Canal du Midi, travel-report 2001: first day

I wake up early this morning. It 's even before seven o'clock. I don't stay to long in bed. I feel fine today. I make a pot of thee and walk to the bakery in the port. I buy baguettes and a chocolate or raisin bun for each of us. The port is still shut off from the river Lez by a gate. We are still having breakfast when an other boat is leaving. We join them rapidly. The Lez is situated between two large dikes so we see little of the environment. After one kilometer navigating we come at a weir in the river with a lock beside it. Though there isn't any other lock to be seen on the map the lock is called 'la troisième écluse'. The lock is less than ten years old and built in an oval form just as the locks in the Canal du Midi from the seventeenth century. We have to get used to the locking again. The lockkeeper gives us some hints which brings us back on the right track.

When we are navigating down the river, we see some boats alongside the banks. We even see a small submarine.

Then we are navigating suddenly between the 'étangs', the coast lakes in the southern of France. At starboard-side I can see far away in the distance the abbey of Maguelonne laying on a hill. In front of me lies Pavelas-les-Flots, a coast-village which skyline is dominated by a building that looks like a traffic-control tower. We are now just one kilometer away from the coast.

We arrive at the crossing of the Lez with the Canal du Rhône à Sète: Les Quatres Canaux. As recommended by the renter we navigate to portside into the Canal du Rhône à Sète to make a turn there later. The curve to starboard is very narrow and sharp. A considerable wind is blowing. I succeed in turning the boat after three attemps. I have to get used to navigating again.

Immediately we see flamingo's searching for food with their long necks in the étangs around us. We are very surprised. Afterwards I see how the flamingo's are flying. It 's a amazing sight. When they are upright the white color is dominating but when they are flying I see red and black also. They have a tremendous long neck. The sound they make is a mixture of the sound of a goose and a frog.

Then we see some other stilt-walkers stepping around in the water. For example we see a little white heron with tis white tuft looking for food in the shallow water as well.

We are navigating in westerly direction and pass again Les Quatres Canaux. We are in silt water now. The Canal du Rhône à Sète is crossing the étangs at some hundreds of meters parallel to Mediterranean. The étangs are actually rests of old bays in front of which a beach or dune-embankment is made or formed. Between an étang and the sea is often no more then a narrow strip of land, sometimes not more then a dike. The canal crosses this étangs and is mostly separated from the étangs by two dikes. Here and there I see fishing-nets on the banks drying in the sun.

The canal was finished in 1811 and links, as the name already tells, the Rhône with Sète, a city at the Étang de Thau. On the other side of the Étang de Thau the Canal du Midi begins. We navigate for 23 km in all on the Canal du Rhône à Sète. Our first goal is the floating bridge at the abbey of Maguelonne. The big steel construction is put to the side already when we come.

We moor after the bridge an I walk with Marga and her father in the direction of the abbey. The abbey seems not accessible and we walk on to the Mediterranean. The wind has died down in the meanwhile and it 's lovely whether. I wade with bare feet through the seawater and find some beautiful shells. When we walk back to the boat I realize the my navigation plan is still practicable. I planned two days for the Canal du Rhône à Sète but it can be done easily in one day.

As we are back on board and had our lunch there is still time to swim in the sea with the boys. The three of us cycle rapidly to the beach. Pepijn en Maarten are immediately fascinated by the sand and the seawater and are making structures at the waterline. I take a dive in the cool water but I warm quickly in the sun when I come out of the water again.

We continue our voyage on the Canal du Rhône à Sète. There are some long perpendicular sections in the canal now. We navigate two hours surrounded by the étangs to Frontignan. We have to be there in time for the opening of the bridge at five o'clock. At a quarter past four we moor nearby the bridge in front of some other boats which are waiting already. There are two bridges in Fontignan: a railway-bridge which we can pass easily and a low vertical lift-bridge for the ordinary traffic. As this last bridge is opened the boats behind us push off impatiently. They are caught by the wind immediately which has become violent again. It takes a lot of time to get control again over their boats. Also the boat coming from the other side is drifting close to the bridge across in the canal. When everybody is under control of their boats again, we take off and are passing the bridge without any problems and continue our journey.

We navigate against the strong wind and pass the petrochemical industry at Frontignan and are overtaken by a water scooter. Then we arrive at the Étang de Thau. Here we find no protecting dikes. We just have to cross the lake of 20 km length and en 4 km width. Some sandbanks and undepths are on the south side and oyster beds are on the north side.

Because of the unattractive last section of the canal, we think about crossing the lake but the wind and the waves discourage us rapidly. It 's too dangerous to cross the Étang de Thau with such a violent storm.

We navigate back to the Canal du Rhône á Sète and moor nearby some sweet small houses close to the place where the canal discharges into the Étang de Thau. The boat does not moor against the quay but stays with his hull against stones in the canal which are totally covered with mussels. I am alarmed by that. When the water waves a little, the boat grates against the sharp mussel shells. Everything is covered with mussels and oysters here. On our way we saw a woman collecting her dinner from the quay-walls. We change position again and moor very closely to the Étang de Thau. On that place we suspect enough depth. Only the fortified protecting ledge of the boat is bumping against the mussels on the quay. This is a better place. We have a beautiful view on Sète which is situated on a hill between the Étang de Thau and the Mediterranean.

I do some shopping with Pepijn in Sète. It 's busy in town. Boats are in all formats, from nutshells to large seagoing vessels. As we come back, dinner is almost ready. We eat fried potatoes, 'steak haché' and salad. It tastes very well. In the evening we see a large illuminated cross standing on top of the hill. The lights of the stadium are burning as well.