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.

World Canals Conference tours in Netherlands



Some Groningen rooftops as seen from our flat on Gelkingestraat


The World Canals Conference always has a dozen or more presentations on 3 or 4 different topics, held in the mornings, followed by field trips into the late aftternoon, and dinner in some interesting place.  The Netherlands Conference, held in the city of Groningen (photos above) was no different.  I'll concentrate on the places we went and things we saw rather than the papers read.  The field trips began Monday and ended Thursday.
We first visited the province of Drenthe, an agricultural area where peat had been dug for centuries, up until about 1970.  The peat canals have been restored for recreational boats, which also entails changing fixed bridges to swing or lift bridges.  And a new canal is being build to connect two towns - Erica and Ter Appel, near the border with Germany.  Part of it will have to be elevated around a forested area; to do that they are building a double lock at one end and a "water-saving" lock at the other (to pump water back to the double lock - they seem to think that makes sense).

Listening to public officials at a marina near Ter Appel

A view of one corner of the marina.

a tray of nibbles - - fruit and cheese



Here is one of the new bridges - a lift-bridge

Look at his feet! The ONLY time I saw wooden shoes!

Cruising along on the Veenparkcanaal in bright sunshine.

Veenpark was once a peat mining area.  My little engine hauled cars loaded with peat to the canal.  I think "Veen" is the same as "fen" in English.

Hard to see, but somewhere in there is the double lock under construction.



Near the very deep water-saving lock site, Rick Rivers ponders this huge granite glacial erratic, dug up at the construction site.





C & O Canal Assn. members:  Tom Lightfoot, Linda Lightfoot, Val Wheeler, Rachel Stewart, Laura Gilliam, John Wheeler, Pat White, and Barbara Sheridan - - dinner in the Veenpark restaurant.

We moved on to Friesland, to visit an aqueduct (the Geauakwadukt), and to see some interesting structures along the way.  And we were led by an intense woman who is the architect who designed the aqueduct.

A bridge made of wood?  or a wood veneer?

She is the architect who designed the Geauakwadukt, and I found her name thanks to the internet:  Tatjana Tzrin.

Yes, that boat is above the A7 motorway, through the Geauakwadukt on the Princesmargrietcanaal.  (I love the way a Dutch word translates into multiple English words.)

This is not a sculpture.  It is a beautiful structural wall beneath the aqueduct, separating the motorway lanes.

If you wonder who financed the aqueduct, enlarge this photo.

We moved on, toward an area that was one of the few natural "hills" in Friesland - a few meters above sea level.

High enough above sea level for a burial ground.

The town of Aduard was anchored by a Cistercian monastery until Catholics were proscribed.  This beautiful building, formerly the monastery's infirmary, is now a Protestant churc.

This brickwork is stunningly varied; the monastery was well known for brickmaking.

Across the road, we had an introduction to medieval brickmaking.

Meanwhile, in a neighboring yard, children played hide-and-seek.  In French, that would be cache-cache.  Wonder what it is in Dutch.

Finally, in the province of Groningen, we visited an absolutely enormous and major lock and went into the control room - really a three story tower - where men sat before many monitors showing not just one but several other large locks.

The enormous draw-bridge is going up, allowing the very long barge to pass.

In the control tower, with its many monitors and controllers.



Next to the lock, some refreshments were provided.



On our return to Groningen, we walked to the yellow building, a large tavern-club where we had dinner.

Kathy and Laura looked away from the camera.

Yum!  Chocolate mousse topped with blueberries and chantilly.

Glad September is over

Last month I briefly listed the September events.  So many things happened after that post (Sept. 6th).  First off, I turned 70 on September 12.  I'd planned a birthday event mainly to head off my siblings' plans for a surprise celebration.  I took a bunch of people to lunch and a baseball game:  Washington Nationals vs. Florida Marlins (surprise:  I wasn't paying attention to the game). 
Lunch was in the PNC Diamond Club.  

How kind of Joe to point to my age!

Now that's a nice venue with a well-prepared and varied series of buffet tables.  According to my contact there, the menu changes seasonally.  Those lucky people were, in addition to Joe and me, my brothers John, Charles, Paul and Richard (Regis was in England for some shoot or other) and my sisters Ellen and Elizabeth.  And also Letty (Richard's wife) and Ric (Ellen's husband) and Mary (Regis' wife) and nephews Chris, Dave and John, and cousin Leo.  And, best of all, Lorelei, Andreas and Obree and Ray, Tara and Matthew.  So once that was done and I hauled all those presents(!) home, time to think about and pack for the next three weeks when I'd be gone.

Little fingers sneaking into the frosting . . . .

Where did I go?  First on Sept. 16, I flew to Chicago where Obree's 2nd birthday was to be celebrated with a party in the local park.  Well, it rained the night before and morning of, and who wants to party on wet ground?  So the apartment was cleaned and cleared, additional chairs brought in, food and drink set out, birthday cake refrigerated, and even Obree joined in the cleaning - - he likes to do what the grownups are doing.  Andreas' parents, Bruce and Carol, arrived first, complete with a really neat model plane that Andreas had as a kid.  They hung this great thing from the very high ceiling where air currents gently turned it this way and that. 



Bruce & Carol & the plane





Tiny guests enjoying O's tent.



Obree's bedroom was turned into a playroom for the 14 or 16 kids who came.  They were pretty much children from his Montessori school, from little Violet at 9 months up to Oliver, age 5.  Incredible energy and noise and fun happened in that playroom.  Adults wandered in every now and then and back out again to enjoy adult conversation and sandwiches and beer.  And of course a cake and presents and goodie-bags for kids.

I flew on to Rochester the following Monday, for the World Canals Conference.  Too bad I missed the great flotilla and celebration held the day before I arrived.  But I was there for the amazing "Dinner in the Ditch" - - the ditch being an old Erie Canal aqueduct over the Genesee River, on top of which a road bridge had been constructed.  But what is amazing is that the aqueduct STILL EXISTS!  And there are plans afoot to restore the old Canal AND the aqueduct through the city.  Yes, there was a great dinner on the old aqueduct.



The aqueduct is below the bridges small arches.





Add carpeting, lighting, furniture:  voila!



The conference was full of interesting papers being given and interesting nearby Erie Canal towns to visit and a great many old and new friends to spend time with.  There were 15 of us from the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Association.  All the many Davids from England and Canada (and France, where one expat Brit resides).  And a group of funny and interesting US and Canadian women, all working for their national parks.

The final event - a treat! - was a visit to Niagara Falls - about 3 dozen of us did that.  What an experience!  Getting blasted on the little Maid of the Mist boat by great hurricane-gusts of wet wind - no wonder we were each handed a blue plastic poncho.  The volume and force of the water flowing over the rock is wondrous to behold and to feel, even from a goodly distance.  The roaring sound of the falls, the rocking of the little boat, indeed, the tiny size of the boat in relation to the waterfall . . . definitely worth being there. 
Following that, I spent the next week . . . . but that's another post altogether.



The American Falls at Niagara



Drenched on the Maid of the Mist boat.



David Edwards-May attempts to dry his soaking shoes.  Please note the puddle beneath his feet!