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.