Walking the canal offers another view.
Morning light brings clear, crisp Aude skies.
As always, click on thumbnail to expand.
After breakfast we set off west towards Toulouse. And we joined the main artery of the Canal du Midi. In the process we crossed two rivers, the first the Cesse, then disembarked and walked alongside the canal, and then reboarded and traversed Repudre Aqueduct, the oldest navigable aqueduct in the world, built in 1676. In some of these shots the view seems from a bridge but in fact is from the aqueduct and we are cruising on the barge. Fred guided the barge through one of the tightest bridges on the canal with nary a scrape.
At each lock sits a lock house. They are a simple duplex. The plaque on each house shows the distance to the next lock in either direction. In France, lock keepers were generally women. Shortly after World War I, war widows were offered jobs as lock keepers which provided housing. Many of the women fostered war orphans so the houses were often filled with children. Now it seems cats have taken over.
Walking the foot path (originally used for horse drawn tows) is a wonderful perspective, weaving through some very local sites.
The stretch of canal that we walked today was barren of the famous Plane tree. The canal was lined with them in the1800’s but since 2006 many succumbed to a fungus and had to be felled. Restoration is on-going with a new type of Sycamore tree called the Platanor. A vaccine has been developed and test trees are identified with a tag. The Pyrenees complete the backdrop.
While the trees might be seedlings the wildflowers were flourishing. Yellow Iris line the canal along with the occasional field of poppies. The vineyards seem infinite.
After lunch we toured an olive processing commune. Nothing much was happening since the trees are just flowering and harvest doesn’t begin until fall. Then we were off to the city of Minerve which has just achieved designation as a Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Minerve is a small, compact town perched on top of the gorge of the river Cesse. With only one bridge of entry is was easily defensible and survived six weeks of a siege only to have the attackers cut off their water supply from a well near the river below. There a few streets, mostly just cobblestone paths lined with homes that still burn fire for heat. Oh, and the occasional cat.
Steps 13,767 to 13, 777 were boarding the barge to enjoy the evening light before dinner.
A single moment can tell an entire story if you are willing to let it.
