From Aigues Mortes we moved on to Carnon, spending three nights here before passing the swing bridge at Palavas-les-Flots, and then on to Frontignan.
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| Bridge open |
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| Bridge shut |
This bridge is unusual in that it has an outboard engine to operate its movement.
Next we came to Frontignan where Bumper Boats (hire boats) entertained us with their attempts at battering the lifting road bridge. Some didnt seem to know that the bridge only opened twice a day at 8.30am or 4pm. and thought their efforts to ram it or sound their horn would encourage someone to open the bridge for them.
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| Go Ahead! |
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| Waiting! |
From our moored position we walked down to the Frontignan Plage where we first put our toes in the Mediterranean and Ni relaxed with a glass of cool beer.
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| "Oh, I do love to be beside the seaside" |
And on the way back I was reminded of my cousin, Billy and his wife Ann, up on Tyneside who run the local (indoor) bowling club.
Then on to another 'milestone' along the way - the Etang de Thau. We watched the weather forecast and waiting for a calm and couldnt have asked for a better day. There was absolutely no wind at all, the water was dead flat calm, like the proverbial mill pond. Our main problem was the many fishing boats dashing back and forth around us, and not being able to see the channel marker buoys very easily. However we aimed for the charted course, and I helmed so that Ni could sit at the front of our barge where there is no engine noise, so he could sit and dream of being back on his beloved sailing yacht, Chantal, back across Bournemouth Bay.
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| There sits a happy man! |
We skirted the numerous oyster beds and marvelled at their numbers. No wonder they manage to harvest over 20,000 tonnes of oysters and mussels each year.
We resisted the temptation of calling into the port of Marseillan to visit the vermouth maker of Noilyy-Prat, and just motored on to the Canal du Midi.
At first it was very disappointing with lots of abandoned/wrecked boats, nowhere to moor, narrow channels and very shallow sides. But it soon got better.
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| Typical tree lined canal side |
On Sunday 27th we arrived at Agde and walked down into the town but were very disappointed by its drab appearance, having used black basalt lava rock. So we quickly moved on to Beziers-Vias where there was free electricity and water available. A rather sad place with scruffy live-aboards. The town is a 5 min bike ride away, with a good range of shops and market. The beach a 10 minuter walk in the opposite direction. But because of the hundreds summer rented mobile homes, and the huge fun fair park would be a very noisey place during the height of the season. of Here we met up with Charles and Pam on the narrow boat
Xenia who we first met last year on the Canal de Nivernias. We hadnt intended to stay here long, but an overzealous session of boat cleaning resulted in aching backs, and necessitated more rest. So we waited here for friends to arrive, and then lunched out with them at Cape-d'Agde.
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| Should he eat it, or just admire it? |
We passed through the Passage du Libron, where the river Libron crosses the can. It was constucted in 1857, work of the engineer Urbain Magues. One feels it should have grapes twinned around its metal work!
Portiragnes was a nice quiet mooring just after the lock. The town had a good range of shops.
We even managed to get a lot more painting done on the side decks.
Villeneuve-les-beziers was our next port of call.
Good spot with shade in the evening. Problems forthcoming with long term moorings and political wranglings between the mayor and various bodies including the VNF about allowing overwintering.
While we were there we had 3 offers to buy our barge. Two sounded seriously interested, one Canadian guy giving us his card and said as soon as we want to sell
Gesina contact him, another said he would be back in 5 months to buy her!
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| Trompe l'oeil |
Yes,
this wall really is FLAT. Its the side of the town police station.
There seems to be an artist who specialises in such works around this
region, as we have come across many excellent examples. I wish I had
photographed more of them. We noticed that they were often painted in
areas which otherwise might have attracted graffitte artists, so a much
more favourable solution to the problem.
We made a lazy start towards Beziers itself on Sunday morning, and wished we had set off earlier. The queue for the lock into Bezier town quay consisted of only 6 hire boats, but they had already been waiting over an hour for the eclusier to let them through. No-one seemed to know quite why there was such a delay. Eventually a green light showed on the locks gates, but only two boats could fit in at a time. Then of course it was lunch time. So we waited there over 2 hours before being able to get into the port. Only half the electricity points were working, but we managed to obtain one. so decided to stay two nights. A neighbouring boater thought it marvellous that we had a canal side security guard all night long. It did make me wonder why we needed one?
We thought it a good idea to walk along the Pont Canal (aquaduct) to Les neuf ecluses de Fonserannes and watch how it should be done. There were dozens of people milling about, quite a tourist attraction. The tourist train runs from here up and around the town so we decided to take the 50minute ride, a good way to see the town. This took us past the most important places, showing us the magnificent buildings from differing centuries along with some fine examples of Art Deco.
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| Cathedrales Saint-Nazaire & Eglise de la Madeleine |
Eglise de la Madeleine being the sight of the horrendous masacre during the Crusade of the Cathars in the 1200's.
A more charming place is the Plateau des Poetes with its fountain.
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| Fontaine du Titan, Beziers |
I thought I would be able to take a photo as we entered the staircase, but wasn't so here's a post card photo!
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| Disused Fonserannes boat lift, which I did manage to photograph! |
Two days later we stopped at the charming village of Poilhes the name of which we're not sure how to pronounce.
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| Poilhes mooring |
Then swiftly on to Capestang and the 'famed' bridge.
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| Capestang |
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| Safely through! |
We went exploring the town and on our return came across this beautiful cactus.
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| Nice juicy prickly pear. |
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| View of Capestang cathedrale from our mooring. |
The cathedrale was an amazing building. Viewed from one side the gable ends had been modified many times. Inside many side chapels still has a lot of remaining painted decorations on the ceiling and pillars. Sadly the whole place was desperately in need of a thorough cleaning.
We journed on and into the Canal du Junction stopping the night at Salleses-d-Aude. Happily right next to a vineyard outlet Domaine des 7 Ecluses, who opened for sales between 5pm and 7.30pm so we sampled their wares and bought 3 boxes of the local wine. At €2 per litre who could refuse.
The bridge here was decorated in pink for awareness of breast cancer, and had called their display October Rose. They ackowledged the local patchwork school and diversity of community contributions. From the other direction the panels looked like stained glass.
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| Narbonne, Hotel de Ville, Pink awareness bras. |
When we eventually got the lock to open we got our first glimpse of the city.
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| Entering Narbonne. |
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| Narbonne mooring for the winter. There's plenty of space, come on down! |
Well our family have been and gone. The week passed all too quickly. So now we will begin the usual process of preparing the old lady '
Gesina' for the winter.
