On Monday, we headed downstream to the town of Beziers. We decided to skip filling up with water on the theory that we could get by without showering for a day. So far, as of Tuesday AM, so good. As we got started, Jeanne took the wheel for a while.
Carol blogging: Well, I must say cruising down the canal is interesting, however, it is very slow going. It is day 3 and I am getting restless (being the "on the go" person that I am). Last night we stopped at the
village in the picture. We went to a tourist office. I asked the lady there if they had a brochure in English. She said "No, you in France!" I do believe that it is probably a good thing she didn't know English and I, French. :-)
As we go down the canal and stop at various villages on the map. You have to watch the clock closely. They close all shops from about 12-2pm. The restaurants as well, but some do stay open. It's hard to find grocery stores in the villages, but fortunately we bought lots of food for the boat.
Above is a picture of a painting that I took of the canal.
Humphrey Bogart (Jon) and Katherine (Jeanne) and the crew (Chuck and Carol), are getting quite good at mooring the boat. I do believe the "African Queen" and its crew are ready for the "open seas." The canal we are on goes from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and it only takes about 3 months.
Back to Chuck. We made it to Beziers by about noon or a bit after. One of the attractions for boaters in Beziers is a series of 6 locks that change the level of the canal by about 100 feet or even more. This picture is looking from the top lock down.
The locks were closed when we arrived, so we didn't get to see them operating. There also didn't seem to be any boats queued up waiting for them to reopen after lunch. I wonder if the lock keepers didn't go on strike a day early.
They apparently will put 2 boats into the lock which could be quite cozy if both of the boats are big ones.
The locks on the Canal du Midi are apparently unique because of their oval shape. The water in this lock is high, so a boat would enter from above. Then the
gates would be opened to let the water equalize to the lower level. As you can see, the locks are not perfectly sealed. For the engineers out there, think about the pressure of the water on those doors. It is hard to see, but the are angled a bit so the water pressures helps seal them.
We took a bus into the center Beziers expecting to see this:
We had a nice lunch and then surprise, surprise, Jeanne and Caroline went shopping. Jon and Chuck went exploring. We found a nice
church (closed), but nothing that looked like the above picture. Jon and Chuck also scouted around and found a taxi stand. So, a quick taxi ride back to our boat and we were back on the canal for a short motor back the way we came to Colombiers. It was in Colombiers where Caroline was told, "You in France."
We had a nice dinner on the boat, played a new game that Jeanne brought, and a couple of hands of Skip Bo before retiring.
