It’s a good thing I don’t rely on income from the blog to buy groceries because my procrastination would cause starvation!
I have returned to Southern California and Tanya has returned to her boat in southern France, mission accomplished.
Oldtimer is now on the sales pontoon in Saint Jean de Losne and will hopefully find a new owner soon.
The trip to Burgundy turned out to be pure delivery; many kilometers per day and long hours. We didn’t do any sightseeing and on the Rhone we spent the night at lock waiting pontoons, not even in villages. I’m going to post some pictures we took along the way and point you to 2022’s blog for better descriptions of the sights along the Rhone and Canal du Midi. On the way down Cathy Jo and I stopped off at many villages and did alot of sightseeing. It might be worth revisiting. You’ll find the postings 2022 June - September through the links on the right sidebar.
Saturday, August 31 we traveled from Castelnaudary about 7 hours and 13 locks to a stop in Villesqueland in a nice park. After that it was 7 1/2 hours and 12 locks to our next stop near Marseillette; just a bankside mooring. Then another 6 hour day (9 locks) to Ventenac en Minervois where we arrived in plenty of time to visit the nearby wine co-op in the chateau to stock up.
The chateau houses the wine co-op.
This display of “welders art” was at on the the Midi locks.
Beziers was the next stop, about 8 hours along the Canal du Midi. Right before town is the famous Sept Ecluses de Fonserannes, a major tourist attraction.
We’re about halfway through the 6 lock staircase for this picture.
We have quite the audience.
I love this building across the basin from the port in Beziers.
The next day, Thursday, Sept. 5, was the end of the Canal du Midi, 2 hours crossing the Etang de Tau and entering the Canal Rhône a Sète, spending the night in Frontignan.
One of the famous white horses of the Camargue
 |
We had been keeping an eye on the conditions on the Rhone as we would be traveling against the current on our trip north. Of course, a couple of days before we were supposed to join the river there was a bunch of rain in the north of France and the current took off. Friday evening we found the moorings on the side canal to St. Gilles available so we grabbed one and waited three days for the river to calm down.
Monday morning conditions looking much better so we were off.
