First Guests, April 30-May 5

My first guests, long time friends Tim and Christine from Oak View, Ca. arrived Sunday, April 30, escaping the May Day madness in Paris. They would be staying for a week, leaving Monday, May 8. Since Monday was a holiday and the canal locks were closed, we wouldn’t be departing until Tuesday. That gave us a day to wander the streets of Castelsarrasin.

The obligatory first stop was one of the churches in town, Saint-Saveur. Construction originally began in 961 when the town first appeared on maps, later as Castro Sarraceno. It was completely rebuilt between 1245 and 1270 but has undergone several renovations in the 16th, and 19th centuries, with the front steps and porch added in 1901.

The ceilings were tastefully decorated.

A majestic organ

We also got a good laugh from the name of this street. We’re not sure what happens there but it must stay there….

Tuesday morning at the crack of 9 we headed down through one lock to the conveniently place pontoon right outside the big grocery store. It’s always a great thing when you can roll the shopping cart right down to the boat. Shopping complete we turned around and headed back up the canal for our first destination, Montauban.

We had to travel through 9 locks going up, the last 5 in quick succession alongside the Pente d’eau ( more on that later) before turning off onto the side canal that travels down to the River Tarn and the city of Montauban. Not wanting to wear ourselves out on the first days underway, we stopped about 3:30 at a small mooring in the hamlet of Lacourt St. Pierre. A small grocery/bar/tabac, a church and a nice shady park were all that was there but we decided we weren’t in a big hurry so we decided to spend Wednesday there and more on to Montauban on Thursday.

The Lacourt church. those bells rang every half hour from 7 am to 7 pm.

Thursday morning we were planning to get underway about 10 as the locks don’t open until 9:30 when Tim mentioned that a big boat was coming down the canal. It turned out to be good friends Lenny and Di on Elysium. We first met them in Briare in 2021 and then we tag teamed our way down to the Garonne last year with many raucous evenings. They were also on their way to Montauban. We would meet them there.

Back to France, April 25-May 1

 

Tuesday morning my friend Ines drove me to the airport shuttle bus and, after a relaxing hour or so in the airport lounge and lunch, Air France whisked me across North America and the Atlantic Ocean to Paris. Arriving around 11 am I only had an hour and a half to make the transfer to the flight to Toulouse which turned out to be in another terminal requiring a bus ride. Then the security people decided my backpack required a more thorough check and I thought I was going to miss the connection. Luckily it all worked out and I made the flight, landing in Toulouse at 2 pm. Unfortunately, due to the tight connection, my bag didn’t arrive at the same time, but a courier managed to find me for it’s delivery the next evening and all was well.

Oldtimer was something of a mess but it really only took one day to clean the outside. However, due to the chaotic departure last year, there was quite a bit of cleaning on the inside yet to do. Just like housework.

I was also greeted by a Fete Foraine just across the canal. The real fun began with the carnival midway cranking up starting Wednesday about 3. Luckily I have earplugs because the noise is pretty bad. They begin their day around 3, go a little quieter around dinner time and then crank back up until a little after 11. Between the earplugs and jet lag I’ve been able to deal.

They’re lined up for the “Turn It On” ride.

Picture from my back deck.

So far everything has been good with the boat. The engine started a little reluctantly, not surprising considering it’s been more than 7 months since it last ran, and when it finally caught it ran fine without too much smoke. Both the electric toilet and the hot water heater worked without a hitch. The wheel turned the rudder and the bow thruster did its thrusting thing without complaint. The horn even worked!

I have put the boat up for sale through H20, the brokers that sold Odysseus for us and through whom we bought Oldtimer. https://h2ofrance.com/for-sale/aakship/ There is a saying that the two happiest days in a boat owners life are the day they buy a boat and the day they sell it but that will definitely not be the case for me. It was a very difficult decision; the completed paperwork sat on my desk for two weeks before I could bring myself to send it in but I really can’t see a way for me to keep the boat that doesn’t involve waaaay too much work and stress. (If you look at the listing, those are not pictures of the interior decoration as it is now. I wasn’t able to provide inside picture for the listing as I wasn’t here yet so they used ones from the previous listing.)

I managed to put together a pretty full cruise schedule with family and friends until I leave in late July. My first guests, Tim and Christine, who have sailed with me on Oldtimer before, arrive Sunday the 30th, escaping the possibility of May 1 chaos in Paris. They will be here for a week, then I will be joined by Kevin Murray, a guy from Australia I met through the Dutch Barge Association forum, who will be aboard for at least 3 weeks. He was supposed to be followed by an old friend, Yvonne, also from Australia whom we met in 2009,  but she just fell and broke her hand so will be unable to make the trip. I informed Kevin and it sounds like he may be up to stay aboard if it works out. We’re about to become very well acquainted! 

Since the canals are closed for the May Day holiday, We won’t be getting underway until Tuesday at the earliest. I think our first destination will be Montauban, back to the east about 25 k. After that, who knows?

I realized this week that in all the turmoil of this fall I failed to post the map and statistics for this years voyage.

I’ll take care of that now.

 

As in the past, you should be able to click on the image for a larger one. I did not draw all the pretty lines this year, just the stopping places.

We travelled 

1190 kilometers

247 locks

206 hours on the engine in 67 travel days.

And an update.

I have had several people contact me for the trip this year. If you’re interested please let me know soon as I plan to finalize plans in the next couple of weeks.

The Future of Oldtimer

 I hope this finds you all well and that you had a happy holiday time. I traveled up to Portland to enjoy Christmas with Cory, Darwin and Audrey. There’s nothing much better than a three year old at Christmas.

Now on to future plans…

I have decided I am going to have to sell Oldtimer. I would have a hard time cruising alone and I really don’t want to do that anyway so the barge will be going on the market.

Before that, however, I have several small projects to finish as I left the boat in a hurry last October. Also, I would love to take one last cruise.

If you have thought about taking a canal cruise, now would be your opportunity to spend a week or so on the French waterways. I envision a trip starting around the beginning of May and finishing up the beginning of July. The weather should still be ok and the waterways not too crowded. Traveling would be limited to the area between Bordeaux and Toulouse on the Garonne Canal, maybe including trips onto the Baise and Tarn Rivers.

If this is something that would interest you, get in touch for details. I’m just starting to make plans now and I would love to hear from you.

Stay safe,

Don

November 8, 2022

 This is a post I never, ever expected to have to write.

From Moissac we spent a couple of days on the Tarn bankside in the trees. We returned to Moissac, travelled further up the canal to Pommevic and visited another of the “Most Beautiful Villages in France”, Auvillar, a 6 k bike ride away from the canal. From there we turned around for one more day on the river and then returned to Castelsarrasin on Sept. 2. Oldtimer would spend the winter there.

Cathy Jo had been feeling a little fatigued and had not much of an appetite since about the middle of August but we began the pre-winter chores. She would work about a half day and then rest. We tried to get a doctor’s appointment for a checkup but as we were unable to book an appointment before our departure she decided to “tough it out” until our return to the US.

By the 20th, though, she couldn’t get out of bed. Valerie, one of the Port Capitaines, called an ambulance and Cathy Jo was taken to the local hospital. By Saturday she had been transferred to the big hospital in Toulouse where she was diagnosed with leukemia.

After 5 weeks of treatment, the doctors in Toulouse judged her stable enough to fly and our travel insurance company arranged repatriation flights, complete with an accompanying doctor and nurse, ambulance rides at each end and wheel chairs through the airports. She arrived at our local hospital late Tuesday night, October 25 and was checked in for evaluation and decisions on further treatment.

Complications began almost immediately as late Thursday night she developed an infection. It was just a typical e coli bacterial infection but since her immune system was so weak, she was immediately transferred to the ICU. 

Despite all the doctors and nurses could do, she continued to decline and she died early Wednesday morning, Nov. 2.

I guess the blog ends here, pending decisions about what to do with Oldtimer. I’ve lost my traveling companion of the last 44 years. We had a great life and when her illness began and we realized the prognosis was not good she did tell me she had no regrets, for which I am grateful.

Hug those closest to you and remind them you love them.

Our first trip to France, 2005

Working on Odysseus, 2007

Veurne, 2008

Veurne again, 2017

Portland, Oregon, 2020

Ampuis, 2022

Le Canal de Garonne, Aug. 20-24

Saturday morning we made our way through the center of Toulouse, completing the three locks in about 2 hours as we had to wait about 45 minutes for the peniche in front of us to complete the cycle. About 11 am we made the sharp right turn to enter the Canal de Garonne.

After completing the Canal du Midi in the late 1600's, the famous military engineer Vauban designed a canal along the Garonne connecting the Midi at Toulouse to the western coast of France in Bordeaux. The river itself was too shallow and rocky to provide efficient navigation. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 19th century that his plans were approved and construction begun under the direction of Jean-Baptiste de Baudre. Work was completed in 1856 although the canal stopped well short of Bordeaux, leaving the last 40 k in the river. Unfortunately, management of the canal was given to the railway company that already had a similarly situated rail line. The rail company favored the trains and traffic on the canal was modest until the 1970’s, the main cargos being grain, wood chips for paper, wine and fuel. In the 1960’s the canal was modernized; the locks were electrified and enlarged to meet the standards of the rest of France but, as the Canal du Midi locks were never enlarged, the Garonne canal was essentially cut off for commercial traffic from the rest of the network. Now it’s a pretty, quiet, pleasure canal, traffic equivalent to the smaller northern French canals, i.e. not much. It's also used to generate electricity with several of the locks hosting small hydroelectric generators.

There are two rivers with navigable sections that connect with the canal, the Tarn at Moissac and Montauban, and the Baise at Buzet sur Baise. The Lot also used to connect but now the crossing is not navigable, although there is supposedly work in progress to reconnect it to the Garonne canal.

The first 40 k of the canal from Toulouse are not very pleasant; straight, the few village moorings choked with derelicts and “liveaboard” boats and right alongside a major freeway and the railroad. We shared the first 29 k with the 19 meter barge that preceded us through Toulouse, including the 9 locks. By about 5 pm we had had enough and found a reasonable bank where we could moor. Luckily the road and the trains quiet down at night.

Sunday morning we set off to find something better and found a pontoon about 11 k down the canal in the Foret d’Agre, just 2 k before the town of Montech. We were tied up at the small pontoon about 11 am and cycled into town where one of the French boat clubs, Association Nationale des Plaisanciers en Eaux Intérieures, the National Association of Pleasure Boats on Inland Waters, was having a fundraising fete.

Not sure why a boat club has a display 

of antique Citroens but there you go.

We’d already had lunch but we enjoyed a beer, listened to some of the music and then returned to the boat.

Monday morning we were off to our next stop, Moissac. 16 locks later, about 2:30, we were secure in town. We’d visited here last year so we already had the lay of the land but it was going to be hot again so we wanted to be on the river Tarn for shade and swimming.

First, however, we had to pay a visit to the famous cloister at the Abbey of Saint Pierre. The Abbey was founded in the 7th century, destroyed in the 8th, rebuilt and then pillaged during the French Revolution. Each time it underwent a careful restoration and is now one of the most beautiful religious monuments in France.

Each one of the 76 pillars is topped by beautiful stonework. Half of them tell some biblical stories while the other half are called “decoratives”.

The entrance door to the church is topped with a famous sculpture representing Christ surrounded by the 24 old men of the Apocalypse of St. John.

Tuesday about 10 we headed into the two locks that drop boats down onto the Tarn River. Shade and swimming were in order.

 

Toulouse, August 17-20

 Since our idea for next year is to backtrack partway on the Canal du Midi and then return to Castelsarrasin, we will be visiting Toulouse twice. This visit would be a short one, just to get our bearings.

With a population of about half a million in the urban area and about 1 1/2 million in the metropolitan area, Toulouse is the center of the European aerospace industry (Airbus and the CNES Space Center) as well as the home of one of Europe’s oldest universities (founded in 1229) and several other prestigious institutes of higher education.

The first historical mention of Toulouse is in the 2nd century BC as Tolosa. The city was the capital of the Visigoth Kingdom in the 5th century and the capital of the province of Languedoc in the late Middle Ages, making it the unofficial capital of the cultural region of Southern France. It is now the capital of the region of Occitania, the second largest region in France. 

We left our bankside mooring just before the suburbs around 9 am and were in the city center just before lunch.There is a marina but we didn’t need any services and there’s no shade there so we stopped just a little before it; a free mooring along the well shaded bank.

Max Gerrard, the broker who sold us the boat back in St. Jean de Losne, 

happened by when we weren’t there but took a picture and emailed it to us.

Our first stop in town was, of course, the tourist office at the Capitole.

The entrance is around the side.

We loved the tower.

After the tourist office, we made our way to the Place Victor Hugo and it’s covered market. The second floor is all small restaurants where we had lunch. It was loud and chaotic but Cathy Jo was the winner with a great plate of fresh fish.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets, getting our bearings and examining shop windows.

Tutus! A store of tutus!

They had a window of toe shoes, too.

We also took a look inside one of the many churches in the city, this one the Cathedral Saint Etienne.

Thursday it was off to Les Abbatoirs, the Toulouse Museum of Contemporary Art. We walked all the way across town, crossing the Garonne River on the Pont Neuf. The main exhibit when we were there, Orlan, Corps et sculptures, is no longer at the museum but you can get a look at what it was all about here . It is a museum of Contemporary Art. The other exhibitions were pretty interesting and in the basement, Picasso’s Le dépouille du Minotaure en costume d’Arlequin (The remains of the Minotaur in a Harlequin costume), painted in 1936 as a stage curtain for Romain Rolland's play Quatorzejuillet (July 14) dominated the room.

(Photo from France 3)

Friday we spent more time walking the streets, visiting two more churches, the Basilica Saint Sernin and the Jacobins church and cloister.

The basilica was built to honor Saturnin, the first bishop and martyr of Toulouse who was killed in 250. A small church was built in the 5th century but became and important stopping place on the Campostela pilgrim route. The current building was constructed in the middle of the 19th century after the original larger church, consecrated in 1096, was destroyed at the beginning of the 19th century.

Speaking of Compostela, along with the many bicyclists, the path alongside the canal is very busy with hikers, their backpacks decorated with the scallop shell indicating they are on a Camino.

Buildings have a very different look in Toulouse. Stone was (and is) expensive here so almost everything is constructed of the pinkish Toulouse bricks. It makes the appearance of buildings very different than what we’ve seen in northern and central France.

That tall thing is the facade of the Eglise Notre Dame de Taur, 

facing the street where St. Saturnin was dragged to his death by a bull. 

Reconnaissance complete, we shoved off Saturday morning to head for the Canal de Garonne. Unfortunately, just as we were about to pull away, a peniche (30 meters long) passed by. He also informed us he was being closely followed by another barge, this one 19 meters. We had three locks through the center of Toulouse before we would enter the Garonne canal and we would have to share locks all day with the 19 meter barge. It would be a tight fit with our 16 meters but, as they were all down locks, off we went. It was going to be a very long day.