I have never seen as many jars of homemade marmalade/jam as I saw at breakfast this morning. This is a B&B where they prepare things themselves- dinner last night, homemade yogurt, bread, marmalade, cake and probably more, and over 200 jars of homemade marmalades and jams. But no cheese!
The B&B was close to the canal, so I was soon on my way. The first thing I noticed was that the wind had died down, still some gusts, but bot too bad. The second thing I noticed were all the wild flowers that had sprung out since yesterday – a multitude of colours. And then all the bird songs to accompany me on my way. I am certain that neither the flowers or the bird songs were there yesterday- but surely they were, but I just didn’t notice them in the wind that was dominating yesterday.
There were boats everywhere today. They seemed to come in 2’s and 3’s, perhaps because they end up in the lock together. I saw many locks with two boats in them, and one with three boats in at the same time.
The Aiguille lock exhibited metal sculptures, depicting amongst other things, people and animals, many made from metal objects used in the locks. They were also for sale, but I’m not sure how many the lockkeeper sold.
There were many, many cyclists today. On many of today’s primarily dirt paths, there wasn’t room for a walker and a cyclist and therefore I needed to make room. This was fine when they were cycling towards me, but when coming from behind me they often didn’t ring or call or shout “attention”, and just forced their way past me. I felt like making a sign, “Ring your bell and I’ll move aside” and pin on my backpack. But then I noticed that may of the bikes didn’t have a bell!
I stopped for a break in La Redorte. The restaurant was filling up, but I was allowed to sit outside a get a coffee and sirop. I spoke to a group of Germans who had docked close by. They were planning on sailing a week down stream and then a week back. After 2-3 days they were still at the stage that they thought it was great fun with all the docks. At its peak, La Redorte was famous for making barrels to transport wines and brandies.
Just after La Redorte is a bridge with eleven arches. The purpose of the bridge is to evacuate excess water from the canal into the over the Argent-Double river. Just after the bridge is an aqueduct crossing the actual river.
The next village on the canal is Homps, where there is a lot of boat rental activity, and has historically been an important spot on the canal, being one of the few places that barges could turn around.
I was back on the GR 78, the Pyrenees Foothill path that I had walked along parts of last year.
The next place of interest was the Ognon lock, safety gates and aqueduct. The safety gates are built to stop water from the Orgon river flowing into the canal during times of high water levels. There were also several figures outside the lockkeepers house at the Ognon lock.
In Argens-Minervois is a massive, almost windowless chateau constructed by a former head engineer of the Canal du Midi. Just after Argens-Minervois, I passed the Fonseranes lock. This is the last lock for 54km – the canal between two locks is called a canal pound, so this is the longest canal pound on the canal.
Todays B&B is a renovated house in the small village of Roubia. The rooms are dedicated to local birds. It’s a really nice place. The village is small, and built around its church. The church was rebuilt in 1929, after the original was destroyed by termites in 1918. It is supposed to have a beautiful stained-glass window in the ceiling, but was unfortunately closed.
Dinner was at a local restaurant – the only place in town. The owner gave chin kisses to everyone he know. So it was obvious who were the tourists. At one point there were 40 people sitting outside, 38 of which were British, living here or at least with a home here. I think every letter in LGBT+ were represented amongst the young adults, who were with their parents. It wasn’t busy but still I had to wait almost 1 hour for a burger before, and then it came as take away!
It was another excellent days walking, 29km, where for the first time on this trip, my legs didn’t feel tired.