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. 

Southwest France - end of tour, start of conference

Sept 15:  After a comfortable nights sleep, I managed suitcase outside the room quite early, with a grand breakfast in a grand dining room - variety of fresh fruit, choice of eggs, pastries, bread, good coffee, and so on.

Part of the breakfast buffet at Hotel de La Cite.

However, friends Kerry and Laura raced into the breakfast room almost at the last minute - the alarm, of course, had betrayed them.  They managed to grab a few items and we all flew down the cobblestones past closed-up shops, trash trucks, through Narbonne gates, and met the coach at the appointed time.

I would love to read a cogent explanation of that large carved head.

This was the day of the great bike ride along a feeder canal from the Alzeau in the mountains.

Perhaps we should have taken the other road?

It required driving up the Montaigne Noire quite a distance. The road got narrower and narrower. Finally, Andre said he couldn't continue.  So the bikers exited the motor coach and walked the last kilometer to meet the bikes.  The bus riders included Susan, Peter, and me.  I'd traded with Fidel my place on a bike for a place on the bus. So I had a new adventure, riding a large coach that reversed quite a long way down a one-lane tiny road, the bus following David who was running ahead.

Hanging on to his hat and catching his breath, David makes sure the bus stays on the pavement, I think

We came to a place where Andre could turn us around, very carefully. After to-ing and fro-ing several time, an observer in a small van inquired "Vous etes perdu, non?" No, not lost; just trying to reverse off the little road.

Two kibitzers decided to be helpful and get us turned around.  We were grateful.

This observer and one other helped with words and gestures and Andre got it right. Another adventure. 

That took quite a bit of time and left no time to visit the Cammazes feeder.  We drove to the hamlet of another feeder canal, Lampy-Vieux, where the Lampy feeder canal was in a concreted channel.

This is the feeder ("rigole") that came down from the Alzeau.

The sluice, which having thought about it, does make some sense.

There was a junction here, with a small control sluice.  I could not make much sense of it.  However, it was quiet, with cool, huge evergreen trees nearby,

I bet this was a six-person tree - six people holding hands could just about encircle one of these.

and the road crossed near a ravine where I saw a fisherman headed.

The combined feeders are flowing in the little channel.  

Word of the bikers came down to us that one of them had crashed her bike on a steep slope and was injured.  Turned out it was my friend, who had smashed her hand and her knee.  David rode back to tell her to return to a road crossing where we'd pick her up.  He then returned to us, holding her bike in his left hand and steering his own with his right.  Nice trick.

David returning with the injured woman's bicycle.

By the time the coach got to the crossing, she was in control and being brave, although in pain.  Fortunately, no broken bones or sprains.

For me this was a quiet respite from riding the coach, being with lots of others, and viewing yet another waterway structure - sure, that's why I was there, but sometimes one wants a bit of a break.

We headed toward Toulouse, stopping at a large new basin/motorway service area at Port Lauragais. This was our lunch spot, chosen because it's very close to the Naurouze summit level, where we would visit another day.

Although I ordered a duck leg with vegetables, potato, and beans,

A pretty good lunch, especially the vegetables.

some of us dined on cassoulet, served in a quite large casserole dish - this was better, more moist than what we'd had in Carcassonne.

Bill, serving himself and Chris.

There was a lovely looking shop next to the dining room, but of course was closed for lunch and we had no time for such frivolity.

On toward Toulouse again, specifically Port de l'Embouchure where we boarded a touring boat.  This place marked the junction of the Canals de Garonne, du Midi, and de Brienne. The joining of the Garonne and Midi is commemorated with a large white marble sculpture at the Ponts Jumeaux ("twin bridges").

In this, Languedoc (the central figure) orders the Canal du Midi (right side) to join with the Garonne River (left).

We had two excellent Toulouse city guides who narrated the waterways and sights we passed.  We began on the Canal de Brienne, a short waterway connecting the other canals with the Garonne River at St. Pierre Lock.  Near by is a weir now called the Bazacle weir, on the site of a Roman ford.

If I could find the right notes, I'd describe these bridges. Perhaps an edit later on will clear this up.

We left the boat downstream at the S-Michel Lock and began an interesting walking tour of Toulouse, passing an "hotel particuliere" (i.e., private mansion) built in Renaissance time, now called Hotel d'Assegat. My favorite on this walk was the Jacobins Church, named for the Order of Preachers (or Jacobins), founded by St. Dominic.

The church was what I call early Gothic - there are buttresses, but not the elaborate structures seen in the North.

It's a stark gothic structure, remarkable on the interior for the Palm Vaulting in the ceiling, and for the relics of St. Thomas Acquinas. 

We also visited the Place du Capitole (where we would meet for the Mayor's reception a few evenings later), and the St-Etienne cathedral, which was built in a mix of styles over 4 or 5 centuries.

St-Etienne is considered ugly to some; I think its jumble of styles is intriguing. If ever I'm back in Toulouse, I must visit the interior.

We continued walking toward Port Saint Sauveur where the City of  Toulouse had a "fete" on the Canal du Midi. On the way an ambulance came zooming up - as if to smash me to bits.  One of my friends commented that she'd not known I could move so fast.

At the end of the day, in the twilight hours, we were dropped off with luggage on a wide boulevard a few blocks from our two hotels on Rue Rivals.  During the four-day conference I roomed with Kerry at the Hotel Capitole; many of our colleagues were here as well.  Neither Kerry nor I was very eager that night to hike the many blocks to the site of the Annual General Meeting of Inland Waterways International, so we skipped and had a quiet dinner nearby.  But, with few pedestrians or cars, and with shop lights off, the locale looked different.  We wandered a bit until we found the right street.  Set clocks for a suitable hour, and off to sleep.

Southwest France - to Uzes and walking

I'm just back home again, after 20 days in Southwest France.  Why was I there (i.e., why not Paris)?  Well, the city of Toulouse was the site of the World Canals Conference in 2013.  Toulouse is the link between two great canals:  The Canal du Midi and the Canal Lateral de Garonne.  I had cruised upon the Canal du Midi in 2009 with five other women; it connects the Mediterranean Sea westward to Toulouse.  The Lateral I knew nothing about.  Thus they combine to make the Canal of the Two Seas - Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

And because my two hiking/canalling friends and I would be in a new place, I had the brilliant idea to combine two loves of mine: hiking and Roman antiquities, specifically the Pont du Gard, which has stood strong and stunning for 2,000 years.  A company called Enlightened Traveller helped us create a five-day hiking trip that would include the beautiful "water bridge" - the Pont du Gard.  So here begins our hiking trip on September 7.

This wayside exhibit shows, in red, the downward route of the great aqueduct, from its source in the springs of Uzes to the Roman city at Nimes.   

Our hike was not along the route of the aqueduct.  Rather it was along the gorge carved out by the Gardon River.

We made our way to the hill town of Uzes via plane to Paris, TGV to Nimes, and bus to Uzes, a very old city where the ancient Roman aqueduct originated. The original springs still flow, but no longer direct water to the aqueduct.

The original springs still flow, but are now directed into the Alzon River.

Uzes still has several springs, in addition to those that supplied the aqueduct.  Throughout the town were old public fountains, many bearing the legend "Eau Potable" - drinkable water.

This town was a good introduction to medieval France: buildings made of stone or brick, narrow little streets, and very much up and down, with towers and churches and flowers.

St Theodorit Cathedral and the Place de l'Eveche.  The tower is called Tour Fenestrelle.

A narrow little car-free street on the way to the Cathedrale where our hike began.

Our B&B (French = chambres d'hotes), La Maison de La Bourgade, was one or two blocks from the center of town (and the bus stop). Quite a nice place, complete with a swimming pool.  Of course, we headed for it very quickly.  Hmm.  Not heated!  But, as Elisabeth, our hostess said:  "It is quite refreshing". My room overlooked both the courtyard and the street.

You can see the several tables set for breakfast; the chilly pool is just barely visible in the upper right corner.

The town's large "Place aux herbes" is ringed with cafes and shops, with plenty of open space in the center.

Quite a large open square; the arches denote the large open vaulted area, some of which served as cafes and others as shops, with a few being vacant.

We dined there at an open-air cafe called Thierry.  The Place is also the site for the weekly farmer's market, which we visited first thing on Saturday morning.  Not really a true farmer's market (i.e., not producers only), there were charcuterie, poisson, viand, pain, and old clothes for sale.  Quite a busy place.

clearly the domain of the fishmonger; I wish I knew the French word for fishmonger.

the bucherie?  or just a stand where meat was being sold?  

"Ail" is the French word for garlic.  Imagine calling a variety of garlic "Rose du Tarn".  Tarn is the name of a river many miles away.

Between Friday evening (our arrival) and Saturday midday (our first day's walk) we investigated a bit of the town, bought postcards/stamps, and generally got acclimated.  The first day's walk was about 5 miles, down the mountain fairly gradually into the gorge.

This beautiful stone wall is somewhere between "Mas Cazotte" and "Moulin de Carriere".  I'd love to know if the herringbone pattern of the dry-laid stone wall contributes to its stability

Crossing the Alzon River; passing walled homes; investigating a former mill; through a town forest;

and rewarded by a wonderful vista across the gorge to the town and its several towers.

If I'd paid more attention, I could identify the towers; but I'm satisfied with a lovely view.
Then back down into the gorge to follow the path of the old aqueduct (here it was a channel just a few feet wide)

Pat has walked through a tunnel that is a remnant of the 2,000 year old aqueduct while Barbara rests on the stone wall.

Although the aqueduct delivered thousands of liters of drinkable water to the inhabitants of the important city of Nimes, it appears to be quite small, don't you think?

and Northward to the source - the Fontaines d'Eure.

The large sign:  "Eure spring captured by the Romans to supply Nimes drinking water through the aqueduct"

Back at the B&B we tried the pool again - - more "refreshing" than the day before.  As we walked back to the Place for dinner, rain began to fall.  Very intensely falling.

No dining in the square tonight.

We ducked into the nearest likely-looking cafe. There are several in the vaults that formed the ground floor of the surrounding buildings.  It made for a very different kind of dining experience - quite nice to be warm and dry amid the trickle of puddles and the constant rainfall. And the rain tapered off enough for us to scurry back "home" and pack up for a move to the next B & B.

Leaving . . .

No photographs this time.  Preparing to go to France for 20 days.  And the departure date is here, this afternoon.  A hiking trip of a few days from Uzes to Nimes (including Pont du Gard), then to Sete on the Mediterranean Sea so we can submerge ourselves in that ancient and mysterious and powerful sea. Someone told me yesterday that it's saltier than the ocean we know because of evaporation.  We'll find out.

I've made list and more lists, and yet another list.  In previous years, when I was gainfully employed, I had less time on my hands and so I was much more decisive about what I was going to do, what I was going to pack, and so on and on.  Obsessive is what I've become.  My list of clothing was completely organized in my head; I wrote it all down, gathered it all in one place, packed and repacked the suitcase.  And decided that this was too much.

But I was trying to balance the potential lack of laundry facilities against wearing soiled clothing.  I think the soiled clothing has won.  There's only a four day stretch in one hotel  in Toulouse, and that's during the conference itself - in the middle of my 20 days.  Funny thing about the World Canals Conferences - there are presentations in the morning and then tours in the afternoon, sometimes into the evening.  I believe there might be ONE evening that we are on our own.  That doesn't leave much room for searching out a laundromat (what is the French word for such?  Do they have such?). But I could bring my stretchy clothes line and hope that the maid who cleans the room won't knock any down anything drying there.

Plus there are gadgets that need recharging, which means adapters and converters (space eaters).  And with aging come additional medications (fortunately sorted into little daily compartments) and toiletries, and pretties for dressing up for the "banquet" (vanity, vanity).

One thing I absolutely must do is to find La Poste and mail my hiking clothing back home.  That will make hauling the suitcase easier, and give me a bit of room if there's a souvenir I want to purchase.

My hiking boots are about 12 years old and at the end of their useful life.  The goretex lining has lost its waterproofness. The right-foot boot has a crack in the leather that admits water.  So I shall leave them in some trash container or on the train or something.  (To save space today I'm wearing them rather than packing them.)  So not I just watch the hands on the non-digital clock circle round until Joe and I decide it's time to go.

I will not have electronics on this trip - - no smart phone, no tablet or laptop computer (not that I have one I could bring anyway).  So no more posting until much much later, and then with a lot of photographs (we hope)