Walk
Although the weather is quite poor for this time of year in the south of France we decided that we had to make the most of it and get out and do things. The 'Canal du Midi' is just a step away from where we are staying so we set off in a light drizzle of rain, but it was really quite pleasant strolling along looking at the beautiful plane trees and seeing all the autumn colours. The leaves are just turning here, not like at home where the colours were much more golden.
There had been quite a strong wind a couple of days ago so every so often there were drifts of leaves piled up just waiting for someone to jump into and kick around!
After a half hours stroll we reached our destination the Ecluses de Fonseranes. Here the canal has a change in height of 25 m by a series of eight staircase locks over a distance of 300 m. The photo doesn't do justice to the engineering that went on in order to build the locks - it was really impressive - but the lack of light with the rain made the photo look really flat. The canal was built in the 17th century and in 1999 the canal was added to the UNESCO list of world heritage sites.
Unfortunately we didn't see any action at the locks - there were no boats waiting to go up or down, so after reading the interpretation boards we headed back as by now the drizzle had turned to rain.
What a difference a day can make! The next day was fabulous blue skies and quite warm and we headed down to the coast to Guissen and wandered around the marina looking at the boats.
We called in at Narbonne, and the market at Les Halles. Mmmmm what a great place!
Then went into the town to the Cathederal and to window shop in the streets of the old town. I did find a lovely fabric shop and did venture in and found some lovely linen - more about that some other time.
We have also visited marinas at Martigues and at Agde, and have now moved on along the coast and are staying near La Croix Valmer.
As the weather has been poor, I have had a chance to finish some of my knitting.....
....so I have my new dog walking hat for when I get home and also a cowl type scarf to keep my neck warm.
Blue skies are always a welcome, but just being in France!!! Would love that : -) Your cowl is super, fabulous colour and stitch.
ReplyDeleteFrance is good, and it is much warmer than at home even with the rain and wind! We always eat too much lovely food, so it will be diets when we get back. I saw the pattern for the cowl on a blog, but can't remember where now, there was a longer version as well.
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