France
talented chef. The cabins, designed for only eight guests, are snug and nautically shipshape. As befits the intimacy of the voyage, the Englishspeaking crew, complete with an occasional four-footed deck-hand, are entertaining yet discreet.
The next day, we make a foray to Carcassonne, often billed as the most perfectly preserved medieval fortified town in existence. Clambering around the citadel, with its chunky ramparts and 52 watchtowers, is a wonderful prelude to lunch back on the barge. Under Captain Julian’ s command, our expertise on wine and water swells. The wry captain confesses to having been torn between the competing careers of captain and sommelier: the water won but the wine still flows during the voyage. Passionate about canal cruising, Julian delights in pointing out passing wonders, from wine estates to wildlife. Once, idly dreaming on deck, we realise that the faint ripples by the banks are coypu, the canal’ s beaver-like residents.
The bucolic sailing to Argeliers passes vineyards and pine groves. The scenery is so soporific that all thoughts of the onboard tandem bike, boules and Jacuzzi are forgotten. For a week, our world shrinks to this barge and a parade of towpaths lined by poplars, plane trees, pines and cypresses. The towpaths, once plied by hefty horses pulling heavy barges, are now the preserve of cyclists, canal-gawpers, joggers, picnickers and grumpy geese. The day’ s drama is generally confined to the succession of locks, low bridges, aqueducts, tunnels, towpaths and mesmerising trees that make up the magic of the Canal du Midi.
From our perspective, any challenges en route tend to be comical rather than critical. At Capestang, we scarper when chased by territorial geese, guardians of these towpaths. But Captain Julian complains that novice sailors are the greatest challenge: `novices set sail in a piece of Tupperware and then panic when they see a proper barge bearing down on them’. Despite the Captain’ s best efforts, we experience a knock when barged into by panic-stricken boaters. The first-timers freeze, not realising that it’ s hard for such a big barge to take swift evasive action. For a moment the air goes bluer than the Med, but then all is resolved with bonhomie. Anjodi glides on, leaving the chastened Tupperware Two trembling in her wake.
The friendly crew periodically point out the Canal du Midi’ s technical quirks, from a clever round lock near Agde, constructed in 1679, to an ingenious aqueduct that runs over the River Orb-`civil engineering at its best’, declares our Captain. Equally impressive is the Malpas tunnel, the world’ s first ever canal tunnel, which runs between the hamlets of Colombiers and Capestang. Apparently, a Roman road surmounts it, while a TGV train line tunnels underneath. Just before Beziers comes one of the Canal’ s greatest feats of engineering: the Fonsérannes flight of locks, a staircase etched up the watery hillside. Topped by a panoramic view over Beziers, this succession of cascading locks is the star attraction on the Canal du Midi. Built in 1697, the original nine locks were designed to deal with a steep incline of about 22 metres over a distance of 300 metres. The last( and lowest) lock, which once crossed the River Orb, has given way to an eyecatching aqueduct.
We join the gawping crowds of canal-watchers by the lock-keeper’ s cottage and cascading locks. Julian introduces us to barging terminology, offering“ a count on the nose,” indicating how far the barge’ s `nose’ is into the lock-gate at any one time; a two-fingers’ gesture means there’ s a two-metre gap. We now know our upstream( `montant’) from our downstream( `avalant’), and that overtaking should only be done `with the permission of the boat being overtaken’. As our confidence grows, in direct proportion to our quaffing of Corbieres, we offer to steer the barge or to `hold the lines’, dealing with the mooring lines at locks. When persuaded to leave our barge, we are rewarded with Cathar architecture, and only occasionally bribed with winetastings. A stirring excursion visits the Cathar stronghold of Minerve, surrounded by limestone gorges. The cobbled alleyways and stone staircases are a prelude to Pezenas, just off the Canal. Here, gracious period mansions with wroughtiron balconies, secret courtyards and sculpted doorways appeal to potters, artists and sculptors. A jaunt to the Oppidum d’ Enserune reveals a striking pre-Roman hilltop
20 | EuroTravel