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Published: October 28th 2009
Well, the second day (first full day) we learned a lot about navigating a canal-particularly about the locks. By afternoon of the second day, Sunday, we were moving right along when we came to Bezier. Bezier is a beautiful little city with tons of history. We'll get to some of the history a bit later on. There are two canal related things in Bezier that are very exceptional. The first is that on the Canal du Midi you cross a Canal Bridge over the Orb river. The bridge is just like any other, lots of arches and a main span across, except it is filled with water. So here you are, driving your boat across a bridge, looking down at a river about 20 metres below!! It is a bit unusual! The second thing in Bezier is the "Ecluses Fonseranannes". This is a set of seven "stair locks" that go up about 39 metres, or over a hundred feet, all at once. It takes almost an hour to go through the whole set and is a bit nerve wracking-partly because the "lock-masters" were not particularly helpful (and that is being generous) and partly because we were really just beginning our "lock
education". Anyhow, we made it through and I have cabbaged a couple of pictures off the internet to give you the "big picture". There are also a couple in the next set that give you more of a "hands on" view. A lot of water moving in these locks!! We sailed on after these locks and managed to get to Columbier-a lovely little town with a great "pizzaria" restaurant. Anne and I had a great meal. Vicki had 'Steak Hache" and found it more like Steak Tartare! She was not crazy about it!!
On Monday we rolled on to Capestang. We had made arrangements to meet the "luggage" man there. It was pretty impressive. It is one thing to deliver luggage to an address in a town, or a hotel, etc. However, try and tell your airline that you want the luggage delivered to a houseboat, and we will be parked somewhere in Capestang with about 100 other houseboats!!! Anyhow, they must have done it before because it didn't seem to upset the luggage delivery guy one bit. We saw him drive slowly across the bridge, then pull over and get out of the car and look-we waved-he waved
back, then took the Knapsack out of the car and brought it down. You can see by the photo that Vicki is glad to finally have a change of clothes, let's not dwell on the third day without a toothbrush!
After the luggage arrived we decided that Capestang was as far as we needed to go and, since it was Anne's birthday-and Vicki had her luggage-we should go out to lunch to celebrate. "Le Provence" came highly reccommended so off we went. You can have a look at photos of much of this. Lunch was everything it should be, three courses, wonderful food, fine wine. After lunch we went on to Moulin Gimie, a small winery that made the wine we had for lunch. The were open so we had to taste some wine-oh the burdens that must be borne! Then it was on to the "supermarche" to forage for supper and supplies for the week. Managed to track down a pork loin roast. along with various other wonders and we were good for supper. We had, earlier, made a stop a the patisserie to purchase a beautiful cake for the evening birthday celebrations. As they say...it was all
GOOD!!
We stayed the night in Capestang-did a bit of apartment hunting for later on...
Up in good time and on the "road" to Le Somail. A very pretty little spot that required us to have Cafe and Tarte au Chocolate! Then on to Ventenac-en-Minervois. Arrived there during the "lunch hour" closure. (almost everything in France-particularly rural France) is closed from about 12:00 to 2:00. Great tradition for those who are having lunch but difficult for North Americans to get their head around. I personally think we just need to work a bit harder at it. Everyone should have a two hour lunch break!! Had a great salad on the boat for lunch, took a walk around Ventenac-en-Minervois and then moved on. We finshed the day in "Homps". Did a wine tasting at the Cellier des Chevalliers de Malte...Picked up a couple of bottles-a total of 8 Euros, 30 cents. About $13 cdn. That was two bottles-and fairly pricey ones at that!! I think I could live here!
Anyhow, bedtime-will finish the canal du midi tomorrow!!
Cheers
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Susan
non-member comment
It all looks wonderful - hope you saved me a piece of cake!