Marseillan to Colombieres (and a week’s holiday in our house!)

Heading out onto the Etang de Thau from Marseillan

We really were genuinely sad to leave Marseillan, but also a bit excited as not only were we now going onto the Canal du Midi, but in a couple of days we would leave Quaintrelle at Beziers and hire a car to go and stay at the house for a week.  Having heard of all the holiday-makers enjoying our pool, we decided that we wanted a shot of it ourselves and we’d invited Simon, an architect friend, to come over and give his thoughts on what changes we wanted to make.  Peter and Jane would also join us for a few days so we’d need to stock up on wine……..

We were only back on the Etang du Thau for 20 minutes or so before we took the cutting on to the Canal du Midi.

Coming off the Etang and onto the canal.

Swampy boats ahoh!!

Here we are!

The first part of the Canal du Midi really isn’t that attractive.  There are a lot of what we call swampy boats there; neglected almost beyond recognition and often piled high with the rubbish that people seem to think you require to exist.  It makes for a rather shabby welcome experience, which is a shame.  We arrived at the round lock at Agde just before lunch.  It’s a most unusual lock as it is round and has three sets of gates; two for going up and down on the midi and a third that takes you down into Agde and on to the Med.  We would not be taking that third gate……  There was a boat waiting when we arrived so we pulled in and Mike went up for a look and came back to report that there were three hire boats coming down and the last one in was spinning around and having trouble mooring up.  They must have got lines on however, and 15 minutes or so later the first two boats exited and the third began to spin around the lock again……  It took a further 20 minutes for this boat to get out of the lock.  He kept oversteering, overcorrecting and was literally going around in circles for 20 minutes – while we all waited.  By the time he passed us, head down, not making eye-contact with anyone, the lock closed its gates on us for lunch!

You spin me right round baby right round, like a record baby, right round, round round....... :D The boat in the left hand corner has its nose towards a gate to the canal.  The gate in the top left is the one to Agde and the Med.  The gate to the right is the other one to the canal du midi.  The spinning boat has come in from the Midi gate to the right and wants to go out of the one in bottom left-hand corner......

We made use of the time by washing Quaintrelle.  Having been in salt water for the last couple of weeks, we were keen to get it washed off before it started to cause rust so while everyone else enjoyed a break in the midday sun, we broke sweat washing her down.

The delay meant we were a bit later mooring up above the lock at Portiragnes, after a failed attempt to moor below the lock where the wall had eroded and crumbled in and we found ourselves on a tilt too far out from the bank to get on and off!  We quickly assembled the bikes and packed our swimming stuff and set off on what turned out to be a 12km round trip for one last exposure on the beach. 

Friday 24^th was slightly cooler than it had been, at a balmy 30 degrees and we set off for Beziers just after 9am.  The characteristic plane trees of the Midi are missing in huge chunks as many have been destroyed by a pest brought over in the wood of ammunition boxes from the US in WWII.  When you get a stretch of them, they are really beautiful and when you get a bald patch it’s very sad.  However, there is a massive replanting programme taking place and there were long stretches where there were young saplings biding their time until they will provide shade along the cut like their predecessors.

You can clearly see that the English canals were based on the Canal du Midi - same sort of bridge holes - feels like home!

The first part of the Midi is also still relatively close to the Med so there are more Blackpool-esque resorts along the way.

But this is what we want to see - the beautiful majestic plane trees of the Midi.

We reached the port at Bezier just after 12 to find a space reserved for us alongside Hyersynth Bookay, who is for sale at a whopping 300,000 euros if anyone is interested…….  We settled our bill of 152 euros for 9 nights with no water or electric after lunch and headed up into town for an explore.  It’s a really pretty town.

One of the main avenues in Bezier had had a flower fair and we just caught the last of the stalls.

Bezier, like Lyon, is also trialling a driverless vehicle up and down the avenue.  We took it both ways, but this one had a lady to push the button to set it off, so it still has some way to go.

I loved this statue/fountain in the park in the city.

Back at the boat, we packed including some bits and pieces that we were taking back to the house to store in the garage until we go back for good and started to clear the fridge ready to empty in the morning before we left.

It was a bit of a fiasco picking up the car the next day as we’d booked it from 10.30am, but were now picking up Simon at Bergerac airport on our way back so wanted to leave earlier.  Mike had tried to change it the night before but couldn’t get into the online account he’d used to book it, but we figured it would be okay to collect an hour or so earlier.  It turns out it wasn’t.  Apparently there have been problems with people being caught speeding, but then saying they didn’t have the car at the time of the offence and produced the paperwork to prove their pick-up time was later than the time the offence occurred………  She allowed us to do all the paperwork so when we returned at 10.30am, we just had to check the car and drive off, and while I did that with her Mike was on the phone……  The thing is, you book online through a third party, you get a good price, often more than half the price of going direct to Hertz, Enterprise or whoever.   But you then can’t make changes because the person you booked it through won’t call the actual hire company to change the booking.  Mike did reach a point after about 20 minutes and the first customer service agent had hung up on him, where they said they’d change it for a fee……  You can imagine how well that went down.

I returned to collect the car at 10.15am and was left waiting until 10.20am and then allowed to drive away at 10.23am, but only after she’d scribbled out 10.30am on the paperwork and written 10.20……

The car was loaded up and we were off!  Our high spirits didn’t last long though as we hit traffic and realised it was the last Saturday in August and all of France were heading back home from their holiday in the south.  It took an hour and a half to do a stretch that should have taken 40 minutes!

5 hours later and we picked a very relaxed Simon up from Bergerac, having made use of his time there and had a lovely lunch ‘gastronomique’ in town. Reaching the house we unloaded the car and then despite the overcast sky and temperature of 18 degrees, got into our swimming stuff and jumped in the pool.  It wasn’t that warm, but it’s OUR POOL and we loved it!

The next day the sun was up and the clouds had vanished so the pool would definitely be in use, but first we had a ‘meeting’ with Simon to talk about the house.  Simon had been having a good wander around and now wanted to see if his ideas matched up with ours.  All exciting stuff!!  Simon and Mike carried on measuring up and discussing options while I drove to Bergerac to collect Peter and Jane.  By the time we got back to the house, Mike had most of the inflatables blown up and plenty of champagne and wine chilling in the fridge and he and Simon were about to start relaxing.  What else was there to do but join them.

Me and Pete enjoying our pool with a view.

There were lots of butterflies in the garden and Mike caught a snap of this Scarce Swallowtail - very beautiful.

Enjoying some of our Philippe Benard pink fizz!

In the summer months lots of the towns hold weekly night markets with food and drink stalls and live music.  We attended the one in Duras on the Thursday night - it was heaving!

Meanwhile peace and tranquility remain back at La Ganne.

We barbequed on our gas barbeque that evening and sat out late into the night – probably to the annoyance of our neighbours……  On Monday morning Simon had one last look around the house, a last chat with us and he and I were then on our way to Bergerac airport for his afternoon flight.

The rest of the week kind of followed a similar pattern, breakfast, pool, lunch, walk, pool, drink, sleep……..  Although on Wednesday, or was it Tuesday, we drove to Eymet and had a lovely lunch at Andine, the peruvian restaurant there.  On Thursday we took Peter and Jane to the airport and then Mike and I met with our financial advisor to sort out what we need to do taxwise in both the UK and France and then on our way home we stopped in at a VW garage to test-drive a couple of cars; T-Roc and Tiguan.  With the time for moving into the house growing nearer we needed to get the wheels in motion for buying a car and we had a shortlist of ones we fancied trying out.  We were greeted in the VW showroom by an English car salesman who was really helpful and let us try the cars, but on further investigation it turned out that he didn’t have anything suitable in stock for us and the new ones (which were too expensive anyway) wouldn’t come until next April now!

The next day we bit the bullet and drove to Bordeaux, yet again in awful traffic on the peripheral ringroad making the journey half an hour longer than it should have been.  Our target today was the Audi dealer to try the Q2 and Q3.  We loved both these cars but the Q3 was really out of our budget, even for an ex-demo, but there was a Q2 that would suit but it was at another dealer.  There was a second hand Q3 across the forecourt but we just weren’t sure……..  The next day the chap called to say the Q2 we’d fancied had been sold so we’d need to think again…….

Saturday we packed up and headed back to Bezier with a much smoother journey this time and very pleased to get back and see that Quaintrelle’s batteries were sitting at 100% - from the solar!  It made us realise just how much power our fridge uses!  We had a kebab later in the evening and Mike started looking online for a car through a site called Aramis Autos which our friend Kevin, from DB Kendra Erin, had suggested. This would enable us to get a good car at a better price and quicker than through a dealer and we really needed a car in the next 3-4 weeks.  We got quotes through and had a good look, translating as much as possible as it was all in French.  It looked good.  The Q2 and Q3 were still too expensive, so we decided on the Tiguan and so began what would be a week of total car stress trying to get insurance, bank transfers etc sorted out………

Sunday 2^nd dawned bright and sunny again and we were keen to get moving again so headed off after breakfast up the first lock out of Bezier.

There is a fantastic view of the cathedral at Beziers as you leave via the aqueduct.

The inclined plane taken out of use in 1968.

In a remarkable U-turn on modernisation of the canal, there was an inclined plane that was used instead of the flight of 7 locks up until 1968.  Proving problematic, the plane was closed and the locks reopened and it’s the locks that are used today.  It was quite a hair-raising climb and we have never seen staircase locks operated in this way.  You pull into the chamber whilst the upper gates are still open and water is let through from the chamber above.  So in chamber 1, the water is let in from chamber 3 and fills both chamber 2 and 1 – the gates between 2 and 1 being open.  You move into chamber 2 and the gates are closed behind you and you’re taken up to chamber 3 and so on.  This method meant that rolling waves of water passed through the chamber above you before reaching the chamber you were in which meant it was a torrent by the time it reached you.  We didn’t exactly enjoy it and found the whole experience quite traumatic.

One of the calmer locks..............

Lovely view back down the flight though.

At the top we pulled in for a break and went for a look at the flight and the visitor centre there.  It’s really pretty and very interesting and we paid 3 euros to see an excellent 3d film of how the Canal du Midi was made, all in English for us!

Enjoying the 3d film experience...... (my best acting - it hasn't started yet - I'm good..eh?)

The film was so well done - well worth the 3 euros!

We then continued along to our mooring for the night at Colombieres, a pretty little village and got a space before the rest of the bumper boats arrived – it was fun watching them trying to get through the tiny bridge hole.  Sadly despite now being in September there are still a lot of hire boats around and the worst thing about them is the speed.  Mike spent most of the rest of Sunday shouting out the window at them to slow down as their wash lapped up over the sides of the canal and we were buffeted about – they have no idea………  After a wander through the town we headed off up the towpath to the Oppidium, discovered when the marshes were drained, and watched a couple of boats go through the tunnel de Malpas, then it was back to the boat for a barbeque and bed.

The Opidium - it must look even more impressive from the air.

A tranquil mooring at Colombieres - once the bumper boats have gone to bed...... ;)