May 'Lost' Never Be Heard From Again!!

The TV show 'Lost' can get lost, as far as I'm concerned.  I'm really really happy that it is finally ending.  The chatter about this show has become irritating.  And my husband needs to find something else to think about and talk about.   Thank heaven for major league baseball and the Washington Nationals.

Winemakers large and small

The part of the Canal du Midi that we cruised through is in the Minervois region of Languedoc.  This is a region whose wines I am not familiar with .  Perhaps they are not marketed outside of France. Perhaps the wineries are very small.  Nonetheless, we enjoyed these local wines very much.  Among my several photos are the four above, at the Chateau de Ventenac.  This is a pretty large operation and apparently popular with the boating visitors:  the woman who conducted the winetasting said, as I took her photograph:  "I am famous around the world."

The soil in this vineyard looks sandy or stony.  Not what I think of as fertile.  The bright yellow machine drives along straddling a row and many forks comb the grapes from the vines.  Reminds me of cotton picking machines I've seen in Mississippi - only lots smaller.

Then we came upon the Domaine Guery (if I remember correctly).  M. Tastevy,  the owner and winemaker welcomed us and first explained the huge and ancient grape press that was built in his great-grandfather's time and is still used.   We tasted his several wines, and of course purchased some for our next several meals.

Finally, here is a link to M. Tastevy talking about the "old language" of Oc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlcEr8ADhMA

Food on the Canal du Midi

Well, when one finds oneself in France, one wishes of course to eat well.  And so we did.  Whether we dined on our own little boat or beneath an arbor or in a restaurant, we ate well.  And not knowing what lay ahead, we began by visiting a Carcassonne supermarche for staples (e.g., coffee, breakfast cereal, yogurt, fruit, sugar).  We estimated that our day would be short.  After all we picked up the boat in early afternoon, and headed toward Castelnaudary, which we reached about 18:00.  Fortunately for that evening's meal we were directed to Cassoulet, a cafe close to the port where we had (naturally) cassoulet (pictured), with ice cream for dessert. 

In the morning, we walked up a different street in search of a cafe with coffee or chocolat and croissants.  Then we searched for cheese and pate, bread and pastries, milk and juice, and wine to stock our tiny galley kitchen.  On the way back to the port, a patisserie reminded me that we needed a birthday cake for my 69th birthday.  Nothing presented itself except a lovely apple tart. 

Helen stored everything away in the galley as Pat took us through a lock into the large basin.  She mistook the exit and was about to run us into a quai when she realized her error and quickly spun the wheel to the starboard.   The food that we purchased would support us if, during the midday hours when locks were closed, we were not near a bistro or cafe. 

One noon time found us on the wrong side of a lock; we tied off on the right bank, sat on the upper deck and lunched on cheese, pate and baguettes, and local apples and pears, with local wine to wash it all down.   On at least two other occasions we were fortunate to let others prepare our midday meals.

In Ventenac-sur-Minervois, a busy cafe beneath an arbor was very appealing.  The rose wine was chilled, and the salade compose had delicious anchovies. 

In La Redorte my friends and I were charmed by a cat sleeping in the windowbox at the end of our outdoor table, where we again had local Minervois wine and salad and fruit.  

One evening we walked a kilometer or so into and around Bram and dined at ?Le Petit Gourmand, en plein air on the fixed price menu with duck for some, veal for others, and tuna for at least one of us.  Several days later,  at the village of Argens-Minervois we tied up at the boat basin after the portmaster's office had closed and  followed some signs that led us uphill round a chateau toward a restaurant.  It was not open, but the hour was early, so we waited.  And we waited.  And waited even more.  Eventually we stopped the only car that approached and learned that the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays.  Down the hill we went.  The cafe by the port basin was closed.  The restaurant down the canal and across the bridge was closed.  There was nothing for us to do but go back to the boat and scrounge up what remained in the galley.  I will always have a hard place in my heart for that town, for we spoke with several people, none of whom told us that the local dineries were closed on Tuesdays. 

About the Canal du Midi

On the Canal some lockhouses continue to be residences for the lockkeepers. And those can be highly individualized. My favorite was at L'Ecluse d'Aiguille (a double lock) to the right and below.

The buildings and locks are surrounded by sculptures made of wood or scrap metal - cans, rebar, bicycle wheels and chains, pipes, all manner of wonderful things.  In a tree I discovered an owl and a cat.   The controls for the double lock were in the "head" of a stick-figure man.  There were other stick-figures across the lock from the house.  See the 3 photographs below.

In the photo on the right, Barbara has wrapped a line around a bollard and slowly lets it out as water level lowers and the boat descends in the lock.

This photo above shows the lock at the Carcassonne boat basin shortly after sunrise, when the sky was tinted pink. The upper lock gates are closed and the lower lock gates are open.  That's how the lock spends the night.  No boat headed upstream is in the lock.  In the one following, gates are opening and the boat is drifting toward them.  I've fallen in love with those oval locks - - they're just beautiful.

The canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with France's Atlantic port cities. It was initially a commercial success. But as in other countries, rail transport gradually starved out business. Now owned and operated by the government, small pleasure boats abound. The canal was constructed in the late 1600s, but all of the locks are now electric and are operated by lockkeepers. The set schedule for lock opening and closing is rigid, so in September there is no passage before 9:00, or from 12:30 to 13:30, or after 19:00. We decided to travel downstream because it seemed easier than the reverse.

Canal du Midi trip

I recently saw someone else's very brief blog with lovely photos of his recent visit to the Canal du Midi, in southern France.  It motivated me to write about my own trip last September.  My interest in that canal had been piqued by its canal's history.  It was built in the late 1600's, during the reign of Louis XIV, and the locks are ovals.  Thomas Jefferson as Ambassador from the young USA to France, spent six weeks on this canal, describing it to George Washington whose "Potowmack Company" planned bypass canals around  rapids on the Potomac River as route through the mountains.  I know a bit about canals from my interest in the C and O Canal that parallels the Potomac from Washington, DC to Cumberland, MD. 

I found five friends (all women and, interestingly, all over 60) to join me.  We arranged for a weeklong boat rental, flew to France and spent a night exploring the "medieval" city of Carcassonne.  We picked up the boat in the village of Le Segala.   Of we six, only one had previous experience driving a boat and she did fairly well, except for ripping off one of the bumpers on our maiden voyage beneath a 17th century bridge. 

Fortunately another boater rescued the bumper and we quickly tied it in place.  And then the rental agent left us and we were on our own.  We had 7 days in which to travel 145 kilometers and pass through 60 locks - mostly single locks, some double or triple, and one quadruple lock.  So off we went, heading downstream.   We quickly sorted out who would do what:  Pat, Laura, Estelle were drivers.  Barbara and Rachel handled the lines, jumping off the boat to tether her at each lock.  Helen took charge of the galley, making sure it was stocked with at least coffee and wine.

In September, most of the foreign visitors were back at home and the French were back at work and in school.   So the canal, the locks, and the towns were not very crowded.   Except for the ducks.

Pulling Weeds

It started out not promisingly:  overcast sky, very dark to the West, sprinkles of rain as I crossed the Potomac on the Beltway and drove toward Carderock.  The C&O Canal Association VIPs were going to pull up an invasive plant called garlic mustard from the woods at Carderock.  The group leader was Mary from the Nature Conservancy.  She explained what our task was, showed us a couple of specimens of the plant, and the 9 of us walked over the the edge of the woods and started uprooting the plant. 

This was actually quite pleasant work:  sitting on the ground or stooping over, gently yanking up the shallow-rooted plant.  The humidity had gone, a breeze kept us cool, and the plants actually smelled a bit like garlic - I fantasized that the smell came from the kitchen at the Lebanese Taverna restaurant near my house.  

There was a little bit of chit-chat among us, but mostly we were quiet, listening to the wind in the trees around us and the river nearby.  Occasionally as we moved around someone would comment on seeing a rare plant, or small lacey ferns, or warn us about a patch of stinging nettles, or exclaim over the size of a daddy-long-legs spider. 

In just under 2.5 hours we nine stuffed weed into 32 sacks, and cleared just about an acre.  We were told that the day before there were 24 sixth-graders who filled 40 sacks in the same amount of time.  We think we were more focused than sixth-graders - wouldn't you agree? 
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Curiosity as a lifestyle: First days on Canal du Midi

Curiosity as a lifestyle: First days on Canal du Midi

A blog by a Swede, complete with lovely photos, made me nostalgic for my own adventure last September.