Canal du Midi > Days #3 & 4……to Capestang and an o/n in the “wild”

France, France and Spain 2015........a roadtrip with a boat cruise

October 3rd

The morning was dull, with clouds brooding….breakfast on board and we are off. Today we are facing only one single lock and this was encountered about a kilometer outside of Le Somail, last night’s overnight stop. From here we will be having no more locks untill Beziers and we are motoring at 8 kilometers per hour or better i.e. the max allowed.

The girls take a hand at the wheel:

Pretty nice views along the way, passing several small villages and wineries as well as lots of different boats. Apart from the “cruising” crowd, there are commercial, pleasure and liveaboards in all shapes and sizes.

There is a tow path which follows the canal and now and then we see cyclists with most everyone waving and smiling:

Eventually we reach Capestang which ended up being about a 4 hour cruise from Le Somail, our overnight stop today.

Part of the crew goes off to explore the village, which has a nice town square and a cathedral:

…..and yours truly, in his role as scribe, busily pecks away — btw the portable WiFi router we rented works great !!;

Dinner tonite was in the formal dining room of the Caprice, prepared by Chef Annie. Appies, pasta and salad with pastries for dessert. Very pleasant evening with everyone patting their ever plumping bellies……some wine and it’s bedtime.

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October 4th

The fourth day of our cruise and the morning is quite cool, we are now truly at the otail end of summer…..on with the woolies!! Most of the other boats are “sleeping”…

…but are off to the village for the Sunday market. We wandered around, met a British couple who live here…..they gave us some advice on where to buy the “best” baguette etc. We bought a freshly made rotisserie chicken, potatoes, ratatouile, as well as a selection of cheeses and charcuteries …provisions for the rest of the day.

Bob was quite taken with the military surplus display but in the end did not make a purchase:

Time to get back to the boat, get things shipshape, and, we are on our way….

….after we pass one smallish village where the canal twists and turns, we reach the Malpas Tunnel…….Pierre Riquet the famous French architect during the reign of Louis XIV, in the 17th century realized the dream of many others. To link the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, via a canal of 240 kilometers. As can be imagined this was a tremendous undertaking raising and lowering water levels, building aqueducts which raised the canal above ground and tunnelling through certain obstacles, which took 14 years to complete. The Malpas Tunnel was built when funds were running dry, so half of it is lined with perfect brickwork and the rest basically is hacked out of the mountain:

Bob making sure the Admiral is on the straight and narrow:

…the end in sight and hacked versus bricked inside of the tunnel:

Made our way through without any bumps en route and stopped at the side of the canal in Colombiers to enjoy our market goodies ….good thing we had the presence of mind to make those purchases as the town was locked up tight.

It was interesting to watch some of the boatmen who are quite skilled in piloting barges around the pleasure boats and through the bridges…

After lunch and a quick walkabout we made tracks for Beziers to look at the famous Fonserannes Locks ….7 locks in succession…very cool, as boats are raised/lowered 21.5 meters over a length of 300 meters. We looked at them but did not go down as there is a tight schedule for each lock, and if we were delayed we would not be able to get back to our base in time to return the boat.

Sue and Bob decided to go to Beziers on the Petit Train while the other dynamic duo stayed with the boat and watched a maximum sized tour boat descend the locks.

Sue & Bob returned safely back, happy with their visit to Beziers…

…then it was time to retrace our steps and we put the pedal to the metal as the section from Beziers to Colombiers isn’t very pretty and ended up overnighting in the “wild” near the town of Pont de Poihes.

Unfortunately, the plane trees which line the canal are suffering an illness where the only known solution is to cut them down so they don’t infect the ones around them. Although, only a fraction are so affected, if this continues for any length of time it will seriously degrade the canal as a tourist attraction.

Another nice sunset ending a longish day….

Once again we dine on the Caprice, this time enjoying the chicken and other pre-made goodies …….after which everyone goes down for the count…