Canal du Midi 3-last call

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Well, here is the last installment of the Canal du Midi story. We left Homps with the hope of reaching "Trebes" by evening. Lots of travel-a few locks but not too many. Lots of great scenery. The canal goes through some beautiful country-many vinyards, mountains in the distance and little towns with big churches!. Passed a number of Chateau's-some fairly elaborate. Difficult to say which are private homes, and which are some kind of comercial establishment. We couldn't begin to stop at all of the wine houses along the way-we'd never make it out alive!! Anyhow, arrived in Trebes in the late afternoon. A couple of locks before entering town. Tied up and walked in-checked at the tourist office then had some supper at a great little pizzaria-oh and we did taste a bit of wine at the Bachus Wine Bar -where you could access Wifi if you bought a glass of wine!!

Now we come to Thursday... we have moved along the canal a bit faster some days-make that longer-everyone's top speed is 8 KM an hour as that is as fast as the canal allows, and coincidentally, as fast as the boats go!! Anyhow, our hope was to get to Carcassonne a bit early as it takes a bit more exploring than many of the very tiny towns along the canal. I'll deal with Carcassonne as a separate entitiy. So here are the last photos of the Canal-specifically. I'm sure it will come up again as life here-at least where we are , and the canal du midi are really inseparable. So-the last photos....

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Photos

Grape harvesting machine
I know, every bottle of wine you read says the grapes are hand picked and "selected" but if you are paying less than $25 a bottle this is the machine that really did the deed.

Church in Capestang
We will return here for more "Capestang" as we have taken an apartment here for three weeks-you may get very sick of this church!!

"EMMA" Escapes
She looked pretty awsome as she came out of the lock-a Canal Hotel Boat and it really was an impressive sight as it came out!!

Trees at Dusk in Homps
These are not plane trees so they really stood out!

More trees
This was the othe side of the canal the same evening at dusk.

One of the Aqueducts
This was really a spillway out of the canal for when the water got too high.

Lock Art
One of the locks had all kinds of statues and installations done by the lockmaster-presumably when things were't too busy. Many were animated with some kind of electric motor, some by the wind. They were pretty impressive. This guy is made from two different size draft kegs!!

More Lock Art
Same spot-different work.

Our Boat the Corta Maltes
This was our home for the week. Quite comfy-Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, would sleep 8-10 but that would be pretty close quarters.

Carcassonne-"la Cite
This is a long view of the restored City of Carcassonne. More on that soon!!

Comments

[Sherry and John]

Happy Trails!
We're enjoying your blog and photos so please keep 'em comin'!