As the weather was still a bit gloomy we decided to dine in
the campground “restaurant” last night.
We watched the opening of the European Cup? Soccer final, then decided
to call it a night.
We packed up this morning with the sun shining brightly, and
navigated our way through Toulouse city from top to bottom with all the
locals. It was like peak hour on Pitt
Street.
Along the Canal we asked for directions for food from a
group of French walkers comprising a mum, son and friend. We decided to keep going as their directions
would have had us doubling back on ourselves.
Further along the path we found a truck stop which we were able to get
to through the fence.
The walkers caught up to us as we were eating and we had a
long conversation with them. We found
the son’s name was Romaric, mum’s name was ?Liarisa? (sorry mum) and their friend was Veronique. Romaric had spent three weeks in Ireland on an
exchange visit, so had good English.We exchanged Facebook/blogsight info and
went on our way.
We stayed on the Canal until about 15 kms from Castelnaudary,
then when the path petered out to a track, we took to the road. We then had the most spectacular view of the
valley and distant mountains.
On arrival we went straight to the campground and pitched
the tents, then headed into the Centre Ville.
Castelnaudry is a pretty village where the Canal expands
into a small lake. There is a series of
four locks on the Canal within about 100m of each other. We hung about watching the canal house boats manoeuvring
their way through the locks. The height difference between the lake and the
Canal was about 10m, so it was interesting to see them navigate the differing
levels of the Canal.
The Collegiate of St Michael is the local cathedral, which
had a huge white marble altar. The
church was built in the 1200’s and has been restored over the years. Benefactors have contributed to carpet over
the years in various parts of the church, so that it can be used year round!
All in all, an interesting town. Dined out at the “three star” tent restaurant,
deciding not to sample the local dish – the cassoulet.
Hello everybody.
ReplyDeleteI 'm really happy to have met you and have tried to help you (even if you didn't take my advice into account !) this morning. I would like to thank you for your souvenir of Australia ; It will remind me this meeting.
I wish you enjoy your trip. Good flight back to Australia. Friendly,
Romaric
I hope that you are well, we worked yesterday always along the ""canal du midi"". We thought of you , we liked well beautiful meeting, and we are going to follow you to has Paris Good day in bike Bye Véronique
ReplyDeleteDear Phil, Chris, Linda, Steve, Lesley and Clem - well, I finally managed to catch up with your journey, and reading with great interest. Well done on progress to date. Good to se you are not spending everyday in those wineries! You seem to be doing good k's most days and must be quite fit. Are you getting a chance to see the Tour - been some interesting stages so far, with no shortage of amazing stacks. Hopefully you won have any stacks. Cycle safely. Our thoughts are with you. Kind regards, kelvin and Julie
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