Boating on the Canal du Midi

We spent the day mildly experiencing what it would be like to be homeless in inclement weather. We had to leave our accommodation by 10am but couldn't check into our canal boat until 3pm, but it was raining in Carcassonne, which made everything all that much more difficult.

So, we spent some time hanging out in the train station, a bit of grocery shopping, lunch under a tree by the canal, a very prolonged coffee in a shop, and then a bit of loitering at the canal boat place and we managed to get on the boat without getting wet!

We had a few hours changeover with the boat where we got some navigation instruction from Alex (who was quite hopeless at driving boats, so not sure that we learnt much!), but which gave us a chance to work out we didn't have towels or toilet paper - the necessities of life... so we could rent some towels and buy some loo paper, and we were set.

I had to purchase a Captain's hat for the husband so that he could pretend he really was in charge of the boat!

And then we were off. Only a short km or two down the road and we hit our first lock. All was good though and I think we didn't do too badly navigating in and out of the lock. We are spending this entire journey "locking down" which is infinitely easier than going upstream from what I can tell.

We pegged off on the bank a little white later and I made a risotto au jambon et aux champignons for dîner - yummy! (Sounds so much more exotic en Francais!)Read more