This has been a relatively quiet week for those of you who enjoy our travel stories. We spent the week on the Canal Du Midi in the South of France. Last Saturday we picked up a canal boat at Negra about 50 km east of Toulouse. We had spent the morning in Toulouse where we struck the first serious rain period in the time we have been in France. Therefore we have no photos of Toulouse, although it is a really interesting city. It also marked the sad day that Paul actually got kilometres near the Airbus factory. He knew before we left, that in typical French fashion, yes they have tours, but not on Saturdays, the only day we were able to be in Toulouse. Therefore he was content to watch planes take off over the canal for the next week as we were in close vicinity to the factory.
We did think that we were going to have a fairly relaxing week after our rigourous week of walking. Crewing a canal boat is not as relaxing as you think. We travelled 118 kilometres along the canal to our destination, a small town called Argens, about 20 mins from the port city of Narbonne. Travelling along the Canal Du Midi involves taking the boat through water 'lochs'. We appointed Ian our captain as he has the sailing experience and under his command we safely made it. Moving along the canal we quickly learnt that we were not only one of several boats taking the same trip but one of many, going both ways. The week became more interesting as it developed and the various nationalities we met on other boats along our journey.
Each loch is manned by a 'loch-keeper' who mans the opening and closing of the gates at each end of the lock. They appear to have varied personalities and this is reflected often in the way they manage the loch and the activities they provide around their loch. There are loch keepers, who are entrepreneurial who sell wine and homemade jams. We even had one very friendly loch keeper who sold us a homemade apple tart two days running. Some loch keepers are very keen to have a conversation in French and hence my French speaking skills developed by having conversations with them as the boat was moving down the loch. Some loch keepers are women and you would often catch them sunbaking or in certain circumstances with some male loch keepers; napping away on a hot afternoon. Often the loch keeper would have their dog with them and Paul thinks that there are many dogs in France who look remarkably like their owners.
Therefore crewing the boat did give us quite a bit of exercise. We hired bikes for the week and each morning Cecile and I would ride to the local village to pick up the bread from the Boulangerie for the day. Cecile even had the energy to run several kilometres between locks on some days. This was after she spent the day jumping on and off the boat. We really do think she would make an Olympic athletic team. I think I have done enough bike riding along canal tow paths to start coaching a rowing crew on the Yarra; my skills are that good to balance on rocky paths, close to the edge of the water.
As I mentioned before, our journey did give us the opportunity to meet a variety of people from other nationalities; including German, Swiss, Spanish, British, South African, New Zealand and many other Australians. I was beginning to actually believe that there were no Australians left in Australia and that they were all on the Canal du Midi. Each boat had a certain way of operating, based on the nationality of the occupants; there were those who thought they may have been in the Sydney to Hobart (as did one Spanish boat we met), those who tended to move their boat erratically, some boats were manned by women alone which would be quite a difficult job. We were not quite sure if the job was difficult or they were a little out of their depth. We met a Swiss gentleman and his wife who kept their boat and driving very neat and tidy. Meeting various Australians made me realise that we do have a very varied country in terms of cultural groups. The groups of Australians that we met were all different, from a group of public servants from Canberra (who made numerous stops at local villages to sample wine, restaurants and never had a hair out of place), to a very mixed group of people from Melbourne (who were returning to visit ethnic roots in Poland and Croatia via France) to a group of men and their wives from Northern Queensland (all dressed in yellow Australian T-Shirts, caps, shorts and drinking copious amounts of beer; they resembled a boat on Brisbane Waters north of Sydney, that you often see cruising around in Summer).
We visited some small villages and towns along our way including Castlenaudry, Carcasonne, Trebes and Homps. These names might not mean anything but each town has its own identity and appearance. Of these town, Carcasonne is of note as it has a medieval town above the main city that is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Paul has accumulated photographs of these sites rapidly over the holiday and he can now tick off at least 30 more on the list of thousands. Many of the smaller villages survive on business from the canal and the boats. As we did most of our cooking on the boat, we attempted to utilize the grocery stores along the way. Usually our first questions when we arrived in a village were: “Where can we get fresh water?” and “Where is the nearest supermarket”? Our attempts to cook were varied. One night we even resorted to having pizza delivered from a local takeaway because it was Sunday and everything was closed. In another town we shopped at the 'Price Leder' which is the equivalent to shopping at Aldi. This would make my father very impressed as he has tried very hard to persuade Paul to enter what Dad believes has revolutionised supermarket shopping in Australia and brought Europe to our country. Ian and Cecile are superb cooks and we had some really good home cooked meals over the week. This surprisingly gave us relief from eating in the many restaurants we have dined in over the 6 weeks. boat was quite new and was well appointed and comfortable with individual hot showers in each of the 3 cabins, a kitchen with oven and stove and a nice dining area.
On Saturday we finished our trip and farewelled Ian and Cecile in Narbonne. Cecile is returning to Paris to further her studies in French for another week (I on the other hand am still attempting to speak my limited French to the Spanish in Barcelona). Ian is leaving Cecile in Paris to rest on a beach in Thailand for a couple of more weeks. He needs to recover from the experience of telling 3 teachers what to do for a week, a challenge in itself.
Paul and I spent half a day exploring Narbonne. At first when we knew we had 6 hours to wait for a train, we thought we would be lost for what to do. However we discovered that Narbonne is a very pretty Roman town with a Mediterranean feel. We enjoyed lunch in the square for 2 hours (remember nothing happens in provincial France between 12 – 2 pm.) and then explored the Roman ruins and the Medieval cathedral. We then boarded a train for an interesting 4 hour trip along the coast to Barcelona. We think we may have been the oldest people on the train and that Barcelona is a destination for every graduating American and Canadian student for the Summer. The city is a busy contrast to the quiet we have had on the canal for the past week. So begins our Spanish adventure. You will have to wait until next week for an update but we did commence our visit by eating Tapas and drinking Sangria at 11pm (most restaurants do not function until 9 pm); we have geared our eating habits to fit in with the Spanish. Until next week Au Revoir France and Hola from Spain!
