From Port Lauragais to Carcassonne
Dear all.
This is the first updating since June when we were in Denmark for about 2 month.
It was wonderful to see a lot of friends and family. We even went to Sweden to stay with our “mentors” Mona and Frits on their boat close to Stockholm – Gustavsberg. We have not been in Stockholm before so it was nice with a guided tour around the city.
It has been some years since we were in Copenhagen during the summer, so we had to go around.
We returned to our little harbour – Port Lauragais – between Carcassonne and Toulouse mid August. On our way to the port we stayed 2 day in Paris seeing friends there. We had one more stop at Valance visiting friends there. We stayed on board Gallivant of London a night over.
In “our” little port there is a “Bed & Breakfast” boat having up to 6 guests and a tour boat – Lucie - taking up to 50 persons at a time on a trip through one lock. Sometimes Lucie is being pulled by a donkey as in the old times. We were invited on one of those trips. The couple owning the boat has become our friends.
We were recommended a good mechanic to change our cooling water pump.
He came on a Monday and the pump was replaced in no time.
Then he moved on, looking at the engine. Our turbo was wrapped up with some asbestos like – to take the heat. He didn’t like the colour of it and the smoke. He took off the wrapping and the tube and kind of manifold fell apart.
Not good at all – he said. After a hard work he got the turbo off – He had to take it to his work shop to make a new tube and manifold. Perhaps it will take a week or more – he said.
Tuesday he call us and said we have done it – he came and put back the turbo and the new part – unfortunate one of the welding were not tight – so off again with the turbo.
During the testing – we saw that the heat exchanger (cooling water/engine system) was leaking. So again hard work to depart it from the engine block.
Now our engine room was very empty. A week later everything was fixed and in place again. It was wonderful to start the engine and see that everything was in order. It was expensive because we have to pay for driving hours, road money, lunchtime and even the lunch – he came three times and he did a fine job. A boat without an engine is not worth much.
The time waiting for NUSER-II to be “fit for fight” again and to go to Barcelona on board Gallivant, we explored the area around the port. We were looking at villages, churches, a monastery and ruins after the Cathar-people. We also went to the artificial lake St. Ferrèol that is feeding Canal du Midi. It was Pierre Paul Riquet who was the architect and builder of the Canal du Midi to connect the Med with the Atlantic. The first stone to build the dam of St. Ferrèol was laid in 1667. The whole system still works after more the 300 years. It is a fantastic construction. See more about Pierre Paul Riquet here:
http://www.languedoc-france.info/060600_riquet.htm
In the middle of September we went to Andorra between France and Spain for some days. It is only a few hours drive away and we went over the highest pass – 2408 m. Andorra is a fascinating little principality; it was the 3rd time we went there. We visited the parliament witch have 21 members and two princes. One is French – the president of France and the other a Catalonian (Spain) bishop. Andorra has become a huge ski resort area. We saw new hotels and ski lifts being build everywhere. In the main town – Andorra la Vella – we also saw a lot of closed/empty shops and apartments so perhaps they have reached a saturation point?
The main occupations are the tourist industry and trade with high taxed products: tobacco and alcohol. There are a lot of smokers in Andorra and there are no regulations of where to smoke. It is a super spot for Jytte J
Christine and Trevor from Gallivant had invited us to join them on their cruise from Cap d’Agde to Barcelona. We had 9 wonderful days together with them and Yvonne their sister in law. Gallivant is a “bit” sensitive for cross wind and waves; we realized the first day. We learned the hard way to put loose items away and to secure cupboards etc. On the way to Barcelona we stay in Port Vendres in France where we also visited a little tourist village Collioure. Next port was Port de la Selva in Spain and at last Port Palamòs. We spent 2 days in Barcelona walking on La Rambla and around the city finding the fabulous building of Gaudi.
Some days after our return to NUSER some good friends from Denmark came boating with us from Castelnaudary to Port Lauragais.
We have been boating on many canals and we still think Canal du Midi is the most beautiful and now with all the colours of the autumn. In Castelnaudary we met an American couple on board Biesbosch. We met them first 2½ years ago somewhere in Mid France and have kept mail contact since that from time to time. They had a winter mooring at Carcassonne but they would stay at Castelnaudary instead this winter. They knew we would like to be at Carcassonne so would we want to take over – yes!!!
After the good news we decided to go to Toulouse for a few days. Toulouse is the 4th biggest city in France and the harbour is situated nearly in the middle of the town. There is a lot to see, it is a university city and it is the fastest growing city in France. It is the centre for airbus and the French space industry. Next year we are going to spend more time at Toulouse on our way to Bordeaux.
We returned to Port Lauragais where we used a week to make NUSER ready for the winter.
On the 26th of October we left for Carcassonne. It was a wonderful weather the first two days; sun no wind and only us on the canal. The 3rd day it was raining the whole day so the female sailor refused to go on. We were in nowhere without electricity – so it became a good book day. We put on the diesel-heating – which we normally don’t do because of the condensation. The next morning we went up early and left before 5 hiring boats – in our direction – so we could be without them in the locks. We arrive at Carcassonne around lunch time. The harbour is in the middle of the town and we have got a space on “the sunny side” it is so nice when the sun is shinning. All together there are 14 boats for the winter the contract ends 1st of April and then we go back to Port Lauragais doing some painting etc.
For the first time in 10 years the harbour should be emptied for water because of some repair on a lock gate; so all boats went one lock down to stay right outside waiting for the water to come back into the harbour. We were outside for one week.
We are exploring the town and the surrounding. At the main street the shops are getting ready for Christmas. The weather is changeable but when the sun is shinning it is still full of power.
We are so happy to have got our wish winter mooring and we will enjoy it until we go back to Denmark in the middle of December. We will go back to Carcassonne at the end of February.
We are looking forward to the spring in the South of France.
Love
Jytte and Rudy
Carcassonne
November 2008
Updated the 13-11-2008