Down the Thames to Greenwich

I took a ferry downriver, travelling deck class.
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Past Tower Bridge, holding in its arms has The Shard (Europe's tallest building pending an effort by the French)

Past the building from which John Cleese hung naked, in A Fish Called Wanda

And so to Greenwich and the Cutty Sark

whose bow has a fine entry

and much the same technology as the tall ship James Craig (they were built just five years apart). The main difference is in the colossal amount of government support which Cutty Sark receives--apart from the tiny fact that James Craig actually sails,
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while Cutty Sark rests on her bed of glass.

Who needs the seaside when you have a Thames beach?

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Portsmouth

Visiting England, I had a fun day in Portsmouth, site of Europe's largest naval base.

Warrior was built in 1860 as a response to the construction of the French Gloire

 

 

 

Halyards trailing on deck: ropework not up to James Craig standards!

The crew handling the guns worked, ate and slept here

Mary Rose, pride of Henry VIII's navy, sank in 1545--was it the result of French gunfire?

Sailors streamed the log in Mary Rose, as is still done aboard the tall ship James Craig

Sadly, Britain's sovereignty is lost, as daleks have taken over the Royal Navy

Oxygen Masks On!

Mathilde reached the highest point on the Canal du Midi, almost the height of K2, a dizzying 189 metres above sea level. Australians are proud of the Snowy Mountains Scheme: over three hundred years ago Monsieur Riquet brought about a canal connecting sea to shining sea, and he turned rivers around to provide water to feed it (each time a lock is used, water goes from one level to a lower level so that, without replenishment--30 million cubic metres per year--the system would run dry).

There were many signs saying parting of the waters. 

This sign "parting of the waters" made me think of Moses and the Red Sea but of course it means watershed.

Riquet's descendants erected an obelix to mark his achievement, with a symbolic girl replenishing the canal, which links Poseidon (representing the Atlantic) and Venus (I'm sure it's significant that this goddess was chosen to represent the Mediterranean). 

 Then Mathilde went to bed.

Mostly Castelnaudary

Castelnaudary (meaning Arius' New Castle—new in the 12^th century) is fun for the photographer.

 I caught snow on the Pyrenees to the south.

I was intrigued by a sign saying Semi-Pedestrian Way: I found this puzzling till I saw some one-legged people hopping along. Maybe it's all in honour of St Roch.

As I make these notes I enjoy practice at the Ecole de Musique across the water. Reminds me of classes in Toronto.

I'm reading a book by Alison Weir on Eleanor of Aquitaine, redoubtable ruler of these parts in the twelfth century. She was quite a girl—a good-time girl--and it helps to know some of the places mentioned in the book.

Today Saturday I went by public transport to the market of Revel—a village, not a composer. Going northeast, we drove up into the foothills of the Black Mountains, past an artificial lake which feeds the Canal du Midi, and which is itself fed by streams from the said Black Mountains. Very pretty countryside, patchwork of fields with crops including wheat and sunflowers and forest. Like the Shire, good tilth pleasing to hobbits.

Then back to Castelnaudary.

 Strange to think that in less than a week's time I'll be in England. Christopher Ecclestone is playing in Antigone. I believe it's not a comedy, but it may be worth seeing.

Castelnaudary

Don't you just hate it when you read an important official notice to boaters which says “Un cerclage vert repère les arbres chancrés” and you look up “cerclage” in your French–English dictionary and it translates it as cerclage? 

 

Mathilde briefly visited the Grand Bassin of Castelnaudary, which had a very Mediterranean look, I thought, before moving to another marina in the same town. 

I walked up to the highest point of the town, finding an old windmill. On this high point, a good place for viewing battles, there was a helpful plaque described battles fought here: in 1211 (the Cathars lost) and 1632 (the revolting people of Languedoc lost). 

There was another helpful plaque about the water supply from the Black Mountains to feed the Canal du Midi. Castelnaudary is 180 metres above sea level; soon we should get to the Seuil de Naurouze at the watershed, at 189 metres the highest point of the Canal du Midi, from which you either go down towards the Mediterranean or, in Mathilde's case, down towards the Atlantic. So far this year we been through 103 locks (counting a double lock as two). The last was quadruple, called for St-Roch, the guy with the sore leg. The previous lock was called Gay.

The temperature during the day is pleasantly warm—it was no pain to cycle a few hundred metres with a jerrycan to get petrol—but the sun on Mathilde is strong, so she is uncomfortably hot for much of the day. This is not a great problem, as there are other places, like this internet café, to lurk. And Castelnaudary has several pleasant squares.

I have booked a few more nights here, planning a visit to a market in a neighbouring village tomorrow (Saturday). Rain is promised on Sunday, which may make housekeeping in Mathilde comfortable. Monday is market day in Castelnaudary; I will leave for Toulouse around the middle of the day.