Ten Days on the Canal du Midi: First Day on the Water

David got up early and took a sunrise picture!

After a good night's sleep, we had eggs and a baguette for breakfast with hot coffee. We had one or two very minor issues with the boat which we had addressed first thing before leaving the base. Then we pulled out at about 9:15. Within 45 minutes, we'd already gone though six locks! The first four locks were one after another - in fact I got off the boat holding the line and walked it through each lock.

Inside one of the first locks (above and next two pictures)

A little later in the day, a boat with a family from South Africa caught up with us. We shared a lock with them. By the next lock, we'd both caught up with 4 people from Oregon.

One of the locks had a small store where they sold hand made ceramics (made right there by the lockkeeper's wife!) We also bought very local wine (made within 15 minutes of there!)

This canal is absolutely beautiful, lined with plane trees. Unfortunately, there is some kind of disease that's destroying them and many are marked to be removed.

Plane trees on left side of canal. Below, you can see the dead trees slated for removal.

At 12:30 we came upon a lock that wasn't open, and we realized that it was lunch time for the lockkeeper - they close from 12:30 - 1:30 daily. So we stopped and had lunch too!

Our first stop was an Archaeological Museum. There were lots of artifacts there that we looked at. Then someone (I'll give you a hint, it wasn't me) wanted to go to Carrefore, the large supermarket chain in Europe. We went there and bought some more supplies. Then back to the boat where we discovered that we were docked right alongside a bees nest. So, we headed back to the original side of the canal again and parallel parked alongside Nicols. For 5 euro, we can plug into their electricity. The restaurant the Michigan folks told us about is closed today, but there's a restaurant just alongside our boat that we can go to.

This is the view in front of us. The bees nest spot was just behind the barge on the left. Also, notice that there's a smart car parked on top of the barge!

David relaxing with a glass of wine on our boat. The Nicols boats backed in (where we originally were), and tonite's restaurant on the left.

Before dinner we spent some time relaxing on the boat. Then we met this lovely couple from South Carolina, John and Mary. We chatted with them for about an hour, talking about everything! Then we changed and went to dinner right next to the boat. Food was delicious and we both had too much wine. Dessert was also delicious and huge - glad we shared! Came back to the boat and crashed. Unfortunately I woke up at about 2 am. Still up at 4, I had the chance to videochat with my kids!!!