the canal du midi

the main reason for our trip to southern france this summer was to boat along the canal du midi with our friends andrew and jenny. the canal du midi was an engineering feat built during the 17th century under orders from the sun king (louis xiv) in an effort to connect the atlantic ocean to the mediterranean sea so ships didn't have to travel along the iberian peninsula (coast of portugal), a favorite hang-out spot for pirates. pierre-paul riquet was the mastermind behind the project that many others had attempted. he succeeded because he was the first to solve the issue of keeping enough water in the canal from top to bottom. he designed an intricate system for bringing water from the mountains to reservoirs that could be used to supplement the canal at key points along its route. the canal is about 150 miles long and has 63 locks to help smooth the 600 feet of elevation change from one end to the other. we traveled around 90 miles of the canal in ten days and traversed 41 locks. there were two things that surprised me about the canal: 1. the canal is six feet deep at most, and because of sediment accumulation over time and low water in the summer, the depth was closer to four feet. 2. very few, if any, of the boats on the canal have a septic holding tank on board, which means the canal du midi could also be called the canal du merde. no swimming for us! 

we rented a 36 foot boat for ten days, starting in the city of capestang. we spent a week on a sailboat with andrew in jenny a few years ago, so we were not concerned about the close quarters. we kept our same assignments as in croatia...captain andrew, engineer pete, public relations director (and french speaker) jenny, and steward melissa. our boat came with bicycles, which were great for getting around the canal-side towns. our boat - the moissagaise - was a beast but a great platform for our travels. the requirements for renting a boat are surprisingly minimal, but we did get a thorough briefing and short test drive, which is much more than we could say about our experience in croatia.

our starting point is located midway through what is referred to as "the pound" - a thirty mile stretch of the canal that has no locks, so we didn't encounter our first set of locks until day 2. that first set was a doozy - seven in a row! the fonserannes staircase takes the canal down about sixty feet into the orb river valley. after the staircase, you cross one of the most amazing parts of the canal...a bridge of water (the canal) over water (the river orb)! one more lock takes you down to the town of beziers, the birthplace of the canal architect, riquet. 

our floating home for ten days

 starting into the locks in the fonserannes
staircase - seven locks in a row

 looking back up the staircase. the locks are oval
in shape because it makes them stronger and able
to resist the inward pressure of the surrounding soil.

tending lines and getting ourselves through the locks. 

the orb ecluse (lock) is the tallest single lock
we went through - 6.1 meters (~18 feet) up from
here to the next section of the canal

bridge of water over water!!! the river orb is flowing
beneath the canal du midi. so cool.

the orb aqueduct (bridge for water)

la moissagaise with beziers in the background
(nice parasol, eh?)

our boat had a maximum speed of about 5 mph...so we were not going anywhere fast. in addition, the locks are only open from 9 to 7 with a break for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30, so you have to plan accordingly. the next stop may only be 12 miles away, but if you have to go through five locks in that span, it could take most of the day, particularly if there are a lot of boats trying to get through the locks. a lock keeper runs the locks, but each boat is responsible for handling their own lines during the locking process. with our crew of seasoned captains, the ropes were no problem. things did sometimes get a little squirrelly in the locks if your fellow lock mates (usually two more boats) were not good line handlers. we also strived to keep our ropes out of the poo-water, but hand washing after every lock was a required activity for all crew members. 

close quarters in the lock

despite what was in the water, the scenery along the canal was quite lovely. the distant rolling hills were a nice backdrop to the vineyards along the canal. the banks of the canal were historically lined with sycamore trees--called plane trees in france--to provide shade from the hot sun and reduce evaporation of canal water. the trees contracted a fungus in the mid-1940s likely from contaminated ammunition boxes brought over by U.S. troops. the fungus spread quickly to trees along the canal via the ropes people used to tie their boats to trees along the way. as a result, many of the trees have been cut down and burned to prevent further spread of the fungus. there are a few sections where the trees are still healthy, which were a welcome relief from the 90+ degree days. 

vineyards along the canal

healthy plane trees

a stand-alone giant
(if you look closely on the opposite bank,
you can see the new trees that have been planted)

shady parking spots along the canal were in high demand

we went through 41 of 63 locks in our journey. at each lock, there is a lock-keepers house and sometimes a store or cafe. all of them are a bit different except for the placard giving the name of the lock and distances to the next locks up- and downstream. the shortest distance between locks is 300 feet; the longest distance is 30 miles. i took more photos of the locks than a person will ever need, but they are just so interesting!

waiting for the water to empty out of
the lock so they can open the gates
and let us into the lock

favorite lock-side store scene

lock keepers house

water coming through the gates to fill the lock

an example of the placard at every lock location

riding the water elevator up a few floors

a rare solo journey through a lock
(tying up at the back of the lock was preferential
when possible because the water comes in so fast that
you get sprayed...in the face...with poo-water) 

pete manning the bow rope

the formidable lock gates

in addition to the locks, there were many other interesting architectural works along the canal. we probably passed under ~100 bridges (watch the parasol!), drove by dozens of spillways used to irrigate crops and moderate the water level in the canal, crossed a handful of additional aqueducts (water over water) and went through the 570 foot long malpas tunnel, the first canal to pass through a tunnel.

 one of the many bridges we passed under (barely)

the argent-double spillway

emerging from the malpas tunnel

i was going to talk about some of the villages we passed through, but i think this is enough for now... 

the french cathedral tour (with detours)

we took the high-speed train from barcelona to narbonne, france--a 250 km trip that took us two hours. for comparison, the "baby bullet" train from san jose to san francisco covers 80 km in 90 minutes. at one point during our trip, the train was traveling 186 miles per hour! someday, california.

narbonne, a lovely town in southern france, was the site of our first french cathedral of the trip, which wasn't about cathedrals at all, but happened to become a theme enroute. narbonne has an interesting history and was a short distance away from our ultimate destination in southern france, the canal du midi (more on that in another post). narbonne was settled by the romans around 100 bc and was an important port near the mediterranean, but it now lies 15 km inland because the aude river silted in during the 14th century. the loss of the port had a tremendous effect on the economy of the town. those effects are perhaps most evident when visiting the cathedral of justus and pastor. the gothic cathedral was built on the site that had been occupied by at least four other churches during the town's history. the cathedral was started in the 1200s, worked on in fits and spurts throughout the 1300s, and then construction stopped. forever. there was not enough money to continue construction and the cathedral was going to be so massive that they would have had to demolish part of the city walls, which would have made them more vulnerable to invasions.  

it was quite possibly the most interesting cathedral we visited on our trip. they built the choir (choir and altar areas) but not the nave so the church is very tall and wide but short. where the nave would start is a solid wall that is adorned with an enormous pipe organ. if you walk around to the other side of the wall outside, there is empty space where the nave should be, but all of the side chapels were constructed so it is lined on each side with outdoor chapels (some are used as parking spaces). the cathedral maintained parts of the roman church that stood on that spot prior to the cathedral, so there were some beautiful frieze pieces incorporated into the chapels around the choir.

there's a little bit behind me, but this is

the entirety of the cathedral.

roman frieze

the lovely pipe organ where the nave would have started

the exterior nave wall

gargoyles and flying buttresses made it into

the early phases of construction

even at only a quarter of its intended

size, it is still a massive structure!

jenny, andrew, pete, and i

not the cathedral, but my favorite photo from narbonne

from narbonne, we cruised on the canal du midi for ten days before heading north to catch our flight home from paris. our route north was largely determined by a bridge, a cathedral, and a chateau.

the millau viaduct spans the 1.5 mile wide valley of the river tarn 900 feet above the ground. it is the tallest bridge in the world and considered a great engineering achievement. it was opened in 2006 in an attempt to alleviate summer traffic through millau. quite impressive on and off the bridge.

the millau viaduct

we arrived in bourges just in time to see the bourges cathedral (st. etienne) in the beautiful evening glow. the next morning we went inside and were blown away by its size and all of the stained glass. this cathedral is unique because it does not have a transept--the cross that divides the choir from the nave--so it looks longer than it's 300 feet. the stained glass was some of the best we saw. the windows behind the choir were nearly floor to ceiling stained glass with incredible detail. these windows were great because they came so close to eye level that you could see the relief in the lead frame and glass pieces. we climbed the north tower for a birds-eye view of bourges and the flying buttresses (nicknamed the "butter tower" - the tower collapsed in the 1400s and the church relied on donations from the congregation to rebuild it. if you donated you were given an indulgence that allowed you to eat butter during lent, hence the name).

west facade - five doors in all

the "butter" tower

300 feet from one end to the other

entering the zone of amazing stained glass windows

the windows were so beautiful in the morning light

so much detail in the stories these windows tell

flying buttresses from above (they are quite slender on this cathedral

because the walls are also quite thick,

providing additional support)

a beautiful view from the garden

from bourges we traveled deeper into the loire valley to a non-cathedral site that was one of andrew's travel goals...chateau chenonceau. chenonceau has a long history, but much of the current character of the chateau was designed by king henri ii's mistress, who owned the chateau. when henri ii died, however, the queen took the chateau from his mistress and sent her off to another chateau in the french countryside. chenonceau is a bit of a photographer's delight because part of it is build over the river. we rented a rowboat and got to boat down the river through the arches of the chateau. there were a gazillion rooms in the chateau; the most interesting to me was the bedroom of king henri iii's wife. she had it decorated in all black after the king died and the wallpaper had crosses, tears, and gravedigger shovels on it. a tad morbid.

chateau from the beautiful garden

the gallery (ballroom)

wallpaper in the mourning bedroom

pete rowing us in our little boat

chateau over the water

cathedral #3 was notre dame de chartres. chartres is one of the least altered cathedrals in france from its original structure and weathered wwii largely intact. all of the stained glass was removed from the cathedral in 1939 and reinstalled after the war. the cathedral is a pilgrimage site because the birthing veil mary supposedly wore when jesus was born resides in one of the side chapels. one of the unique features of chartres is the labyrinth on the floor in the middle of the nave. the choir screen was one of the most elaborate that we saw and was quite impressive.

the labyrinth

original stonework that has been painted over

throughout most of the cathedral

beautiful stained glass rose window

part of the elaborate choir screen

mary's birthing veil

chartres cathedral

our final cathedral was notre dame in paris. we were a bit overloaded on gothic cathedrals at that point, but it was raining outside so we took refuge inside her walls (along with just about every other tourist in the city). the choir screen at this notre dame is also quite ornate and has one of the few depictions of jesus as a child (generally we only see him as a baby and as a grown man).

notre dame (paris)

piece of the choir screen depicting jesus as a child (upper left)

notre dame from across the river

the winner of all things church-y on our trip was, hands down, sainte chapelle in paris. pete and i visited this royal chapel in 2008 and were just as impressed with it eight years later. the stained glass is magnificent and completely surrounds the entire chapel. these windows are unique because they only tell stories from the old testament. all of the cathedrals we visited tell stories of the old and new testaments in their stained glass windows. restoration work was recently undertaken to clean the stained glass of years of "human skin and breath." gross.

altar

fisheye view of all the stained glass in the chapel

if you made it to the end of this post, well done. our adventures on the canal du midi are up next...which may include just as many photos...