BELLA AND THE CANAL DU MIDI

As the house renovations continued in Chalabre, we enjoyed the daily coffee break with the builders. Christian the plumber was fascinated with Abi’s pet rabbit that we had brought all the way from UK. He asked me if we were fattening it up for eating. Abi was horrified and said no – it was a pet! He asked us why we would fatten up a rabbit unless we were going to eat it?! Vive la France 🇫🇷

Christian loved Bella our basset hound and said he would use her to hunt. I said we had taken her on a shoot in the UK but as soon as the guns went off, she ran home. So no, she wasn’t a gun dog but she was an extremely intelligent animal. She moved with us to France and enjoyed a leisurely cruise when we took a boat along the Canal du Midi that summer. We were concerned about lifting her on and off the boat as she was a heavy dog so Ed had the brilliant idea of a making a gangplank for her. He set it up in the garden at a sloping angle and very patiently taught her to walk the plank.

We spent a week on the Canal Du Midi with glorious weather and lots of fun. We picked up the boat in Castelnaudery (who boast the best cassoulet in France – see my blog on Mirepoix from 24/4/20 for my cassoulet recipe) and the first test was to get the boat out of the basin and through three locks. Ed had sailed before but I hadn’t a clue, so our first test of going through three locks, was stressful to say the least. Abi and the lock keeper found it very amusing.

We headed towards Carcassonne with Captain Ed up front and Abi and I sunbathing. Bella was content to laze up on deck and enjoy the sun, or sit below, navigating. She also loved to chase the ducks by the side of the boat every morning. We had bicycles on board so we would pick up fresh bread from the local village every day. We stopped every evening around 7.30 when all the locks were closed. The nights were very peaceful, as the boat sat in the water, nestled amongst the fields of sunflowers that lined the canal.

When we reached Carcassonne we moored in the basin by the park at the top of the town. There was a concert that night and I walked into the town, bought some steaks and fresh bread and we sat on the boat listening to the live music from the park, with the meat sizzling on the barbecue.

We went on to Trebes and moored up for a couple of hours. We explored the little town and ordered a seafood platter from the local fish shop. We moved further up the canal for the evening and enjoyed eating our supper by the side of the boat with good wine and fresh bread.

As we progressed through the locks, we became more and more confident with our handling of the boat and by the end of the trip were looking forward to our next holiday on the water. We met some terrible sailors. One guy who was behind us in every lock, constantly bashed into our boat. He was always very apologetic and when we arrived back in Castelnaudery on the 14th of July, he invited us for a drink on board. He had a huge boat and we spent Bastille night with him and his family, watching the fireworks go off across the water. A great end to a wonderful week on the Canal du Midi.