Our First Guests

This past week we were lucky enough to be joined by my 93 year old mom (she and dad introduced us to canal boats 3 decades ago) and my younger brother Jim, for his first trip to Europe. They were given the full European experience: greeted by an airline strike, having us hit by a train strike while trying to meet them in Toulouse and finally a strike by the lock keepers, stranding us between a lock and a flood gate to the Aude River.

We just put them on the train to Toulouse so I thought I'd share a few photos and try telling the story that way.

Mom and Jim's arrival was a multiday experience: The day before they were due to arrive Jim sent us a text that Air France was on strike and their flight from the UK had been canceled. In the mean time Joan and I had checked about taking the train to Toulouse to meet them, only to find that the trains were on strike. The ultimate solution was mom and Jim got a flight with Luthtansa to Frankfort then to Toulouse, while Joan and I were able to catch a local train to Beziers, then a bus to the airport where we found an open car rental office. After three hours of roundabouts on the back roads we made it to Toulouse with an hour to spare.

 

 

 

Our tourist day in Narbonne. After returning the rental car we left the boat to see the sights. Here we are on a piece of the Roman road that went the through Narbonne. The rocks we're standing on have grooves cut in them from the chariots and horse drawn carts of old. We're examining the route "Via Domitia" on the map.

Moving on to explore the Bishop's Palace and Narbonne's Saint-Just-et-Saint-Pasteur Cathedral second only Avignon's Papal Palace in overall size.

All that walking - plus a closing for lunch meant it was time for a coffee at a street-side cafe

The inside of Saint Just et Saint Pasteur Cathedral. Built between 1272 and 1332 but never finished. The silting up of the Aude ended Narbonne's days as a port, followed by bad economic times, war and the plague. The naive of this lovely building has only about half of the sections it was designed to have. The shortened naive only seems to increase the height of the ceiling.

While mom rested a bit on the boat Jim, Joan and Michael we exploring again. Here we are in a Horarium (underground warehouse) built over the course of the first century BC. Low ceilings kept you watching out for your head. But, the cool temperature was great for a warm day.

Tomorrow we hit the canal again - working our way to Carcassonne.