Collioure to Castelnaudary

Since we weren’t in a big rush to pick up our boat in Castelnaudary we decided to make a stop at a mall to pick up some warmer clothes and some provisions for the week. We had success on all front, but the most amazing thing was the food court! The chef at the food court was spotless, walking proud, even taking a picture of his couscous station which was piled high with an artful arrangement of eggplant, red peppers and bottles of white wine. It was fun (and yummy) to see the pride that the French took in their food. With our little necessary shopping diversion we were able to make it just in time to Castelnaudary to check in and get our boat. After the slowest orientation of all time we were able to get our stuff piled high in the galley and Sven was able to take off to Toulouse (an hour away) where we were supposed to return our Renault lease of 4 weeks. It was a little strange to say goodbye as we were told that because of the strike only one train had run that day. But nonetheless, he set off while the girls and I unpacked our piles of disorganized junk, stowed groceries and did general boat stuff. We were all kind of sad because we knew that the strike would get in the way of meeting our Kodiak friends Zoya & Patrick with their kids Stuey and Nora and our other friend (and mommy helper) Hannah (now living in Germany) so we were kind of sad. By 4 we were on the boat, by 5 however Eilidh disappeared onto the deck for some reason and came back excited and panting. She’d seen Zoya! Bella and Eilidh ran screaming and cackling out the door towards their friends, giving them huge hugs and smiles. By 6 we’d had a snack and decided we’d better take a walk around the town and by 8 we were back on the boat and getting kids ready for bed. By 9 Sven still wasn’t home and I was resigned to the fact that he was sleeping in a train station, but by 9:30 he was home and we finally knew that, somehow, amongst this crazy train strike, we had all made it and were ready to go!
The boat: amazing! 4 bedrooms, two bathrooms, big comfy galley, a front ‘deck’ , nice big top deck with a table, 4 bikes, hurrah!
The canal: In the late 1660s Pierre Paul Riquet, a salt tax collector, became interested in the idea of linking the Mediterranean to the Atlantic ocean and started doing research, eventually convincing investors to work with him and primarily financing the canal himself. After seeing the canal we realize that it was no small project, as to link such massive river valleys as you have in this area (not to mention two major oceans) one has to make a lot of adjustments for altitude. In the 157 Kilometer section of canal that we are cruising (which is just a small portion of the huge canal!) there are 61 locks! Not to mention bridges going over the canal with just a few inches to spare, a large walking/ biking trail next to the canal which was originally for the horses to draw the boats along the canal, and the sheer amount of rock work and cement work to piece this feet of engineering together! This video is shot by Patrick...