2021,  July 29th,

After leaving Frontignan we went back out onto the E'tang, and KIWI ROSE had her first 2 nights at anchor by Meze. Beautiful clean clear water so swiming off the back of the boat was bliss-- so different from Canal water.!!!  The majority of the E'tang is only about 3- 5 m deep. 

Beautiful sunset against the Church that tolls half hour.

Calm and serene in the early morning light. 

The view out of my port-hole.

And somebody dared to moor near us on one of the nights.

Decided to go back up to Beziers as I (lucy) wanted to see this amazing light show with 60 drones that they were doing in the night sky above the 7 Ecluses.  BUT  new covid rules struck and as they can't  check people have vaccine passports in a crowd, at the last minute it was cancelled. We had also planned to collect a new 24v fridge we had finally ordered to replace the original one in the galley...

Early in the morning it is lovely and cool and the water is so flat.

So once again ( we are getting quite slick at this now) canvas and glass down for the bridges.

. We have passed these boats many times now on our trips!!!!!

Port Cassafieres is a very large Le Boat hire place that has over 60 boats ranging from little to 50 feet. As you can see, again this year the marina is virtually full--business is not soooo good. 

BUT good for us as less boats around to crash into us!!!

This time we passed though the marina in Beziers and over the aquaduct (over the River l'Orb) and moored up just before the 7 ecluses that lead up the real start Canal du Midi. 

We have found lots of free mooring spots and we have delighted in using them all multiple times---it all helps with the purse. 

As our lust for adventure continues we took the train, with bikes to Narbonne 16 mins away. 

We had the simple idea of cycling back along the banks of the Canal du Robine, and then along the Canal du Midi back to the boat ---about 65kms in total. 

We spent a little time exploring the city which was famous in Roman times, established in 118 BC as it was situated on the route form Spain to Italy and Rome. It was also known as Narbonensis.

 Of course like most of  Europe it changed hands and allegencies over time, but lost its powerful position when the Aude river changed it's course in 14C. 

Sundial that is arcurate to 15 mins through the year except it  doesn't take into account daylight saving.

Due to the stark changes of Narbonnes fortunes it was never finished but is still the tallest Catherdral in France. And its got the oldest pieces of stonework we have seen.

The Canal de la Robine was redug and worked on since 18C and was linked to the Canal du Midi for the transportation of goods, especially the wine trade.

A story we have to tell-- the day was perfect and after looking around Narbonne, we set off  cycling along the path by the canal. 

After about 13 kms I could see large bodies of water off to our left-- not what we expected...... we had gone the wrong way and were heading towards the sea.😢😢😢😢😢😢.  

So we returned to Narbonne, had lunch and thought we would get the train back as we had aready done 26kms and would still have another 65kms to return to the boat. 

 Now this is summer in France, so the next train was full and with our bikes it would be a 2 hour wait for the enxt train, So in our wisdom we desided to cycle back. 

What we had failed to realise or notice was the paths were not beautifully tarmaced as we had thought, BUT were rough, stoney, rutted dried mud and rock paths.

The moral of this story to check paths first ( although where I don't know), and have good suspemsion and good mountain bike tires.

By the time we got back to the boat after 6 hours (post lunch) and a total of about 90kms we had very very sore fanny's. ( What I can say it that cycling holidays you not be looked at as romantic!!!)

 My e-bike has no suspenion cos its a towny bike with townie tires ( no grip) and ran out of battery on the last 10 kms. (good for the legs and by then I had moved into robotic mode.

The only saving grace was that max and I were wearing our  padded shorts, which must of helped??

but not sure 😕😕😕😕

As you can imagine we didn't sit on our bikes for a good few days---

So moved off the quiet mooring and back into the Marina to await the arrival of our new fridge.

As with everything,,, delivery was delayed and so we left to go back to the E'tang without it. But it has now arrived as the captainerie has sent us a photo-😀😀,

When is enough fenders, enough ??????

Admittedly a hire boat😃