Capestang to Béziers – 19 km

There were really lots and lots of boats moored up at Capestang. I think we were lucky to have found a spot yesterday. On the other hand, it wasn’t so lucky since on the other side of the canal was a big hire boat with some Australians on board who insisted on running their engine all night long to keep the air conditioning going. It has certainly been hot, but this seemed a bit much, and was quite annoying.

Then we had an electrical crisis, having not plugged in, but foolishly leaving a fan on while we slept. In the early hours, the domestic battery gave up. The engine has its own battery for starting, but it did mean having to run the engine to get a shower in the morning and work the pump for the water pressure system. Ironic after grumbling about the Australians.

Anyway, we set off before most of the hire people were stirring, and liked this fishing mannequin on a boat moored out in the wild. Presumably to keep people clear of the boat.

We decided to stop at the village of Colombiers, in the hope of a wine tasting. This is the heart of the Languedoc wine-producing area, with a history going back to Roman times. At one stage, in fact, this region was the prime supplier of wine to ancient Rome.

But in the 19^th century it mostly produced what they call vin de soif – low-quality wine for quenching the thirst, targeted at the workers of the industrial revolution. This led to the region developing a poor reputation for quality, which was only remedied by drastic action in the 1960s. Modern techniques were introduced, involving temperature control, stainless steel, and in many cases, visiting Australian wine makers. Now they reckon to produce vin de plaisir – wine for pleasure. By the way, each of those barrels can hold  35,600 litres of wine but have been disused for decades.

The Colombiers visit proved to be more history than wine – no tasting on offer – so on we went, meeting this full-sized barge in quite a narrow stretch. They always look alarming, but are usually well driven and OK to pass.

In the basin at the top of the Fonsarannes ladder of locks, across the river from Béziers, we were somewhat concerned to spot Alouette yet again, but quickly established that she would not be going down. However, there were plenty of other boats lining up to go down, and more arrived as we waited, using the hour we had to grab some lunch.

The little train of sightseers arrived to watch us descend.

We were in the second group of three, with two hire boats.

The view looking down is quite impressive.

We found ourselves leading the pack from each chamber to the next. Going down is certainly a lot easier and less stressful than going up.

Finally we reached the bottom, only needing to cross the river on a canal bridge, and go down one more deep lock to reach the port of Béziers, where we managed to get the last available mooring place. Now we are plugged in and trying to survive the extreme heat that is afflicting southern Europe. Fans going full blast, the leaves on a few trees are even turning brown and falling, and we're drinking lots of chilled water.