Nederlandse versieFourth day: from Fonsérannes to Le Somail

It 's dry again the next  morning and the sun is shining again. I cycle with Marga to Béziers to get bread. It 's a stiff climb. After we bought our bread at a bakery we climb further to the cathedral St-Nazaire. From there we have a wonderful view over the environment. It is a little chilly but broad daylight. We can even see some the pinnacles of the Pyrenees.

Back at the boat I take some photographs of the staircase of locks and the 'pente d' eau', an unsuccessful attempt of the French to make a modern construction to replace the old seventeenth century sevenfold lock.

 

After breakfast we travel on. Between the long series of plane-trees at both sides we are navigating further. We pass the tunnel of Malpas. This tunnel is 160 meters long. Of course there is also a towpath in the tunnel.

The name Malpas is derived from 'mauvais passage' (bad passage). The tunnel avoids circumnavigating an other 700 meters. The tunnel isn't very long (160 m) but the children like to turn on all the navigation lights and the search-light. We come through Poilhès, a village of which we realize in retrospect that is was worth to moor. It looked idyllically.

 

 

Later we arrive at  Capestang. We make a stop here and use the opportunity to tank water. It 's a curious coincedent that we moor just behind the Le Ponant, we rented last year. Marga takes a look in the village but everything is closed.

We go on navigating and follow the capricious forms of the hills by a number of huge meanders. I discover the section of the canal where we will pass in a quarter of an hour on my right or left side. An hour after leaving Capestang, I can still  see the village on port-side next to me. The wheather meanwhile stays a little fresh. I try to navigate constantly on the sunny part of the canal.

We are navigating in a beautiful section again. Hills in the north, prospects in the south, blooming broom, vineyards, fields full with poppies, and strip of yellow iris at the waterside. We pas under an old arched bridge again. I read the year 1684 on the key-stone.

Pepijn meanwhile wants to navigate more and more. He can do all kind of tests to get a sailors certificate from me: passing narrow bridges, passing oncoming boats, keeping notice of fishermen, making sharp corners, navigating in the sunshine.

 

Maarten doesn't want to be inferior to Pepijn and does tests for making curves to port-side, making curves to starboard-side, passing oncoming and moored  boats.

We decide to navigate this afternoon until Le Somail. This village is situated 3 km after the connection with the Canal de Jonction. We want to navigate in this canal tomorrow. 

We are passing the aqueduct over the river Cesse and some moments later we hear the murmur of water at l' Épenchoir des Patiasses. I want to cycle to this place this evening to take a better look. It's crowded with boats in Le Somail. We expect to will find a mooring-place right at the end of a row. 

 

 We decide to navigate through L e Somail and just after the famous Pont de Somail we see a mooring place, just before the famous second-hand bookshop of Mme. Gourges. We have moored at a lovely spot. There is a church built against the bridge and an old ice-house.

Le Somail used to be one of the stops of the mail-boat. It took the mail-boat four days to navigate from Agde to Toulouse. At all the multiple locks the passengers had to change to another mail-boat with all there luggage to gain time. Places to stay the night were Le Somail, Trèbes en Castelnaudary.

In the evening I cycle to the first lock of the Canal de Jonction to take a better look at it. The navigation-guide mentions typing a code to pass but as far as I can see just one push on a green button is sufficient.

The whether is getting better at the end of the day. The sun wins the battle of the clouds and the wind is dropping. I see a beautiful sunset as the sun is disappearing in the purple-red sky behind the Pyrenees.