Carcassonne (socialising and not socialising)

Happy to be locking in a narrowboat again – even though it wasn’t ours 😉

Wednesday was our last day in Bélâbre and we just took it easy.  We went butterflying during the afternoon and went back to a promising looking field we had seen on Monday’s circular walk. It turned out to be practically swarming with butterflies, the main excitement being some wood whites and clouded yellows.  Neither species wanted to settle long enough to pose for the camera so this is me posing instead:

  

Wood whites are really delicate, and their flight is so different to other butterflies that they are instantly recognisable.  They have lazy flappy flights and look like they are about to collapse at any point. 

In the evening we went to Liglet to spend the evening with Noel, an old friend from when we used to live near West Peckham in Kent.  It was good to catch up as we hadn’t seen him for about four years and it was great to see he had settled into the village over that time.  Mind you, it was one of those French villages that have a lot of permanent residential Brits, even the village bar was owned and run by Brits.

In the bar garden with some of Noel’s friends - just like being in our old local, the Swan

We had a pleasant dinner back at Noel’s and talked long into the night before retiring back to the campsite for our last night in Bélâbre.

Just like the old days

We woke to a grey morning on Thursday with a promise of thunderstorms.  It was our moving day so we didn’t hang around and were lucky to pack up in the dry; the first drops of rain fell as we were driving out of the campsite.

Leaving the best campsite so far and just avoiding getting soaked

We were heading south to Carcassonne, a trip of about 200 miles and it poured until we hit the Dordogne area and then it stopped and got progressively warmer as we neared the end of our journey.  Apart from having the chance to look around La Cité, the famous fortified hill town of Roman origin, we were meeting up with Mike & Aileen.  They have now been in on their narrowboat in France for two years and have recently come down the Rhône to explore the south and were now on the Canal du Midi and had just reached Trèbes.  

We found a campsite in Trèbes which is about 12km to the east of Carcassonne which, incidentally, is the second most visited city in France after Paris.  This was a larger campsite than we had been used to but was pleasant enough on the banks of the River Aude that runs through the town as well as the canal.  We soon set up camp and headed off to find Mike & Aileen.  They had just moored for the day when we found them, a little way out of town as the town moorings were packed with hire boats.  The hire boats here are called bumper boats as they are large plastic boats with two or three rubber rubbing strakes round them.

We had a wander down the canal to look at the staircase of three locks that they had just come up.  The locks on the Midi are unusual in that they are oval shaped.

The middle lock of the staircase

We found a good restaurant overlooking the top lock that had been recommended and had  a long leisurely meal – our first meal out since arriving in France.

Friday was a cruising day so, after breakfast, we walked back to where Mike & Aileen were moored.  On the way I received a text from John & Heather who had just arrived in a village near where we had been camping in Bélâbre.  It was such a shame we had missed them but as John pointed out – it’s good to talk.  Although John and I are the best of friends we don’t talk very often and, if we did, we would have been more aware of each other’s plans and arranged to meet up.

We were fortunate to be spending time afloat with them as it meant we could learn first hand about some of the differences about cruising in France.  These differences are mainly in the way narrowboats are secured in locks.

Setting off for Carcassonne

Mike took the boat through the first lock of the day and then kindly let me take it through the remaining six locks to get to Carcassonne.

Bumper boats in the first lock of the day

When going up the locks, the boat is secured with a line from the front.  As the locks are often a lot deeper than in the UK, extra long lines are required. In addition, they have a large loop at the end to hook over the a bollard at the side of the lock.  Once the loop is secured the boat is kept in forward gear so that it is held into the side.  This is especially important as the paddles are raised quickly by the éclusiers and hence create quite a lot of turbulence.

Typically feisty lock where the boat must be kept into the wall to avoid it being bounced all over the place

Because the boat is straining against the bowline, rope protectors are used to stop the lines fraying on the chamber walls.

Karen has just looped the line over and positioned the rope protector on the edge

I won’t go into the shenanigans involved in getting the line up to the bollards when there are only two people on board until we are bringing our own boat through.  But, it does involve one person climbing the lock ladder and the other standing on the roof, lifting the rope up on the end of a barge pole and then quickly getting back down to take control of the boat.

I was happy to see stanking planks at some of the locks

It turned out to be another hot sunny day and we saw plenty of butterflies, the main ones of note were great banded graylings, scarce swallowtails and cleopatras.

Me at the helm of Quaintrelle learning how to keep the boat tight to the side

Waiting in the middle of a flight of three locks - the éclusier is sitting at the lock controls in the tower

You may have read or heard about the many plane trees in France, especially along the Midi, that are having to be felled because of the coloured canker, a disease brought to Europe by American soldiers in WWII.  (See this link formore information)

At one point we passed a site where trees were being felled and were really quite scared that the branches would fall on us as we passed by.

I’ve never seen such large mechanical secateurs at work like this

Once we moored up we went for a wander around Carcassonne and had a drink in one of the squares before finding a bus to take us back to Trèbes.

Safely moored and back on dry land at Carcassonne

Streets lined with umbrellas to keep the shoppers cool in the shade

The bus was about 20 minutes late and it wasn’t until we tried to get on that we found that only small dogs are allowed on buses in France.  This does mean we’re going to have to rethink some of our plans for the next couple of years.  As the next bus wasn’t for another hour we phoned for a taxi but that didn’t turn up either.

I went to catch the next bus, so I could bring the car back to get Karen and Buddy but saw it disappearing into the distance as I arrived at the stop; this one had been a couple of minutes early.  In the end we got another taxi and, fortunately, he was happy to let Buddy in his car.  It’s strange how non-lap dogs are allowed into many restaurants but not on buses ☹

On the way back in the taxi, I got yet another message, this time from Cheryl & Stuart who  we had just missed seeing in Carcassonne by a day – as John had said, ‘It’s good to talk’.

We will spend one more day in Carcassonne and then probably head off to the Camargue for a couple of days.  Finally a big thanks to Mike & Aileen for letting us cruise with them and especially having the nerves to let us control their narrowboat without being on board with us 😊