Canal du Centre

Canal du Centre

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Castelnaudary, Aug. 28-31

 Leaving Toulouse at the usual hour, we spent Tuesday night in the village of Negra. Wednesday morning we were off for another longish day to reach Castelnaudary. I spent several days here in 2022 waiting for the waterways authorities to fix lock that had been sabotaged. Read the entry here.  Tanya spent last winter here so was friends with Odile, the port captain and her assistants, and several others who had overwintered. During my stay in 2022 I had just tied up at the free mooring but this time took full advantage of the facilities for three days, moored right in front of Tanyas boat. Also, we had discovered that the alternator wasn’t the only electrical problem as the batteries that power the house functions (lights, refrigerator, etc.) had failed after 9 years; a very respectable lifespan. A trip to the auto parts store was required and luckily they would be willing to deliver the batteries to the boat and collect the old ones. I really didn’t relish the idea of fetching them by bicycle!


While visiting with Odile in the port office, Tanya met a newspaper reporter that was interested in women on their boats and why they had stayed in Castelnaudary. A couple days later a nice story appeared, complete with photos.



Chores complete and visiting accomplished, Saturday morning we were off. From here on it would be long days and many kilometers traveled until we reached Saint Jean de Losne in Burgundy.



3 comments:

  1. That's great that the reporter was interested in women on boats in particular. Did you get to see the printed article? Happy travels, Don and Tanya!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ah, looking at the date, I guess you've finished the trip now?

    ReplyDelete
  3. No, but we should be in Saint Jean this weekend. We're taking today off because the weather is terrible. It should be better tomorrow.
    Here is a link to the article

    https://www.ladepeche.fr/2024/09/05/tourisme-fluvial-je-me-sens-comme-chez-moi-ces-plaisancieres-anglophones-ont-amarre-leurs-bateaux-pour-une-nouvelle-annee-dans-le-port-de-12173709.php#m0p1c5ec7wt10n3pwj4

    You may have to copy and paste that into your browser.

    ReplyDelete

All of a sudden I'm getting comment spam. I'll have to use Captcha until it gets under control. Sorry...