Travel-report Canal du Midi 2000
We are standing on station Roosendaal (Holland) when I take up my pen for the first time to cover our voyage. We are going to navigate for the first time in our lives and we have chosen the Canal du Midi to do so. The Canal du Midi has been constructed between 1667 and 1681 and connects the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. Together with the Garonne lateral canal it's therefore also called Canal of two Seas. The canal lays north of the Pyrenees. Since 1997 the Canal du Midi is on the Unesco-list of world-inheritance. I am looking forward for the trip. We navigate from Argens (at about 50 km distance of Béziers) to Négra (at about 20 km distance of Toulouse) going west. We shall navigate about 120 kilometer.
It is Friday 28 April and it is a sunny day in Holland. De temperature at the Canal du Midi 8 degrees lower according to the weather forecast. It is sultry in the train. I had no seat in the train between Assen and Zwolle and again between Rotterdam and Dordrecht. After Dordrecht I sat on a seat in the corridor but now I have been promoted to a regular seat.
My children, Pepijn (9) and Maarten (7) are having a conversation with some passengers: Where do you go to? We are traveling to Toulouse to navigate in the southern of France. I feel incredible rich that we can afford such a vacation.
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Meanwhile we have arrived in Toulouse. Also in Brussels, where we changed into the sleeping-train, it was warm and sultry. At ten o'clock we made up the beds. In the train it is difficult to sleep. I slept for a short time but mostly I was awake. When I imagine it to be morning, I ask Marga what time was. It was just a quarter to two, still five hours to go.
At half past six I looked outside the window of the train. We were at less than ten meters from the Garonne Lateral Canal. The steam came from the water in the still hazy morning sky.
At a quarter to seven we stopped in front of the restaurant of the Toulouse-station. We took a cup of coffee there and a delicious croissant. After breakfast I investigated how we could travel further. The train to Lézignan appeared to leave at six minutes to twelve. We put our luggage in a luggage-hermitage and walked a while through Toulouse. The Canal du Midi appeared to be just in front of the station. We followed the canal in the direction of the Garonne. We passed a couple of locks with a fall of four to five meters. In earlier days these must have been double locks. Alas Marga and the kids did not want to walk too far. We saw no boats at all, just ducks, rats and … a turtle.