchtime, when they peeled off at Homps.  I’m not sure why we took this pic of a restored wine barge, but then, why not?

It was a windy morning, and apparently this area is known for being windy, which explains the dozens and dozens of wind turbines we saw dotting the landscape.

It was good to see some of the newly planted trees on the canal bank getting watered.

The multi-chambered locks are impressive: here are some boats at the top of a double one.

Trees that have been diagnosed with the blight show first one, two or three blue paint dots, and then finally a red X. This one is definitely for the chop.

Tomorrow it’s about 20 km to Carcassonne, with a few locks, some multiple, to slow us down. But we will try to be there by lunchtime.

Béziers to La Somail – 40 km

We were ready for the first lock at 9, but had to wait a bit for a barge to come down.

Then it was just a short run, including this canal bridge over the river Orb, to the foot of the seven lock staircase.

As anticipated, there was an excellent view of the cathedral from the canal. At the waiting spot, we found two boats ahead of us who had evidently spent the night there to be sure of being first in the queue. But, of course, commerce comes first, and when the first upward cycle started at about 10, there were two passenger-carrying barges that had priority.

As we waited, we contemplated the disused inclined plane, or boat lift. This was built in the 1960s to bypass the staircase of locks, but never worked properly and was later abandoned.

In the staircase of seven linked locks, you go immediately from one lock to the next. Each boat has to put a crew member ashore to help with the ropes. It was quite a tight fit with two hire boats ahead of us.

It is an impressive engineering feat, but difficult to photograph one-handed while pulling ropes at the same time. Lots of spectators on the shore.

We emerged a bit after 11, with no more locks in prospect for the day. The canal was peaceful, though there was quite a lot of traffic, mostly hire boats going the other way.

We caught up with one of the slow-moving passenger barges, the Vent du Sud, who kindly beckoned us to overtake, which we did.

Colombière looked an interesting place, which we may visit on our way back.

As we went through the narrow bridge on the edge of town, a hire boat coming the other way had a panic attack: ran backwards into one bank, then forwards into the other, then apparently became stuck across the canal. But eventually they sorted themselves out.

The canal has one tunnel. It is small and short compared with some of the very long ones we have negotiated in the north, but this was the 17^th century after all.

Whole stretches of the canal are now without tree cover, and pretty hot in consequence. But it was good to see the new trees that have been planted – many hundreds of them. 

Tasks are, of course, shared on board – here is the relief helm about to tackle a narrow bridge …

And here we are at Le Somail, a pretty, but very touristy little village. It, rather surprisingly, boasts a very well-stocked secondhand bookshop. But we have been before, and tend to be digital these days.

Tomorrow we will get back into the lock routine: a couple of days up to Carcassonne, which is probably as far as we will go this year.

Mèze to Bezier – 45 km

The wind eased a bit in the night, but was already picking up when we awoke, rather early, this morning. So we decided to set off without hanging about: just a fill up with water and a cup of coffee, then out into the lagoon. Our exit was a little dodgy, with the wind pinning us onto the quayside, and boats moored fore and aft, but we managed without damage.

Our passage down the lagoon was uneventful, and surprisingly comfortable: no spray over the bows. After an hour or so we came to the Les Onglous lighthouse, which marks the start of the Canal du Midi.

From earliest times it was a dream to join the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, bypassing the Iberian peninsula. The Romans tried it, and Leonardo Da Vinci devoted some thought to it. But the genius who did it was a Beziers-born tax collector and self-taught engineer called Pierre-Paul Riquet. Starting in 1666, construction took 14 years, employing more than 11,000 men. There are 63 locks, 350 bridges, and a tunnel. Sadly Riquet died just six months before the opening of the canal, which is now a UNESCO world heritage site.

The entrance to the canal is not particularly impressive.

There are plenty of boats moored up, some wrecked, many apparently abandoned. Abandoned boats, abandoned dreams. They are also a real problem for the canal authorities.

We passed through our first small lock of this trip in company with some pleasant Australians in a hire boat. The photo shows the oval shape of the Canal du Midi locks, which is quite distinctive.

Next up was the round lock of Agde. This is a most unusual construction with entrance/exits to the River Herault, which the canal crosses on the level, to a side canal to Agde and the sea, and to the continuation of the Canal du Midi. Our Australian friends were finding it a bit tricky in the wind, and managed to clout us in the bows, but without doing any damage. We left ahead of them and have not seen them again, so far.

One of the glories of the Canal du Midi is (has been) the 42,000 plane trees, planted on either bank. Sadly, they are being attacked by an incurable canker, and the authorities are having to cut them down and replant. A major campaign is under way in France to help finance this massive operation, to which we contribute modestly. Anyway, some of the trees are still there. The pic also shows one of the many, many little electrically powered day boats you can hire – without knowing the first thing about water or waterways. They can be a bit of a hazard.

We saw many tree stumps as we went along, and I suppose there are many more to come.

We reached Beziers in good time, and found a comfortable mooring spot. It is just by the bus stop into town, so up we went: two people for one euro seems reasonable. With some difficulty we made our way to the cathedral, and found the plaza in front of it with magnificent views over the River Orb and the surrounding countryside.

Here is the cathedral from outside, though we should get a better shot from the canal tomorrow.

And from the inside.

This is the town hall.

And, finally, we found many of the narrow shopping streets had suspended colourful transparent umbrellas over themselves  - an initiative called parapluies en folie. Quite why, we did not discover. But they looked very decorative.

Tomorrow we venture up the seven-lock staircase at Fonserannes, just outside Beziers, then there is a long stretch without locks, so I don’t know where we’ll end up. Depends a bit on the traffic, too.