Julie's Aboard

After mom and Jim left Joan and I had a busy week cleaning, boat repair and a side trip to Lastours to hike into the remains of four hilltop castles. Then it was off by train to Toulouse to meet Joan's sister Julie and bring her back to spend the rest of the trip with us.

After a good night's sleep plus croissants and strong French coffee for breakfast it was off to explore the walled cité of Carcassonne. Julie and Joan posing in front of the keep.

We spent quite a few hours walking the walls of the cité, checking out the basilica and of course checking out the shops - and maybe even sitting down to rest our cobble street weary feet with a glass of wine, while people watching.

Next it was time to provision "Juniper" to get her ready for our journey down the canal du Midi to the Mediterranean Sea then heading up the Rhone a Sete Canal. The best place to do that is an open market. Chance would have it that the day we were leaving was market day in Carcassonne. Joan picking up fresh veggies for the great salads we have almost daily.

"juniper" on the canal. It was a beautiful morning and the first wine cave of the trip was only a mile or so down the canal, so Joan and Julie took off for a morning walk and Michael brought the boat down to the winery, with the girls standing by to help tie the boat up before hiking to a small family estate winery.

The tasting. Both Joan and the wonderful owner of the cave were armed with their English/French and French English dictionaries as Julie and watched and helped participate in much of the pantomime and of course shared in the laughter as we all worked to communicate.

A label you'll never see in the states, or even the next region of France but a nice hearty Rose that we all enjoyed

Looking back as the upper gate of our lock overflows. On this segment of the trip we will be doing 257 kilometers and 41 locks - 40 going down to the Mediterranean and one going up toward the Rhone (our very last lock)