Summer 2006.

Readers (of the Journal) may recall that our Snapdragon 890, ‘Wise One’, took my wife Jacky and I through France during summer ‘05 via Honfleur, Paris, Canal de Bourgogne and the Rhone to winter in Port Camargue. This May ’06 we rejoined to take her onwards (mast less) towards Bordeaux and the Biscay.  After a successful summer she now lies in Royan on the mouth of the Gironde estuary, waiting the 2007 venture into the Atlantic

‘Wise One’ armoured for canal life

But what of this Summer ’06?  In short we covered 454 miles, handled 169 locks and rose to 189 m above sea level before dropping to the Atlantic.  Not a big deal; in fact pretty leisurely and unstressed.  The story could be told as an account of wines and restaurants (thank you Rick); or people and boats; or towns and places; or churches and cathedrals; or, of course, the changing waterway itself.
The route was Port Camargue, Aigues Morts, Palavas, Sete, Meze (and the Etang du Thau), Beziers (and my sisters extended family), Narbonne (and old college friends), Carcassonne, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Royan.  Oh, and the bits in between.

The Waterways.
A few words about the waterway:   Most people, (but not you, of course), tend to use the title ‘Canal du Midi’ as shorthand for all those waterways lying between the Rhone and Bordeaux.  Not, however, quite true.  At the eastern end is the Canal du Rhone-a-Sete, completed in 1820.  This runs through the low-lying coastal region, much of the way through salt water lakes (Etangs) separated from the sea by sand dunes.  To the east of Sete the channel runs between high banks over which can be seen black fighting bulls, grazing white Camargue horses and flocks of flamingos; heads down and trawling for food.

Map showing the route from the Mediterranean Sea to Biscay across France

From Sete the big navigable Etang du Thau carries you to Agde where the Canal du Midi really starts.  From Agde the Canal du Midi runs to Toulouse.  Everywhere its inceptor, champion, designer, surveyor, and part financier Paul Riquet, is celebrated. It was put into service in 1681 and is now a World Heritage site.  From Toulouse westwards runs the Canal Lateral de la Garonne (completed 1856) which itself stops some 67 k east of Bordeaux.  From here to Bordeaux the Garonne is navigable and tidal.  From Bordeaux to the sea the River Garonne is joined by the Dordogne and renamed the Gironde which is a widening and swiftly flowing tidal estuary.

               These water systems therefore display an ever changing range of temperament that unfolds slowly with your 4 knot progress.  Forty years ago the Mediterranean section of the route was characterised by marsh, lagoon and mosquitoes.  Only small local fishing populations could tolerate the summer humid heat and insect assaults.  In the late 1960’s a programme of insect control was carried out; much land was drained and holiday development introduced.  Huge planned coastal building for the tourist needs was instigated resulting in the present experience of Port Camargue, Grau-du-Roi, Carnon, Palavas, la Grande Motte, Port Ariane (Montpellier) and Agde.  Some old fishing communities have managed to hang on to traces of an earlier architectural and community presence.  But much is characterised by the developments of the 1970’s and 80’s.

              However first call after Port Camargue was Aigues Morts, the walled medieval town built for the crusades and, I am sure, much restored in the C19th.  The top of the walls are well worth a walk giving great views towards the sea.  Before Marseilles became part of France this was the only effective port into the Mediterranean. With Marseilles, it became redundant and remains a remarkably preserved medieval town; little has changed over the centuries. (Perhaps there were always lots of restaurants and bars).

View over the Etangs

Between there and Palavas we ran through a short canal section populated by a cloud ofkingfishers (honest!). They repeatedly flew over our heads displaying their colours – nothing like the water hugging reserve of their solitary English cousins.  We stayed a short time in Palavas which has two marinas.  We preferred the smaller, less formal ‘Paul Riquet Marina’ where we lay to a grassy embankment. Although much changed by the holiday trade, the town is still a place of some character and includes good sea swimming amongst its many attractions.  After Palavas do not forget to pull into the rural south bank at the ‘island’ medieval cathedral of Maguelonne; if possible catching one of their fairly frequent music events.
              But for me the traditional French experience starts at Sete, a place that could well be described as France’s Venice.  The town centre is crossed with a system of commercial, locked basins and was a hive of intense shipping activity in the 18th and 19th C. That has gone but has left behind a network of waterways which are a huge feature of old Sete. Every week in the summer you can see water jousting between rival oar-driven boats with their stern-mounted jousting platforms which carry the crouching combatants.  We moored with limited facilities in the town centre, avoiding the big modern marina at the sea entrance.  It was truly the noisiest place we stayed in with the night orchestrated by buzz bikes, rail freight trains and fast passing fishing craft. Still, it is a lively town with much of interest.

Water jousting

Westwards from Sete you enter the delightful Etang du Thau.  This Etang is home to a huge mussel and oyster industry based on regimented ‘farms’ which line the navigational channel within the Etang.  Here water purity is a matter of priority, controversy and dispute and the shell fish industry can on occasions be suspended while water standards are restored.   For us it was a very welcome hot-weather chance to swim off the boat – something you really cannot do in the canals.

The Etang du Thau also gives access to its old fishing communities of Boutiques, Meze and Marseillan (where Noilly Pratt is made).  If you visit Marseillant, do eat at ‘Le Marmettiere’ (i.e. ‘the cooking pot’) for the very best grub.  In Bouzigues we watched the small town’s population enter the Etang in a variety of small boats to celebrate its bounteousness with the patron saint, garlands, bedecked priest and ‘umpah’ band.  These small places are all well worth visiting and spending some time just enjoying the small French port atmosphere. Meze was our favourite, but in all we met nice people, drank nice wine, ate tielles (squid pies), stuffed mussels and red peppers; and relaxed in the Mediterranean sun.

Meze Harbour

            From Agde the uphill canals unfold.  Beziers is a town worth time to explore. You do have to climb up from the canal since the cathedral on top of the hill must be the destination. You can then reward yourself with a meal at the modest side street ‘Café d’Or’. And why not. What a pity that the new City nautical halt is not maintained so do not expect to find electricity here.      We were dragged off to an evening gig event high in the hills featuring nephew Piers and his own songs. All under a warm French night sky and through a haze of local red.  Who cares about electricity?
Typically the canals are double lined with mature trees which provide shelter from the sun and stabilise the embankments with their matted roots.  The much photographed image of the Midi is of a curving watery avenue of 200-year-old planes trees.  But there are places where Scots Pines dominate and others where mixed deciduous woodland including oak, chestnut and beech crowds the canal banks.  The Canal du Midi generally follows the contours as it climbs higher, i.e. it bridges many a crossing stream. Long views of vine-striped hillside lead to the Black Mountains to the south and the distant Pyrenees rising blue in the far distance.  Here the major wild life are the hire power cruisers-of-minimal-control but generally good humour

Jackie in charge

            As the miles and the summer rolled by, vine gave way to soft fruits of apricots, peach, plum and cherry alongside fields of ripening sweet corn.  Sunflower fields changed from blinding yellow to an autumnal and pre-harvest brown.  Soft fruits gave way to later season apples and pears.  The uphill Cather country was dominated by small, often ruined defensive villages on little hill tops and churches as impregnable as castles.  With our slow westward progress the Mediterranean climate slowly becomes more Atlantic as Languedoc gave way to the more gently rolling landscape of the Garonne. Instead of crossing contours, we now ran beside the River Garonne as the canal and the land gently falls to the sea.  Hire cruisers become less numerous.  Cicadas, coypu and glow worms accompany our westward wanderings.  

            At Castets-en-Dorth we left the canal system and entered the navigable but very tidal River Garonne.  The 67 k to Bordeaux were covered at great speed where we lay in a small marina at Begles, swept through by the roaring spring tides (‘’double your mooring lines, guys’’). We enjoyed old Bordeaux centre but Begles on the outskirts seemed to be the only practical marina.  It is a good bus ride and tram connection from the centre.   From Bordeaux we left the inland waterway system to carry the ebb tide down the Gironne estuary to the attractive small town of Pauillac (set in rich and famous vineyards).  But they have no yacht support services for wintering purposes; so on to Royan.  Here the estuary at places is 11k wide and dominated by shallows, small islands and swift currents.  The waters at Royan are categorised as ‘sea’ so now, mast less, we lie in the safe harbour of our first Biscay Port.

Canal du Midi scene

The People
            People ornate the route. Short, square, energetic Chris was both Port Capitain at Carmargue and co-owner of Chris-and-Mary’s restaurant on the waterfront.  He held our lives in sway having the gift of both moorings and food (well, not free of course).  Mary was invisible in the kitchen; King Chris’s court was his open restaurant frontage where evenings passed in handshakes and kisses; animated discussions on all topics boating and football; all wreathed in smiles.  We also frequented  the nearby ‘Le Soleau’ where the Spanish waiter (we had to christen him Manuel) had incomprehensible French, got all the orders wrong and delivered the bills to the wrong customers.  But with hardly a single word in common our relationship with him was a continuous stream of jokes and laughter.
  
            So people come in all shapes and sizes.  In Castelnaudry (home of the cassoulet) we invited on board a passing 52-year-old, be-whiskered, cycling German yachtsman to have a glass and entertain.  He did, at length covering the history of Europe over the last 100 years and the respective Anglo-German roles played.  Drama dominated his life as he came right up-to-date by informing us that his partner of 31 years was to leave him forever the very next day.  We were quite uncertain as to how much this mattered, but he himself had to stay in Castelnaudry.  He was to be the witness at the marriage of the Spanish hobo-who-lived-in-the-bushes (and in plastic bags) just close to our mooring.  The lucky lady was to be an elderly Italian resident of a local old folk’s home.  The Hobo claimed to have an extensive Spanish spread but she said that she knew it was not true.  We left the next day for Toulouse and never found out if the partner did leave or the marriage was consummated or where.   Somehow it’s better that way.

Castelnaudrey basin

Small Amelia asleep in the cockpit

This was the early Moorish influence which we found echoed on other stone decorations elsewhere and which seemed to predate the Roman/Gothic tradition.  Mouissac, incidentally, was one of the most attractive little towns we visited with a well equipped and friendly marina. Eat at ‘l’Auberge du Cloister. But only, of course, having first seen the beautiful medieval cloisters behind the great church.

The waterfront   has  an  unrivalled range of seafood restaurants and the market is second to none.  The cathedral dates from the 1970’s and is a wonderful and sculptural concept in in-situ concrete and glass.  Sadly the quality of the concrete is a disaster Poor detailing and construction means that thousands of rusting steel bars are blowing off the surface of the concrete, inside and out generating a daunting renovation problem.