Back to Carcassonne

Mathilde has returned to Carcassonne with its stunning citadel. We'll spend a couple of days here provisioning and then head to Toulouse, where she will rest while I fly north.

We've seen a lot of beautiful canal and met some pleasant boats along the way. I've seen some beautiful villages and lovely old bridges and other 17^th-century structures, dating back to when the canal was built. We've gone through many locks. Normally Mathilde motors into a lock, stops near a ladder of 3 or so metres height, which I climb, holding on to her mooring ropes, which I then make fast, whereupon the lockkeeper closes the gates through which we have entered and opens the sluices so that the lock fills—sometimes with quite dramatic splashing and turbulence. The upper gates then open and we go on our way.

This procedure (which is for heading up, i.e. towards higher ground) can go wrong when I overshoot the ladder and have to manoeuvre to get back to it, or people who know less about boating than I do (there are a few) let their great heavy boat swing alarmingly close to delicate little Mathilde—or when there is no ladder at all, just 3 or 4 metres of lock wall. It's all fun—well, mostly.

A switch seems to have been thrown, and summer—or something like it—is here. I have packed away my jackets and long-sleeved shirts and have started hitting the iced coffee and the rosé wine. Very pleasant. I've also discovered Olives Artisanales du Languedoc, varieté Lucques. Yummy, plus cheese, French bread (what else?) and pâté.

Life is not without setbacks. In Argens-Minervois I promised myself a cup of coffee and a glass of wine at Le Sourire de la Grenouille, where I dined hugely on cassoulet last time I was there and also enjoyed the wifi. It was closed. So was the general store opposite, because it was Wednesday afternoon. Poor me. So I consoled myself at the café at the port, which has no wifi but does run to French cappuccino and a waffle. Oh, the suffering. Plus I looked at a tourist booklet about the South of France, with motto: le vrai luxe c'est d'être là, the true luxury is being there. Fair enough.