Carcasonne - Homps 30 April

Back in Homps, I love Homps, feels like home! Especially after a really tough day weather wise. The morning started off well. We travelled together with the happy South Africans from Carcasonne to Trebes, through 4 locks. A bit of rain but not too bad. But in the afternoon the wind came up, the rain came down and the locks just kept on appearing.

The South Africans with two Ozzies?

Passed through Trebes where we had our first cassoulet about two weeks ago.  

Parted with the happy South Africans who are leaving their "Le Boat" here.

Arrived in Homps in the rain. Mooring on the quay in the middle of the village. Lovely house on the opposite bank.

Cold and wet, but happy! Carl can now take out his favourite toy, the vacuum cleaner and start vacuuming. With all the hopping and out in the rain Lellebelle is really dirty, and Carl is very houseproud.

An enormous church in Homps.

Happiness is complete, there is a WC Public nearby! The Capitinairie is closed on Saturday afternoon.

A thing that we do  wonder about in restaurants is water. We are quite used to always drinking water with a meal, and wine, of course. In France, or in any case those restaurants we have visited, you get glasses for wine and the wine. Sometimes you get a jug or bottle of water and sometimes you need to ask for it. BUT, you never get glasses for the water! And we wonder, should we mix the water and the wine, should we drink one glass of wine and then one glass of water? This needs more research!

The different faces of the French villages. Some delapidated houses are just crying out for renovation. So much potential if you have the time and money, and the desire to live in France.

Vibrant pizzeria in Carcasonne 

No sparing on the interior decorations. Flashing lights and all. 

No water glasses.

Carcasonne 29 April

Spending the  day in lovely Carcasonne.

We have a place right next to the lock. Lock opened at 9 am and this boat with Canadian flag was waiting to go through.

In the lock and sinking down to the next level.

We have at last  bought a geranium! In the Rasmus herring box we bought in Stralsund two years ago.

We spent the afternoon at  Carcasonnes most famous attraction, the Medieval city. A summary of information from tourist map: 

The city was occupied 1000 BC. In 1 BC the city was integrated into the Roman Empire. Suffered long periods of occupation at the hands of the Visigoths and Saracens. Integrated into the kingdom of the Francs in the 8th century, it subsequently became the seat of a powerful count.  In the 13 th century Pope Innocent III declared a crusade against the Albigensians ( who ?) . And the history goes on and on,  Raymond Roger Trevcavel, viscount of Carcasonne was imprisoned, in 1355 the Bastide was torched by the Prince of Wales (Charles?), known as the Black Prince. Religious wars followed, production of wooden cloth, good times and bad times, good times returned after the 3 rd Republic thanks to vinticulture and the trades associated with it.

Seems like we are being drawn in to history again!

Photos from our visit to the Medieval city.

Carl on the old Stonebridge and the old city in the background. 

On the stonebridge over river l'Aude. The river is not good for navigation but very important for the vineyards that are dotted all along the Aude.

The impressive wall of the old city and the the Black mountains in the distance.

The entrance to the old city. 

Very impressive wall dimension. 

In between the outher and inner defence walls. 

Where is this road leading?

Carl at the Petit Puits. One of the water wells in the city.

For us it is not enough with a watering well. We also need food 

A lekker salad and perfectly cooked magret de canard and frittes.

The rooftops of the old city seen from the the city wall.

Leslie waving from sharp shooters slit in the wall. 

Which glass is wine and which is water? Had a big of a shock when we opened this bottle from Chateau Auzias. Turns out the is a wine from this area, excellent with seafood or just as an aperitif. Beautiful etiquette, with painting of the Medieval City. "Indication Geographique Protégée de la Cite de Carcasonne."

Evening meal in the nearest pizzeria, disco lights and all!

Castelnaudary - Carcasonne 28 April

Left Castelnaudary with a plan to reach Villesquelande, a lttle village where we could find a mooring. When we arrived a Villesquelande we had passed 20 locks, with only 4 more to go to Carcasonne, and there was not much of a mooring. So we continued to Carcosonne where we arrived at 5.30 pm.

A cloudy and cool day, not a good day for  photographing. Twentyfour locks means that there is not much time for anything else than preparing for the next lock.

We had reserved a place in Carcosonne and found ourselves next to a boat with 6 South Africans, 4 from Centurion and 2 who lived in Australia.

Here they are having their skemerkelkie, that is evening beer!

took a photo of a strange horse in a field last night. Later yesterday morning a person walked by with two horses. Noticed that one of them had spots on the hindquarters. The person was dressed in a conspicuous way. Later this afternoon we passed the same person with the horses.

Have no idea what this means but this person has walked about 30 km along the Canal Midi with these two horses, with packs on.

Carcasonne seems like an interesting place with an ancient city nearby. We investigate tomorrow.

Supper on board, asparagus!

Port-Lauragais - Castelnaudary 27 April

Our trip today is taking us over the watershed between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 189 m. We go through the automatic lock, L'Ocean without a hitch. This is the highest point of the canal. We are reminded of the other watershed we passed through in  Europe, two years ago on the Main-Danube canal.

The entrance to ecluse L'ocean

Leslie pulling LB all the way to the top.

189,06 meter above sea level, a plaque at ecluse L'Ocean.

The Jefferson plaque at the ecluse L'Ocean was put up 220 years after the Revolution. Jefferson was the US ambassador to France 1785-1789, and was a great lover of France and all things French. He travelled all over France and promoted in the US, French architecture and culture. As a humanitarian he shared the values of Liberty. With his friend Lafayette he played a key role in writing the French constitution and the human rights declaration 1789.

This was an octaganal basin just past L'Ocean. For several years this served as a settling basin for watered coming from the Black Mountains and an extra reservoir for the canal. Unfortunately it silted up soon after the canal was built and a new canal was built to bypass it.

The notice telling us that this is the watershed.

At the other end of the watershed is the ecluse Mediterranee. After this we travel downstream towards the Mediterrean.

Lunch time, locks closed for an hour. We try some delicious tinned sardines. While waiting or the lock to open a little love scene is played before our eyes. In Carl's eyes this was the ultimate evidence of wild fiery passionate French love affairs. 

First came the man in a grey silvery Peugot and parked it behind the ecluse building. Then came a red little Renault driven by a woman and parked next to it. It only took one second before the man and women were lost to the rest of the world. His hands were all over her body and she had more hands than he could ask for. Soon they realised that they were not alone and attempted an almost sober walk into to woods. 

Arrived in Castelnaudary at about 2 pm. Our fenders were attacked by this swan. The two men who helped us with mooring said that the swan attacks anything white, especially big fenders.  I have just seen it chasing a rowing boat with white oars.

Our neighbour on the barge, Lost in France, moving his boat to the other side of the canal.

What is Cassoulet?

It comes in big earthenware pot........

...and it fills you with flavours of homemade food and love.....

This is the most famous dish in this area. We had cassolet a week ago in Trebes, but this is the real thing. Delivered to our boat in this earthenware dish, duck and sausage and white beans.

While eating our famous dish of cassolet, we heard a loud noise right outside. A car had driven into a barrier right next to the boat. We saw the woman driver (not the red car from this afternoon) reversing away and thought nothing more about it untill another bash disturbed our cassolet enjoyment. We looked up and believe it or not she bashed into the same pole for the third time. Out of concern for our boat, Carl jumped out of the boat to try to redirect her, which he managed to do and off she sped. Either she had too much cassolet or too much wine.

The scene of the crime!

Toulouse - Port Lauragais 26 April

Today we start our trip back down (or up?) the Canal Midi. We are planning to take it a bit slower and enjoy the view! Must say, it is difiicult to not take the Canal Midi slowly, fast walkers can walk faster than us, max 8 km/hour. Locks only open at 9 am, so it's no use starting early, close at 6 pm. And of course, lunch, 12.30 to 1.30, when all locks are closed.  So it's a gentle cruise with no stress. Do not do the Canal Midi if you are in a hurry, or do not like locks, is my advice. Do like the English couple in the boat next to us in Toulouse. They found a boat, thought it would be fun to do the Canal Midi, and for the last 3 summers, have just cruised up and down the canal. Beautiful and wonderful as it is, I am satisfied with the return journey we are doing.

Leaving Toulouse. It takes almost an hour to leave the city. The Canal is lined with barges, most of them uninhabited. Maybe the owners come for the summer. Some are quite well looked after, but most are in quite a sorry state.

Leaving the city by means of aqueduct over the motorway 

View from Lellebelle while crossing the motorway on the aqueduct.

Toulouse is known  for the European space centre and the Arian space rockets

And the Airbus assembly plant. We pass close to one the Airbus and Intespace plants.

Some more photos of the barges alongside the Canal.

First boat we meet  today. Is that Bart Simpson?

Very colourful in any case.

Second lock, automatic. The gates refuse to close. Not my fault this time, I "appuyed", that is I pressed all the right buttons, that is knobs, but the gates did not close. Ok. So now I have to call the lock keeper and explain that there is a problem ( think French, uuuun prrobleem). Fortunately a energetic youngish Frenchman doing his stretching exercises after a jog, came to my assistance. They are very chivalrous, the French, does not matter that a woman is over 60! I asked him to call the lock keeper, which he did and " j'arrive" in 10 minutes. And she did. A really friendly woman with a dog ( rescue dog, she told us) arrived and closed the gates. She asked where we were going and just for fun we said, Sweden. In That Boat? We have heard that so often. We have gone far " in that boat"!

The photo is of the lock, the lockkepper and her rescue dog.

One of the many wonderful bridges we pass under. We have read that Monsieur Riquet constructed these bridges of bricks from Toulouse because there was no quarry nearby. The three bridges, Deyme, Donneville and Montgiscard are still in place today. However, during the battle of Toulouse in 1814, General Sault, blew up these bridges to protect his retreating troops. The bridges were restored in 1821.

After a whole day of less than 8 km/hour, locks and lunch breaks we have arrived at this place, Port-Lauragais.  Here I found a horse with spots on the hindquarters. We saw a horse like this in Toulouse this morning.

Port-Lauragais is a tourist complex and truck stop. The tourist office is closed untill May. 

So is the Capitainerie meaning we could enjoy free mooring and electricity. We have learnt the rental boat mooring technique. Stern to and tie as hard as you dare against the jetty with a few fenders I between. Works very well in calm waters. 

Second night with lamb chops and salad, to bed early.