Southwest France - day one of WCC13

Sept. 16:  Last night Barb and Pat had made their way to the IWI Annual General Meeting at the conference center.  So this morning the mother hens collected their chicks and led us through the complexities of the Metro system and into the Espaces Vanel conference center,

From the 6th floor terrace of the conference center we looked down on the large white statue of Pierre Paul Riquet.

 up to the 6th floor check-in at the conference, where we received a tote full of informational brochures, a gift of local wine, and the conference Id. badge.

Here are Susan, Chris, Bill, and Dan, complete with badges and one wineglass.

Of course, there was a long session of speeches by various officials of the city of Toulouse, of  the Association of communes of the Canal of Two Seas, the Inland Waterways International, French National Waterways, The Region Midi-Pyrenees, and, of course, the Minister of crafts, trade and tourism.  Following these officials, the first session began with a power-point talk by an official of French National Waterways on the plane tree replanting project.  I've written earlier about what we'd seen on our several visits to the Canal, where trees have been removed, or marked for removal. (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3253909292900505499#editor/target=post;postID=2980389158855619024;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=postname. A shame that the beautiful, cool, green shady vault will be no more.  The replanting is moving apace, but trees take a while to grow tall and stately.  I think I won't see the like again in my lifetime.

One of our members delivered a paper on Thomas Jefferson's visit to the Canal du Midi during his term as the United States Minister to the Court of King Louis XVI.

Mr. Jefferson ventured to the South of France and report to Pres. Washington on agriculture and commerce, and particularly the Canal du Midi.  The carriage wheels were removed and the carriage was set on a canal boat for his journey of nine days.

Papers were presented in sessions of four or five power points, and each session was broken by coffee breaks or lunch.

The buffet dessert table held these tasty morsels.

Today's ended around 3:30.  We walked from the conference center to a landing stage on the Canal for a boat trip to Saint Sauveur where several waterways companies were exhibiting (e.g., a floating sewage pumpout station, publishers Euromapping and e-canal Ltd, marine boilers, and dredging specialists). Also, many number of canal barges were moored for the rally.

From the center of a bridge, I could see the various boat-rally vessels.

We reboarded the boat and cruised up the canal to Port Sud at Ramonville-St-Agne, for a visit to the large new marina, some aperitifs, and a speech by the local mayor about plans for the marina and its new dry dock.

Was this part of the Ramonville drydock?

Beneath the tent were canapes, aperatifs, and speeches.

Back through the rain to the boat, and continuing on a short distance to Le Mas des Canelles for a very nice but long three-course dinner. Le Mas has a newly finished landing and access path, so despite the rain, we didn't have muddy shoes. 

A large 19th century converted farmhouse.

Half of us in this room, the other group of delegates were in a second room.

Ramonville and Le Mas are both in the countryside outside the suburbs.  It was pleasant to cruise however slowly past trees and shrubs and moored boats.

Scenery is much more immediate when viewed from a slow-moving boat.

The paddlers moved aside to make room for our passage.

Following dinner, we boarded motor coaches for a ride back to Toulouse that was appreciably shorter than the boat cruise.