Sep 16, 2012 - Canal ride; to Carcasonne

Pretty hilly country from Sarlat southwest toward Carcassone [Cark a soonne]. It became dramatically more hilly with lots of interesting farms and farm buildings I couldn't photograph because of the speed of the bus on the motorway. A special treat this morning – an hour's ride on a boat on part of the Canal du Midi. This is a 155-mile canal that connects the Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts, completed in 1681. It was built for commercial traffic but today it is only used by pleasure craft. (320 locks; follows the Gardonne River where we...

Jul 10, 2011 - Floating on the canal and touring Carcasonne

July 10, 2011 Today we drive south to Carcasonne. We got an early start in the rain, but soon the rain abated and we had clearer skies. We cut through some countryside on our way to the Canal du Midi that was prominent in the late 1700s and early 1800s. it went from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. More info can be found at http://www.ehow.com/about_5048084_history-canal-du-midi.html The importance of the canal for us today was it was where we were going to eat our lunch. The day before, during market day, Rolinka had advised us to buy...

Jun 22, 2008 - Sunday 22 June

Visited Carcasonne medieval city well preserved. The walls and castle are quite impressive. I was well fortified with a semicircular buttress then double walls with lots of vertical slits to view approaching enemies and shoot arrows at them. It was never breached. The turrets had pointed “witches hats” They really play the medieval theme with lots of shops selling swords, armour etc (toy and replica). Drove on to Spain. Headed towards Barcelona. Free camped near the beach near Barcelona. Very odd how there is a train line which blocks...