Canal du Midi

Canal du Midi, France

We had been looking forward to exploring the countryside of southern France and experiencing some warm weather once again. The French food and wine just added to the temptations!

We met up with my mum, Anne, who was joining us for two weeks in France. We started by driving to Homps and collecting a canal boat, which would be home for 4 nights. We cruised along part of the Canal du Midi, a 205 km canal which was built in the 1640s as a major transport link across France. 

The view on our first night on the boat. 

The experience on the canal boat was both fantastic and challenging. We saw some amazing scenery along the way; explored some quaint little villages and enjoyed cycling into town each morning to buy croissants and baquettes. 

With good steering (Tony in charge) we fitted through these arches!

Most of the canal is lined with plane trees, which gives beautiful shade to the canal. A pest is unfortunately killing these trees, so the authorities are on an active renewal program, where they are systematically working their way along the canal, removing the diseased trees and planting new ones. Despite this, the views are stunning and its beautiful to cruise through the trees.  

The lock system is a marvel of technology. It took us a while to literally "learn the ropes" as we travelled through the locks. We passed through more than 20 locks during the week, travelling from Homps to Carcassone and back to Homps. Some locks were quick to traverse; others, especially the double and triple locks, had long waits - for one, we waited more than 90 minutes. The lock keepers stop working for an hour over lunch, which is a lovely French tradition of making you relax and enjoy your lunch; however it does create long queues at the locks.

These photos show some of the various jobs. Everything involved either tightening the ropes or loosening the ropes, depending on whether we were going up or down! We had a land crew and boat crew each time. Things went awry went the crew member "got bored" at their particular post; or felt "left out of the conversation" as the rest of us chatted to someone on an adjoining boat. Some funny times. 

Tony was captain. He was not allowed to wander too far otherwise things went really bad! Gemma actually was taught to drive the boat, but this only happened in short doses, as I seemed to be jinxed. On my shift, we came across a boat straddling the canal and blocking all traffic; I nearly ran into a bridge; and the children had bike troubles along the edge of the canal. It did however, give Tony a few moments of refuge from the steering wheel and allow him to admire the view - albeit temporarily!

Morning tea of coffee and croissants on the front deck each morning. Cool mornings but by lunch time, it was close to 30 degrees each day. 

One of those few times away from the steering wheel! 

Unfortunately, there is no (intentional) swimming in the canal. All the excess water and by-products go straight into that water, so its not very clean. It was rather icky just pulling ropes out of the water! There were no associated smells however, as there is still significant movement of water along the canal. 

It was a big week. A great experience but 4 nights was enough for us. Its a bit like camping: if you have the right equipment, its fantastic. If you do it as a once-off, you struggle a bit. We also compared it to our times in the RV: they got easier as we learnt more and were more prepared. We were grateful for real showers, proper toilets and a still bed by the end!

Wandering around Bristol

Bristol, west coast of England.

Many months ago, I discovered some bike riding trails around Bristol and Bath, the two major towns towards the west of England. There are excellent paths, relatively flat land and beautiful scenery ... as well as great little pubs dotted around the place, which conveniently provide an ale or two at lunch time!

Beautiful scenery

This all sounded very promising, but there were a few hitches. We often have trouble hiring a bike for Sophie ... not many places hire bikes that are only 16" wheels. Secondly, we had requested a tow bar on our hire car, but it didn't happen ... so we couldn't keep the bikes with us for the five days, as we had hoped. Instead we opted for a few day rides.

1.7km worth of tunnel!

Our first ride was around Bath. We all got bikes, but they were poorly maintained, so riding them was hard. There is a tow path out along the canal, with a loop about 12 kms or so. We headed out and it certainly was a beautiful ride. We past many long boats, which were obviously the permanent home to many people. We had lunch and ales at "The George", which was right on the path. At one stage, we rode through a tunnel .... that was 1.7km long! Purely for cyclists and walkers! Amazing feeling, with music playing and dim lights the whole way. It came with a warning that it would take you 10 minutes to ride through it. There was a second tunnel, but only 400 m long.

But, one wrong turn and the situation can change! We got so excited by the tunnels that we just kept riding .... until it was too late. We were way past our drop off point; very close to our drop off time of 5pm; no way to keep the bikes overnight as no bike rack .... and very tired kids, as we were up to about 22kms! A minor panic resulted in a ride through traffic, through town and a rather unpleasant experience really.

Bristol is known for this really high suspension bridge!

Storm developing over the harbour

The next ride, a few days later, had to be suspended due to rain. We had to have an inside day, doing some shopping then some museums around Bristol. We went to the M Shed Museum, one of Britain's free museums, which is child friendly and based on the history of Bristol and its people. Bristol is a much more interesting town than we initially thought and the more we learn about the history, the more we like it. The Avon River runs through it and was an important port in the 1800s for getting goods to the west of England and Wales. But due to very high tides, the river height was unpredictable - so the city created a floating harbour, that is based on the same technique as a lock system. So clever! The harbour is now 200 years old and while not the big trading hub that it once was, it is still used somewhat. There is significant retail, cultural and residential development around the harbour, so it was much more interesting that we expected.

Rain jackets on all day!

We planned another ride and despite rain in the morning, we were determined to just go! We hired bikes from a great shop; but again, no bike for Sophie - so the owners went home, collected their 8 year old son's bike and lent us that for the day! What service! We ignored the black clouds, put our wet weather jackets on and set off along the Bristol to Bath railway path. This is an excellent path and we only did half the distance - from Bitten to Bath, then back again. This was a 20km ride which had the added bonus of dodging rain! Thankfully most of the rain fell just as arrived into Bath, so we headed to the nearest pub to wait it out! It was a great ride and we all really enjoyed this. Its a shame we are leaving the area tomorrow, as we've love to explore the other end of the railway path.


The Cotswolds

In between our riding days, we also had a day exploring the Cotswolds region of England, albeit briefly. The children are enjoying seeing different countryside and are fascinated by stone fences and buildings, styles, cows (don't understand this one as they do spend time on a farm regularly) hedgerows and identifying quirky pub names. They have been keen to see thatched rooves and we had hoped to see some in the Cotswolds. That didn't happen but we did have a nice day wandering around the villages of Bourton-on-the-water, Upper and Lower Slaughter and Stow. Cute little towns, but not much more to do other than wander the shops and eat! We did eat the local speciality, scones with cottled cream which were rather yummy!

From Bristol, we are heading south east, past Stonehenge and to Southampton, where we will base ourselves for four days.

Isle aux Coudres

Wednesday - exploring Isle aux Coudres

We stayed in a van park just outside of Baie St Paul and on Wednesday, headed over to Isle aux Coudres to explore. Isle aux Coudres was one of the first areas discovered by Jacques Cartier as he was exploring this new country sometime around 1540. It is a small island, only accessible by a vehicle ferry. Bertha was allowed on board, so off we went. The island is 10.4 km long and only 3.6 km wide, with a 23km bike path around the perimeter. Perfect for us in a day. There were a few hills … in Sophie’s opinion it was primarily hills, so she whinged … but we made it around. There is very little english spoken on the island so we had fun conversing in French. 

The welcome sign on the island says “the rhythm of the tides” and it certainly has that slow, relaxed feel to the place. The island is very much a sleepy hollow, with a population of 1 700. It supports a school and several churches but not much else. Even cafes are limited. It is exactly how I imagine Prince Edward Island would be. Unfortunately, we won’t make it to PEI while we are in Canada in 2014- it was on my wish list - but this small island had beautiful, wooden houses with large gables of all colours (not brick as its not such a good insulator), rolling hills, stunning wild flowers and amazing scenery. For all the Anne of Green Gales readers … at one stage, Olivia stopped and said that she could imagine Anne and Diana running through this particular paddock full of wild daisies, with the Haunted Forest in the background, between their houses. It was beautiful, but very much a quiet town. It also reminded us of Batemans Bay in the quieter periods, but much smaller. We can imagine in high summer, on a great day, it would be packed.