Yet another delayed post – this time from the French love of
strikes. Strike 1 – Air France strikes stranding Mom and Jamie in Manchester
England. Strike 2 – French trains strike making it nearly impossible to get
from Narbonne to Toulouse to pick up Jamie and Mom. AND today Strike 3 – The canals
are closed as the lock keepers on strike. As I write this we are trapped
between an Ecluse (lock) and the floodgate to the Aude River, which we have to
cross to reach the next canal. Both are closed.
We arrived is Castelnaudary late in the day dodging rain and
wind storms, for a while thinking we might not make it all the way as planned.
We really wanted to be in port by Monday morning as Castelnaudary hosts the
best outdoor market in this part of France. Arriving late we missed our
reservation for moorage and found the port full. Fortunately we had seen a
beautiful park-like setting just out of town and it was free..
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| A very small portion of the outdoor market |
Monday morning we made the market that was strongly
influencing our scheduling – and it was well worth it. We found great veggies,
fruits, cheeses, bread and more all very fresh. After loading the food aboard
“Juniper” we went to the Captainerrie to check on our reservations. Seems in
all the confusion getting ready to go I’d given them the right days, but wrong
month. A bit later in the day the young lady working the Captainerrie came
walking around the point looking for us to let us know she had managed to get
us a space in the port – now that’s service above and beyond.
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| Nice rainy day to move our Gaz cannister to the store and bring back a full one. |
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| And here we are at our anniversary dinner. Still happy after 30 years - must be love. |
We still had two projects to complete: find a restaurant for
our 30th wedding anniversary and get our methane tank filled for use
with our galley stove. Checking around we found a gas station a ways out of
town where we could make the exchange. We walked out in hopes that they might
do deliveries to poor stranded boaters, no such luck. Now all we have to do is
figure out how to carry a large heavy tank from the boat and return with an
even heavier full tank. Fortunately our partners, Gary and Tosca leave their
cargo toting bikes on the boat. . . soooo we tied the tank across the rack and
wheeled the tank out and back.
When we discovered that we would be in France for our 30th
Anniversary we had decided a nice dinner would be a great way to celebrate. In
southern France, especially the Languedoc region there is a dish known as cassoulet (a
baked stew type of dish made with beans, meats and spices) We asked around town
again and got a recommendation. We dressed up for the occasion (me in jeans and
a button up shirt, Joan in her travel dress). After an appetizer on the boat we
walked up town for a fashionably early dinner at about 7:00. Great dinner a fun
staff and conversation with adjoining tables, we were the first in and almost
the last to leave.
The next day we cleaned up loose ends in our itinerary,
chased boat parts and were ready to be back on the canal after 4 nights in one
lovely town. It’s nice being on canal time.
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| Windmill from the past. Built in the 1800's it continued to mill grain into the 1960s |
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| As a point of reference here we are 30 years ago - giving us the reason to continue celebrating this date. |
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