Pont de Pigasse: 43°19’00.9″N 2°58’28.5″E to Beziers: 43°19’48.1″N 3°11’50.7″E
We got an early start this morning as we had a fair distance to travel.
PHOTO – MAGNIFICENT TREES LINE THE BANKS OF THE CANAL
Our next stop along the way to Beziers was at the town of Capestang. The visitor center there was very impressive and there were lots of mooring spots along both sides of the canal. If we were traveling this way again we would most certainly stop there for the night.
PHOTO ABOVE – CANAL FROM THE BRIDGE AT CAPESTANG
The commercial center of the oldest part of the town was only a 10 minute walk from our mooring so we went to the grocery store there and picked up more supplies for our journey.
The next highlight on our journey was the Tunnel de Malpas, a 160 meter long tunnel carved through solid rock. Excavated in 1679 it is very impressive. It was the first canal tunnel of its kind in Europe.
PHOTO ABOVE – APPROACHING THE TUNNEL ENTRANCE
PHOTO ABOVE – THE FIRST SEVERAL METERS OF THE TUNNEL ARE LIKE A HONEYCOMB
It was good to see that there was light at the end of the tunnel!
There were many interesting things to look at on this part of our journey but unfortunately we could not spend as much time exploring as we would have liked to because we wanted to take the 6-step locks down at Beziers the next morning and we had no idea as to how busy the locks might be.
We arrived at Beziers around 4:00pm and were able to get a good spot in the lineup for boats going down at 8:00am. Now we can relax for the rest of the evening.
PHOTO ABOVE – THE VISITOR CENTER AT THE TOP OF THE LOCKS WITH A PROJECTION ON THE END OF THE BUILDING
Tomorrow morning we will be headed downhill. Hopefully it will be a smooth descent.
Cheers!
