14. Boating on the Canal du Midi.

Renting a canal boat to experience the Canal du Midi in the South of France is a beautiful way to spend a week, especially if you are all a tight group of friends. 

I only knew one from my mountain job on the Milford track and the four others in our group were all friends from Queenstown.  We met in Carcassone, I had taken a train from Marseille and arrived three hours later.  

We spent the day exploring the 12th century medieval town before running for a bus the following morning with our packs in our backs.  It took us to Trèbes, the beginning of our canal trip.

Fortunately we all got on and even had some long evenings playing a card game called Kings and Arseholes.  

Carcassonne, walled city

There were two bathrooms on the canal boat, each containing a toilet, sink and shower.  The toilet and shower required flushing by pressing a button which started a pump.  The button had to be held down until the shower water had been pumped out.  

One bathroom pump worked better than the other and I quickly learned to use the other one after a “blockage” in the toilet almost overflowed.  If one could find a public toilet during the day, one would use it as these boat loo’s were unpredictable.

Canal du Midi

The concept of the Canal du Midi was given the okay by the then King of France in 1666, and it was completed just over a decade later.  It provided much needed transport for trade from the sea to each village it went past.  Now it's listed as a World Heritage site as one of the few remaining working canal systems in the world. 

Each lock has gates that open and close, allowing water to go up or down.  We were going down the river so the boat would go down with the water until it equalised with the level beyond the next gate.  

A Chocolate Gateau

There is a lock master who helps guide the boats in - each lock can take up to three boats.  It’s inevitable the boats will hit another boat or the side of the canal, so they have rubber around the hull and many buoys.  

Two of the crew would have to get out and stand on the side with ropes guiding the boat through the locks while the captain steered.  

We would go under many low bridges and through at least a couple of locks a day, sometimes triple locks.   At Bèziers, towards the end of our trip, we had to go through eight continuous gates.

It was all slow going but the experience was about the journey, not the destination, and suited the  boaters who mostly looked to be sixty plus.  

Our Canal Boat

The weather in late Spring was warm and often breezy. Each night we would dock up by an old village and explore it by foot or bike. 

We would bike up country lanes passing the rows of grapevines and wander through the cutest villages with their narrow lanes and rows of connected houses built hundreds of years ago. 

Two French Men

Often we chatted with the friendly locals with our broad kiwi accents slowly punctuating each English word and they barely understood but there was always laughter.  

There would always be something delicious to eat at a local boulangerie, and I walked away with many cakes and pastries, that typically cost about €3.50.  

There was the Flan Patissier, a French custard tart that put our stogie custard square to shame.  The Tarte au Chocolat, that just melted in my mouth, oh, and the beignets, like a very fresh donut filled with jam - I ate a few of them.  Delicious!

The price for food in France was much higher than in Italy, and restaurant meals had to be a real treat.  Salads were about €18, pizza €11-18, and for a big steak, it could set you back £45.  Desserts were typically €8.

As the canal boat meandered down the river, we would often stop in at a a vineyard offering tastings and would leave with bottles of delicious wine to enjoy later that evening.  

We came across a few places selling their own olive oil, which we bought and used to dip the baguettes in. 

One day I chose to stay behind while the others went to explore a nearby city by bike.  I took the opportunity of taking a slightly longer shower and some private sunbathing on the roof of the boat.  

Of course it wasn’t private as other canal boats went past and waved.  I’d wave back - holding up a glass of red wine.  

There was also a path next to the canal that was used by walkers and cyclists, and a group of older French men rode past whistling and “oui la la’ing”. I’ve not received so much as a sideways glance from men for decades, so I didn’t mind the attention and smiled back.

In Marseille I had seen a few specialist stores selling expensive truffle products and was telling the group how delicious it tasted.  Amazingly they hadn’t even tried truffle before.  

Later that morning one of the ladies rang me from a nearby village saying she had came across some truffle flavoured cheese.  I asked her to buy it for me as I was certain they would love it.  It was only €3.40 for 250g.

Cheese isn’t that expensive here, soft cheeses, including fresh mozzarella are typically about €2.50 for 250g.  I wondered why cheese back home was so expensive. 

The soft truffle cheese quickly disappeared as we smeared it over slices of the baguette we had bought that day.  Everyone searched for truffle cheese after that but never found any more.

A Bridge

It was wonderful to see so many small artisan businesses providing good fresh local produce to their locals.  Supermarkets play a smaller role here and fast-food providers are rarely seen.  

Each day we would buy fresh fruit and vegetables, cheese, olives, bread and wine to enjoy back on the boat.  The ladies would make some really delicious meals; certainly they were the best meals I had eaten in a long while. 

The Tunnel

They bought pork and beef sausages, skewers of duck and veal, and many varieties of salami.  The capitano would use the barbecue on board to cook the meat.   

I didn’t eat the meat and therefore didn’t really contribute so much. I did my best by once making a caprese salad, with a mozzarella burrata that tasted heavenly.  I mostly just did the dishes afterwards. 

 Bèziers

Towards the end we visited the city of Bèziers, a pretty city that had a large market under a row of trees.  I bought a €3 scarf in preparation for Morocco, feeling happy that I’d managed to keep my acquisitions to a couple of things so far. 

On the final day we packed up and found the rental car place and the five of us with our packs squeezed into the Peugeot sedan and headed towards Barcelona, Spain, just a three hour drive away.