Locaboat Charters – Argens, France – 43°14’24.2″N 2°46’07.7″E

Locaboat, Argens, France (photo copied from their website)

Well, the big day has finally arrived. Catherine & I have been talking about doing this for several years & we were all set to go & then Covid-19 put a halt on those plans. About 1 year ago we started talking with our longtime friends Bruce & Barb about doing a cruise together & our plans began to be firmed up.

There are so many choices to cruise the canals in France – literally thousands of kilometers of canals & locations to choose from. We ultimately decided on the Canal du Midi because the weather was likely to be better in the south of the country at this time of year & the route we ultimately chose from Argens to Lattes has fewer locks – only 19 in total. We will travel approximately 175 km over the next 7 days

Locaboat has many different sizes & configurations to choose from. Our little boat has a unique design because it has no dedicated bedrooms but it offers a lot of living space. The photos & graphics below (copied from Locaboat’s website) show the boat & its interior.

This model of boat is the “Evolution”. The name is well chosen because the interior space is all on one level. The forward living space has an inside helm and the seating area also converts into a double bed. The aft living space is where the galley and dining area is and at night it converts into another double bed sleeping area. In the middle of the boat there is a toilet on the port side a shower and sink on the starboard side. In the evening the two sections of the boat can be closed off with sliding doors and the bathroom area essentially becomes a Jack and Jill for passengers in the front and passengers in the back. One could say that this is a transformer boat that kids would get a kick out of seeing the rooms change from one function to another.

Above – Day use mode

Below – Sleeping mode

There is also lots of room at the front of the boat for outside seating and similar exterior space in the stern area. Also, the boat has a fly bridge with the outside steering and control station.

I was also very interested to learn that the boat is constructed out of steel & that it has a diesel-electric propulsion system. The boat is equipped with a diesel generator that provides electricity to an electric motor that drives the propeller & thrusters. The generator also provides 220 volt power to the boat’s appliances – electric oven/microwave combo and two element induction electric stove top.

The boat is equipped with an electric bow thruster, a stern thruster and a combination joystick thruster control system that allows you to easily dock the boat. You can use it to go forwards, backwards, sideways or even spin in a circle! To me, this is the future of boating & if I was to ever own a boat again this would be the propulsion system setup that I would want.

The Locaboat staff gave us a good tutorial & “driving” lesson & then we were off on our own. We headed for the first lock which was only about a kilometer away and it would be the only lock we would encounter for the next 57 km. It was late in the afternoon by the time we left the Locaboat Marina so we just traveled through the first lock to a small village and tied up along the canal for the evening. We only went about 8 kilometers on our first day but it was exciting & very satisfying.

Bruce & Cath handling forward lines in the lock

Barb has got the stern lines under control.

I was happy at the helm & our long-awaited adventure is finally underway!

Cheers!

43°16’09.3″N 2°43’10.5″E – Homps at La Maison des Palmiers

We are getting close to the day when we will pick up our charter boat! This morning we picked up some groceries in Carcassonne to provision the boat & then took a taxi to our “next” hotel in the village of Homps.

We decided to spend a night in Homps for two reasons. The village is just a short taxi ride from there to where our charter boat is located AND purely by coincidence, there is a well known restaurant there that Catherine’s aunt Midge dined at a number of years ago when she was on a tour of this area of France.

La Maison des Palmiers, the guest house/B&B Inn where we stayed is located right beside the restaurant we wanted to dine at. 

PHOTO OF LA MAISON COPIED FROM GOOGLE SEARCH – I lost my photo  

This Inn is owned & operated by a really nice couple originally from England. It is not a fancy place but is beautifully decorated, clean & comfortable. We highly recommend it to anyone looking for a place to stay while they are in the area. 

Catherine was especially pleased with the house cat that dropped in to check that we were happy with the room. She was really “taken” with this kitty so I’m surprised that I haven’t since found it on board the boat with us.

We had a wonderful meal that evening at the restaurant “En Bonne Compagnie”. 

It was fun to dine at a place that also had special memories for someone close & dear to us. Cheers Midge!

The meal was certainly memorable for us as well.

Tomorrow (Saturday) we go to the village of Argens to pick up our charter boat!

Only one more sleep!

Carcassonne Walled City – 43.20698° N, 2.36622° E

We planned to spend most of the day exploring the walled city. There are two major walls. The first wall surrounds the perimeter of the entire city and the second wall surrounds another smaller area that would be even more difficult to get past.

We sent Bruce & Barb ahead to see if they could get over the first bridge. They were successful so we followed closely behind.

We had explored the “commercial” area of the city the night before so today we focused our attention on the inner wall fortifications & all of the rooms throughout the castle. We had to go over another bridge to get into the second fortified area. Getting past these fortifications would have been extremely difficult “back in the day!”

This was a self guided tour that included the use of personal audio devices with a narrative explaining the history and purpose of each area on the tour. Our first stop was to view a 3-4 minute long 3D animated video showing the entire city. This was exceptionally well done & gives the viewer an excellent overview. The photos below hardly does it justice.

Scene 1 (above)

Scene 2 (above)

Our tour continued in a circle along the top of the fortifications and through a series of towers & rooms – some dedicated to defending the castle and others used as living areas.

There was a lot of climbing up & down staircases. In several spots I was feeling a bit of vertigo – especially walking along the walls between the towers and down some of the very narrow & steep spiral staircases.

Being up so high did have its rewards with some great views of parts of the city of Carcassonne that were in the valley below & outside of the walled city.

We concluded our tour with a stop in the cathedral to view the architecture & the stained glass windows. We were allowed to take photos inside this building so I was not misbehaving getting the shots below 🙂

The stained glass was beautiful – reputed to be some of the oldest surviving originals in southern France.

Catherine really liked the massive bell!

After the tour we were pretty pooped so we headed back to our hotel for a rest & a late lunch.

Later in the evening & after dinner we took a 5 minute walk from our hotel to a great vantage point to see the walled city lit up after dark. Carcassonne is a fascinating city & well worth the effort to come & see it. Tomorrow (Friday) we leave Carcassonne & head to the village of Homps – about a 45 minute taxi ride.

Cheers!

Metropolitan Abbesses Subway Station Entrance – 48° 53′ 04″ N, 2° 20′ 19″ E

Today we leave Paris & travel by train to Carcassonne in the south of France. Carcassonne is almost 800 kilometers south of Paris. The entrance to the subway station is only about a 5 minute walk from our hotel. This is the deepest station in Paris’ entire subway network. Thankfully there were not too many stairs to the ticket area & there was an elevator from there to track level. The ground level entrance is a beautiful example of Art Nouveau architecture & there are only a few entrances of this style in Paris.

Our subway ride to the Gare Montparnasse train station took only about 20 minutes & then we waited another 30 minutes to board our "first" train to Bordeaux St Jean – about 3 hours duration. The station is absolutely massive & extremely busy. Our train was very fast frequently achieving speeds in excess of 300 km/h. It puts Canada’s Via Rail system to shame. We have a lot of catching up to do. The next segment of our train journey to Carcassonne involved a quick transfer to another (slower) train but still very fast & comfortable. We arrived in Carcassonne around 4:00 & took a taxi to our hotel.

Our hotel was located on a small street in an older part of the city with great views of the medieval walled city high on the hill above. After settling into our rooms we walked up to the old city & explored it for a couple of hours before sunset. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site & when you see it it is easy to understand why. It’s like something out of a storybook.

There are two sets of walls surrounding the city. The first set surrounds the main city area & the second set surrounds the main "castle" area.

Once inside the city walls most of the buildings around the perimeter of the inner walls are dedicated to tourism shopping, souvenirs & food services. We were not very interested in shopping, etc. but really enjoyed the architecture.

We are really looking forward to having a much closer look tomorrow (Thursday, September 8).

Cheers!

Paris Cafe Bruant: 48°53′8″ N 2°20′7″ E

After a reasonable night’s sleep we were ready to start exploring the Montmartre area of Paris. First on the agenda was some breakfast. There weren’t any Tim Horton’s showing up on Google maps so we “settled for” fantastic coffee & fresh croissants at a sidewalk cafe just a few steps away from our hotel. Sorry Tim’s but we could very quickly get used to this French routine!

We lingered at the cafe for quite a while just enjoying our surroundings & people watching. Also wondering if we looked like locals or like the jet-lagged Anglos that we really are.

Our friends Barb & Bruce we’re staying at a place just a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we set out to rendezvous with them. Bruce is absent in the photo below because he was the photographer!

Our guide books suggested an interesting walking tour of the area so we set out to see the sights.

There are several well preserved windmills in the area that looked somewhat out of place but we learned that they were used to grind gypsum that was quarried throughout the area & used for building.

The architecture in this area is very interesting & attractive. Lots of photo opportunities.

I was also interested to see how much care was taken to blend the water tower into its surroundings.

We stopped at the Musee de Montmartre which had a lot of displays about famous painters Renoir & Suzanne Valadon. She was a model for several famous French painters & an accomplished artist in her own right. The photo below shows a recreation of Suzanne’s studio in the museum which in the house where she actually lived.

Our final objective on the sightseeing tour was the Basilica of the Sacred Heart which was located at the “top” of the mountain. This was opened in 1875 and overlooks Paris. It is beautiful inside – sorry, no photography allowed – & the views of the city were fantastic. It was well worth the climb!

We enjoyed the vista of the city below but unfortunately there was a bit of a haze in the air so it was hard to spot the iconic landmarks like the Eiffel Tower & Arc de Triomphe

By this time we were all running out of steam & ready for a bit of a rest. Thankfully it was mostly downhill back to our to hotels.

Tomorrow (Wednesday) morning we take the train from Paris to Carcassonne!

Cheers!