France, here we come: A bit of background...

Pierre Paul Riquet was the creator of the 240 km Canal du Midi between Toulouse and Sète. Way back in the 1660's he had a dream of connecting the Garonne River in the north with a canal going through southern France to connect the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean.

Economically this would benefit trade, enabling a faster and safer route for goods than past the hostile Spain and the Barbary pirates. But the logistics of supplying the summit sections of the proposed canal with enough water created enormous problems including the building of a huge dam as well as the financing of the canal itself. The sheer size of the mission bankrupted Riquet who was 63 when he got the go-ahead for the canal, and he died in 1680 just before the canal was completed and officially opened. He gave 20 years of lis life to his dream and his sons and hiers, who inherited the canal, continued the mission although it took the family 100 years to overcome the debts Riquet had left. It cost 15 million livres and 2 million came from Riquet himself. At its peak, the work of creating the huge dam and the canal itself employed 12,000 labourers, 600 of which were women and it was acclaimed as a remarkable and enterprising feat of great magnitude and importance. It was built with oval shaped locks designed to stop the walls caving in (they were 6 metres wide at the gates and 11 metres wide at the centre) however the theory was not widely accepted nor followed in other French or European locks. But the locks have survived to this day!

If you are interested, check out this web site for some fabulous photos - much better than ours and for more information

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/le.forum/photos.html

For 250 years the canal lived up to its expectations but in the 1850's or thereabouts, it was bought out by the railways and gradually fell into disrepair. Trade languished in favour of the faster rail system and by the 1980's it was down to 10 boats a year. All water life ceased during the drought of 1989 and it wasn't until the 1990's that some enterprising tourism operators saw the potential of the canal for holiday makers. With its locks and viaducts and its tree lined edges, the canal now does a roaring trade between the 3rd Sunday in March and the first week of November when it closes for winter maintenance. In season it generates 122 million Euros from tourism and is the most popular of pleasure waterways in Europe!!

boats queuing to go through a tight fitting bridge...

A Plethora of Pleasure Boats:

We saw everything from tiny wooden floaties to Plastic-Fantastics of huge proportions; from gigantic Hotel-Barges to skinny Long Boats akin to those in the English canals. We saw boats that hadn't moved for years to boats that change hands after weekends to boats that are rented for the whole summer season.

A privately owned hotel boat made into a home...

These Plastic Fantastics had me fascinated with their bow thrusters and dual throttles that enabled them to squeeze into the really short mooring spaces with minimal effort. Nossie and I saw one complete a full circle on what could have been a 5 cent piece!!

At Capastang, this Swiss gentleman let us moor onto his Plastic Fantastic so we could access water to fill our 700 litre tank. We weren't sure how much water was left and were scared of burning out the motor but not one boat was about to move away to let us have room. We waited over 2

hours and then decided to do a double park, hoping no other boat needed to pass us by!!

size doesn't matter, as long as one has space for bicycles!!

Has anyone not noticed our Aussie flag in all the photos of our boat? If not, here it is!!

Our boat did about 5 kph per hour which was relatively slow and chuggy in comparison to some of the Plastic-Fantastics which chewed up the miles and left huge washes in their wake which pummelled the banks of the canal. This is expressly NOT encouraged because the canal walls are extremely fragile and 8 knots per hour is the official speed limit. Not all the boats broke the speed limit but ours certainly couldn't!! And this is why it was so relaxing. Russell loved to leave the steering in the capable hands of Jan or Nossie and sit on the bow at the waters edge, away from the noise of the engine letting the gentle sway lull him into a state of peace. This was what he loved most about canal life: the quietness, the sound of water brushing the edges of the boat and the sound of the wind on the trees. He says it reminded him of when he used to row at college on the Barwon River.

One of the many hotel boats we passed...

The Hotel barges we saw were bedecked with pot plants of all shapes and sizes, deck chairs and tables and bars and umbrellas and merely 2 or 3 very relaxed customers who smiled benignly down on us, too lazy to raise an arm to wave as did other vessels. It was just too relaxing!

You can see the edge of our boat as I took this shot..

These large hotel barges were enormous and pushed us to the extreme sides of the canal because their keel needed to be at the centre of the canal at it's deepest spot. The overhanging branches of the plane trees , while picturesque, had us ducking our heads, closing the windows downstairs so we did not fill the cabin with leaves and grabbing anything that was sitting on the table. (Nossie was renowned for his tree trimming ability!) Some of these older barges had been converted into mobile homes and we saw one couple on their 100-year-old restaurant boat that they had bought for 200,000 euros ( see below) learning to navigate around sharp bends in the canal. At over 100 feet in length, corners and sludgy edges aren't easy and this boat got stuck and the boats behind it had to back up while it it manoevered out of trouble. Very cumbersome, but what a life!

The 100 year old restaurant boat:
We saw only a young couple on board this huge boat and the woman was learning to drive this monstrosity with a steering wheel and gears that took her whole body weight to shift!! I was transfixed!! This is the one that got stuck in the mud right opposite where we were moored for the night at La Croisade. You can just see the boats behind it keeping their distance!!

Pam and Nick at La Croisade talking to Russ and Nossie

On that same night we saw the old restaurant boat, we moored at the tiniest of villages called La Croisade and met up with an English couple Pam and Nick, who own and have renovated this single bedroom home-away-from-home(above). They also own a house a mere 15 minutes away by car but choose to live on their canal boat for the summer and rent out their town house for income. In the winter months, Nick completes more renovations and then they sell the boat and buy another to fix up. This is their third or fourth boat I think. Over some wonderful Spanish whisky they shared with the boys, they chatted and gave us a tour of their handiwork. Nick also gave Russ some valuable clues as to how best to swing the tail of our cumbersome boat back into the bank with a minimum of fuss.

Life off the boat....

We did not spend 15 hours of each day travelling, but rather motored for about 4 or 5 hours and then tied up and explored a town or village before deciding whether or not to continue. On one morning Jan I really wanted to get to Capastang for a market where we found the most delightful little square full of sausage sizzles, charcuteries, cheese, fruit and vegie stalls and bric a brac being sold.

Capastang Market on a Wednesday

As we sat down for a chantilly coffee (expresso coffee with a mountain of cream on top which the french say approximates a "cappuccino"), a couple of young women with an accordian and a clarinet started playing the most wonderful jazz. Then a little child, obviously a son, got up to accompany them on a tambourine;

then another daughter got up to play the violin and then Dad joined in with his violin. It was just fantastic and had the locals dancing and clapping and of course donating money into the strategically placed hat!!

Nossie thought they looked a bit like a travelling family of gypsies and they could have been but what talent they displayed. It just made our day.

The town of Capastang has a huge church and a 13th century chateau and we thought it was cute enough to come back to on our return journey. Jan wanted to explore the back streets more thoroughly and in the twilight we took the most interesting photos of the big church lit up against a deep cerulean coloured sky.

the church at Capastang.

Life at the end of the day also included a spot of hard bicycle riding at times, or a browse through the streets one side or another of the usual bridge that spanned the canal at each village, or a cool drink at a café or restaurant where we often met and chatted to other travellers. The canal is certainly cosmopolitan with French, English, German, Swiss, Spanish and Italian visitors as well as the occasional Aussie like us. We met Brigitte , a 22 year old student, who had come to France for her Uni holidays to experience and practise different languages as a waitress in Homps. She is fluent in German, English, French, Italian and is trying to learn Japanese too. She and Jan had a lovely time chatting and of course we all gave her an excellent tip at the end of each round of drinks!!