Unexcused Absences

We’ve now been “afloat” since the previous Saturday, and it occurred that I should publish a weekly summary of our travels on the canals. So here it goes…

Flamingoes!

After three full days and two half-days of boat projects, we pointed Après Ski south-west and began our cruise. The countryside was marshy and flat, with lots of birds, very similar to Assateague National Seashore in coastal Maryland / Virginia. The only real “weather” we saw all week was the first day, Saturday afternoon, when we had overcast skies and a few sprinkles on our four-hour cruise to our first stop, the Medieval city of Aigues-Mortes. Beginning Sunday, we’ve had nothing but stunning, clear, warm weather all week. It’s evident now why the south of France is such a famous vacation spot.

The Medieval city walls of Aigues-Mortes

It’s funny, I’ve been telling everyone back home how inexpensive it is to live on the canals, how you can usually just tie up to the canal bank for no charge, or stay in town tied to a dock or bulkhead for a very reasonable charge. Yet our very first night out, in Aigues-Mortes, cost us 25.50 euros!!! It’s probably the most we’ll ever pay this whole summer. The location was stunning, though, and it was prime marina real estate, but still…

Street Market

We timed things right and happened to be there for the weekly street market Sunday morning, where we loaded up on some fantastic cheese and other goodies. A stroll through the village, and a meeting with Tom, the fun New Jersey mafia guy, and we were headed west again, towards our next destination. We had two potential overnight stops, both near the city of Montpellier, and ended up choosing neither, but rather grabbed a free spot along the banks of a side canal near the beach town of Carnon. This town has two ports, one on the Med for ocean vessels, and one on the canal for people like us. The ports are separated by a low bridge, so while the water can mix, the sailboats can’t get to the canal and we can’t get to the Med, which is probably best. Après Ski is seaworthy, but she’s not SEA-worthy.

Aigues Mortes

Parked on the outskirts of Carnon

From Carnon, we made a critical, vital, essential visit to IKEA, where we bought 8 (!) more shelves. If you remember my post from last week, the biggest thing about converting our boat from charter to live-aboard is her lack of available storage space. So this trip to IKEA was necessary because they sell a spice rack whose dimensions match perfectly with what we need here on the boat. This being France, the round trip, using all public transportation, was a snap. A 300 yard walk, then a bus, then a tram brought us just a couple hundred yards from the big blue and yellow edifice of IKEA. We also bought a duvet and cover, some plastic storage containers, and a trash can for the guest bathroom.

Full moon rising

Carnon was so peaceful (and free!) we decided to spend Monday night there too. We were treated to a full moon rising over the town buildings as we had our dinner on deck. Tuesday around noon we set sail (ok, set “motor”) westward again towards Frontignan, which wine lovers will know as the center of the “Muscat de Frontignan” universe. We eagerly hit the town to find a “cave du vin” that sold Muscat in bulk, and we weren’t disappointed. There were not one, but three caves that sold several different varieties of Muscat by the liter. I picked up some semi-sweet from one cave and a sweet from the second cave. Average price was around 7 euros per liter. For reference, Muscat will sell for $30 and up per 750ml bottle in the states. Outstanding! And delicious! Each cave, of course, offers tastings, so you can pick exactly the wine you want, which can be a little dangerous considering I rode my bike to taste and buy the Muscat.

Driving towards Frontignan

New Orleans? No, Frontignan

Frontignan is a bit of a unique situation because it has a low drawbridge which only opens twice a day, once at 8:30am and again at 4pm. This creates quite a bottleneck of boats waiting to pass through, and I’m convinced the limited bridge openings are a conspiracy by the local wine distributors to keep boats hostage in town with nothing to do but visit the caves du vin!

Big-time cargo barge

Early Wednesday morning we set out for Sète, a large town and major seaport on the Mediterranean. Once again we lucked out and hit the town on its market day, and were able to procure yet more yummy provisions like spiced olive paste, dried sausages, and of course cheese. This time my exquisite cheese discovery was “Brebis,” a sheep’s milk cheese. In Aigues-Mortes a few days prior “Vieux Cantal” was the find of the day.

Sète

Sète was similar to Carnon in that it also has a sea port and a canal port, but this time the low bridge is a drawbridge, so if we had wanted to we could have taken Après Ski directly onto the Med itself. Sète is absolutely a Mediterranean town, there were boats and canals everywhere! Once the market closed we again pointed the boat westward, this time to cross the Etang du Thau. The Etang is sort of an inland sea, it is salt water and is connected to the Med, but is separated for most of its 18 kilometers by a thin barrier island, similar to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. While this barrier stops waves from ocean storms, they do nothing if the wind is up locally, which can happen a lot.  A 20 knot wind, common here, can turn the Etang, which normally looks like a pond, into a raging, dangerous body of water. Crossing it in a small canal boat is not to be taken lightly.

Sète waterfront

Entering Port de Mèze

Fortunately the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful passage. We stopped for the afternoon in the  fishing village of Mèze, which was absolutely charming. If Disney World had a “Mediterranean Fishing Village” ride, it would look like Mèze. Continuing across the Etang du Thau, we arrived late afternoon at the eastern entrance to the Canal du Midi. The choppy water of the Etang gave way to the pond-smooth water of the canal, and we found a beautiful mooring spot about a kilometer inland for the night. Dinner on deck (see Heather’s post on that) and a just-past-full moonrise capped a fantastic day. Too many beautiful pictures for this space, scroll to the end of this post to see more from this afternoon/evening.

Big-time sauté pan

Thursday morning we continued on to Port Cassafieres, a Le Boat base. On the way we stopped for a few hours in Agde. Originally a prosperous Greek trading port, it is one of the oldest towns in France. We lucked out again, market-wise, and found a vendor selling Paella from a fry pan about four feet in diameter. We bought half a kilo, planning to have it for lunch. On our way back to the boat, we saw the Bretagne (Brittany) flag down a side street, and detoured to have a look. The Bretagne flag flying outside of Brittany usually means a creperie restaurant is nearby, and this was the case here. We immediately promoted the Paella to dinner, and sat down for a stunning lunch of crepes. Crepes with salad, crepes with ice cream, crepes with ham, mushrooms, and cheese (of course), crepes with lemon juice, crepes with flaming Grand Marnier, they had it all. Good thing we’re flexible (and that we had room in our micro-fridge for the Paella!)

Fixing the leaky fresh water pump

Friday morning at Port Cassafieres we awoke to our first boat repair item. It wasn’t quite an emergency, but the fresh water pump was leaking at the inlet, a drop every few seconds. Definitely not good. Tightening the connection only made it leak faster (???). Taking everything apart, I found the remains of the shredded gasket stuck inside the connection. Fortunately, we were at a Le Boat base, and I was able to get some teflon tape from the maintenance guys to make the repair. I had no idea how to say “teflon” in French, and after much gesturing and pantomiming it turned out the translation was “teflon.” Figure that.

Bulk wine!

A nice mid-day bike ride to dip our toes in the Med, a short cruise up the canal, and we parked for the night just upstream of the lock at Portiragnes, home to a 12th century church and about a dozen caves du vin selling Muscat (but much more expensively than at Frontignan!) We spent a few hours getting the front cabin cleaned out and set up for my Dad’s arrival mid-day Saturday. Hopefully he’ll make all his connections and we’ll pick him up at the train station in Béziers.

Now that we’re on the Canal du Midi, we’ll be hitting several locks per day. We will be going uphill until we get about 50 kilometers from Toulouse (hitting 600 feet above sea level!), then will travel downhill all the way back to sea level near Bordeaux, passing through about 150 locks along the way. I’ll try to make these weekly recaps a regular thing, until then watch for our random postings from the canals of southern France!

Week 1 Numbers:

• Kilometers: 122
• Locks: 6
• Engine hours: 19
• Cost of moorings: 25.5 euros

Tied up in Mèze

Church in Meze

Entering the Canal du Midi from the Med

Looking back at the Etang du Thau

Our parking spot at the start of the Canal du Midi

Après Ski camping out

12th century Cathédrale Saint-Étienne in Agde

The heavily fortified Cathédrale Saint-Étienne

Week 1 History