A cruisey day (Wednesday 17th July 2013)

After a bit of a sleep in we ate breakfast and then packed the car for a journey to Homps. Homps is the point of embarkation for a canal boat cruise along the Canal di Midi. This canal was built hundreds of years ago to support the transport of merchandise across the south of France. Running from Toulouse to the Mediterranean, and measuring 245kms in length, it links with other canals to make it possible to navigate from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean by boat, a journey which takes about three weeks.

Our journey was upstream for 75 minutes and then 45 minutes back. The boat is new but has been constructed in the fashion of similar boats from ages gone. The course took us past magnificent rows of plane trees lining the banks, under bridges of varying construction and through a lock. Part of the canal runs through a viaduct crossing a natural river below. A weird concept having a bridge for a river to cross another river.

The lock was particularly interesting. Whilst traveling upstream we entered the lock with its level being four metres below the parts further upstream. With the downstream gates closed the upstream gates partially opened allowing the water to flood in, in a controlled fashion, and raise the boat by the required four metres. The gates opened fully and we chugged off on our journey.

After 2 hours we were back in Homps. We jumped in the car for home driving through Lezignan, Fabrezan and St. Laurent on the way. We stopped in St. Laurent at the local small supermarket for supplies. Down at the Talairan we bumped into Peter so a cool drink with him. Peter invited us back to his house for tea. He had been preparing his favourite meal for the last couple of days, a slow-cooked beef cheek stew. Entree was a superb plate of olives, gerkins, olive paste, anchovy past, anchovies, liver sausage and crisp bread. The stew was very tasty, supplemented by salad comprising, lettuce, tomatoes, egg and more olives and anchovy and the cooked chook we brought from St. Laurent. Kerry supplied the desert in the form of ice-creams (aka Drumsticks). It was then back home for a relatively early night while Peter strolled off to watch the weeks Petanque match.