Ten Days on the Canal du Midi: An Engineering Highlight

Last night there must have been a party going on in a nearby boat, cause the talking and laughter kept me up much later than I'd have liked. We had to get up extra early today because we're going to tackle the Ecluses de Fonseranes, or the Fonseranes Staircase, and it's only open in the direction we're going from 8:00-9:30am, and then not again until 1:30.

Leaving Colombiers

We arrived at the Staircase at 8:45 and began our descent. We were sharing locks with only one other small boat. Having gone through so many locks already. this was fairly easy and routine. We all took turns holding the lines so we could each look around and take pictures.

Water rushing into a lock

Capt. Dave overseeing the operation

View from the top of the Fonserane Staircase

Our boat (on left) in the lock

View of the locks

Holding lines on the Fonserane Staircase (this and next two pictures)

Here are two videos of of the Fonserane Staircase.

After coming through, we tied up the boat and walked back up to the top. There was a small place selling large prints of scenes of the Canal du Midi to benefit the Canal fund. There was also an information booth. On our way back to the boat we met up with four people from Ohio who were on a bicycling trip. We chatted with them for a while and then headed back to the boat.

David enjoying a pastry!

This is a no longer used ramp that was used before locks

Canal going over a road

Canal going over a river

View of St. Nazaire as we arrived in Beziers

Just outside of Beziers, our canal became a bridge over a highway, and then a bridge over a river.Then one more lock and we were tying up in Beziers, where we thought we'd have electric, but there wasn't any. We got off the boat and walked for a very, very long time, next to busy roads and then train tracks until we got into the city of Beziers. Unfortunately, Michael's back was hurting so he didn't want to walk too far. We went a few blocks, past the train station, and found ourselves in a very seedy neighborhood. We kept walking, trying to find a place to eat, or some good directions to the beautiful church we'd seen from a distance. However, the neighborhood continued to be unpleasant and we found nothing we were looking for. Eventually we met a young man who suggested that we go back to the train station because we were in the wrong area altogether. He walked with us for a while and told us he had moved to France about 6 years ago from an island near the Mauritius Islands near Australia. His name was Kenny, he was 25 and an engineer, and he always wanted to go to California.

The seedy neighborhood (I know it doesn't look so bad, but trust me)

Kenny the engineer and direction giver

Finally we got back to the train station and after speaking to a local, we decided to take a cab. It was a good thing we did cause it was about a 15 minute ride by car, all uphill! At the top was the beautiful church, Cathedrale St. Nazaire, and right across the street was a restaurant. I had a most delicious burger and fries (yes, I know it's not French, but it really hit the spot!).

Then we went into the church, which was breathtaking. There was going to be a wedding later and there were some flowers by the pews and two girls were standing up near the organ practicing songs. Outside, we took in the spectacular views of the surrounding countryside.

We left the church and walked a few blocks. Now we were in a very upscale shopping area. I found an information booth and asked where the local synagogue was (after all, we've been in a lot of churches) which we'd seen listed on the map. She had no idea, but looked it up on the internet. She gave me the address, which we found, but it was just an apartment building. We walked around a bit and then asked some police. They directed us back to the apartment building. This time we walked inside, there was a courtyard, and in there was a sukkah!! We'd found it, but it seemed to be just in an apartment, and no one seemed to be there.

While we were wandering around, we came upon a wedding party! The bride was outside and people were arriving, right in the middle of the city!

Then we started walking down the hill towards where we thought was the right direction. Then we saw a sign for the Roman Coliseum that we'd wanted to see. So we started following the signs and went for a while, and then there were no more signs. The map was impossible to read, and now we were back in a seedy neighborhood again. We stopped and asked directions and we were far from the Coliseum and heading the wrong way. So, we dropped that idea and headed back to the boat. We got to the train station and took a cab the rest of the way. There were two restaurants kind of near the boat but neither of them looked good. We made a last minute decision to bail on Beziers and head to the next town up, Villenueve les Beziers.When we got there, only about an hour later, we knew we'd made the right decision. This was a very cute town, with restaurants and shops right near the canal and a cute little town square to wander around. We again ate dinner practically on our boat, the restaurant was so close!