Ardiege to Rieux – Minervois………Haggerty Pick-up en route

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

September 30th

Got up to another beauty of a day (it had rained during the nite….perfect timing for the rain to well, rain) had a full breakfast with our very chatty owner….she did acknowledge she loved to gab with guests….all this in French. Finally manged to extricate ourselves from her clutches, hit the local car wash (Annie said it wouldn’t do to pick up her sister with breadcrumbs on the floor and seats) and then off to Toulouse.

Miss Charm was right on and we met the Haggerty’s on schedule, crammed all the luggage in the Clio (I must say it was a work of art) and away we went towards our overnight….

Had a very modest lunch (arrgh!!….Tripadvisor was WRONG on this one) and then a quick visit to a Cathar Abbey:

Back on the autopiste we passed Carcassone , which we will see later on in the trip…

We then dropped into the Le Boat port in Homps, where we are picking up our boat for the Canal du Midi tour…..all is good, boat will be cleaned, gassed up and ready for us tomorrow at 2PM, when we get our lesson to become Captains on the Canal du Midi….

Before going to our overnite Bob and I are dispatched to obtain the necessary beverages for before and after dinner celebrations. To the extent that Bob is bilingual, he prepares to pay for the wine and asks the lady how much, she answers 7 euros, he hands her 5 euros and smiles his happy Irish smile…..she does not smile back, but holds up one hand and two fingers …..and I thought he was speaking his very best Quebecoise …boy these French sure don’t understand French. We did get our wine but only after the 2 additional euros were handed over.

arrived at the Chambres des Dames, a nice Gite de France, were graciously met and shown our rooms and it is time for a celebratory glass of wine on our terrace:

Then dinner time, which was in the Gite’s dining room. The host (rather stiff in manner) led us to our table (the only table) and introduced the first course…dry baguette rounds with an olive/tomato tapanade with a type of apero made of red wine, honey and unnamed spices …it really went well together:

…this was followed by a confit de canard with a gallete of patates and greens with a reduction accompanied by a local red from a small vineyard, which the host proclaimed his wife and he “adored”….as did we. And for enders there was creme brule actually a camarque creme brule >>> the difference being it was orange rather vanilla flavored… with tea, coffee or tisane. A beauty of a dinner and probably the best duck we ever had.

Further celebrations on the terrace were curtailed as we all needed a clear head for tomorrow.