Cruising Through Time in Southern France and The Sad Story of the Carthars

The Famous Medieval City of Carcassonne, a UNESCO Heritage Site

Five of the last six winters, Molly and I have spent much of the winter in Florida or the Bahamas on our boat, Salty Paws.  After last year’s cruise to Dry Tortugas, Molly mentioned that it was now time for something different.  I agreed and suggested that she decide what and where.

I couldn't believe it when she said "let's rent a canal boat in Europe!" Many of our friends have done river boat cruises, but having our own boat seemed much more exciting to this boater.  Together we explored various options with Le Boat, a company that offers canal boat rentals in many different countries.  We soon agreed  on a 10-day cruise in April on the Canal du Midi in southern France. We were thrilled when Rosborough friends Otto and Anna agreed to join us.  

Bill, Molly, Anna and Otto and our Le Boat rental

We were confident in our compatibility from past cruises together although always on our own boats.  Our boating experience also gave us a leg up on many Le Boat customers as they advertise "NO EXPERIENCE NEEDED."  

That, however, did not keep us from having a few mishaps in the first couple of days on the boat.  First, there was me leaving the boat in forward when I thought it was in neutral, almost hitting a canal lock, and shortly thereafter I was at the helm going under the first of many low bridges and neglected to instruct the crew to lower the Bimini top.  On the latter incident, however, I do think there is some blame to go around as Otto and Molly were  next to me and filming the whole affair!  Watch the video below until the end.  Please pardon the "Oh, Shit!"

Bike Overboard!

Then Otto really got into the act when he accidently dropped a bicycle overboard and then compounded the issue by breaking our boat hook while trying to retrieve the bike.  Fortunately, a tall local mariner came by with his own boat hook.  He very quickly executed a successful retrieval operation.

Anna took the stern line and Molly the bow line.

Fortunately, we soon settled down with Otto and I alternating days as boat captain and first mate.  Molly and Anna were excellent crew, manning the dock lines at each lock and keeping the boat much more tidy than would have been the case with Otto and me alone.

Otto's favorite ice cream was
clearly mint chocolate chip. 

Lunch next to a wine vineyard

We developed a routine of purchasing French pastries and two baguettes at a local boulangerie each morning and having one big meal at a French restaurant, either lunch or dinner, and enjoying ice cream for the missing meal.  Invariably, the French food was superb.  Bedtime was also usually proceeded by a bottle of local wine and a great card game of Oh Hell! or Euchre.  Molly was the big winner, but everyone had their moments.

Biking in the town of Agde

Everyone’s presence contributed to good humor throughout, and the top prize goes to Anna.  We had read about a nearby nature camp (i.e.,NUDIST COLONY), and while biking Anna remarked that near our boat she had seen a sign warning travels of an Risque Destination only 500 or so meters away.  Well, that perked up Otto’s and my interest!  After some searching we found the sign the next morning.  With the help of Google Translate, we all had a great laugh!  

English translation - Flood Risk Next 5000 Meters

Typical village street

In southern France towns are still clustered around their centuries-old centers. Streets are narrow, and were laid out for people walking or a single horse pulling a cart. Buildings are stone, and roofs are terra cotta tiles  There are certainly some highways between larger towns, but cars are smaller than in the US or they wouldn’t be able to operate on many roads.

We walked on a section of a 2,100-year-old Roman road and wandered among castles, châteaux and village centers that were already old long before the United States existed.  History was always around us..

Our boat moored along the Canal du Midi in Agnes-Minervois

We did the entire lower section of the Canal up to Homps.

For 10 days we slowly cruised roughly 80 miles from Marseillan, off the Mediterranean, and through the Canal du Midi to Béziers (with a side trip by train to Narbonne) and then a number of smaller towns down stream of Carcassonne,  The entire 150-mile Canal was a masterpiece of 17th century engineering by Pierre-Paul Riquet.

King Louis XIV authorized the construction in 1666 to connect the Mediterranean to Toulouse,  At the time, many doubted it was even possible (referred to as Riquet’s Ditch), but the work began in 1667.  Riquet was the first to use black powder to blast rock, and he had 12,000 men with shovels for all the digging.  Riquet located the Canal in a way that minimized the number of locks, paralleled but avoided the rivers that flooded.   

One of the 140 bridges over the Canal
du Midi built by Riquet's workers.

The Mllpas Tunnel, roughly 500 feet
long, and the first of its kind in 1681.

The original 70 locks were
built in an oval shape. 

That is Molly on the bow as Otto steers the boat on the
aqueduct that crosses over the Orb River.

The famous Fronseranes staircase
of 7 lock chambers.

Riquet's biggest challenge was figuring out how to supply the Canal with enough water, especially at its highest point.  That is where Riquet’s brilliance really showed in creating a large reservoir in the mountains for storing water and feeding the canal so it could actually function.  the Canal opened to great fanfare in 1881, and greatly improved the flow of commerce.

Many former commercial boats have been
converted to either tour boats or personal yachts.

Today, the commercial traffic is almost nonexistent, but the canal remains busy with pleasure boats and boat charters from four different companies including Le Boat, which has a presence in 9 different countries including Canada.

Pope Innocent III (Wikipedia)

There is another chapter of this region’s history, and one I knew nothing about.  The Cathars were a Christian religious community with a faith that emphasized a spiritual life apart from the wealth and authority of the established Holy Roman Catholic Church.  Their ideas took hold in this region of France, where local independence was strong and the authority of northern French nobles and the Church were weak.  

During 12th century the Cathars grew in numbers and were labeled as heretics by the Church.  Finally, Pope Innocent III initiated the Cathar Crusade in 1209 and promised the lands of the southern France region to French noblemen who joined the cause.  Peasants who enlisted also received penance from the Church.

In Beziers on a 1,000-year old bridge with the Cathedral of
Saint Nazaire in the background.  The Crusaders killed over
20,000 residents, regardless of faith.  One leader allegedly
shouted "Kill them all; let God sort them out."

This was the only crusade ever initiated over already Catholic lands, although with limited Church control.  Over the next 20 years the crusaders succeeded in crushing the Cathars, who were largely pacifists. One clear act of genocide took place in Beziers where thousands were slaughtered including Catholics who didn’t turn on their fellow Cathar citizens. The Crusaders then attacked Carcassonne and Minerve and the cleansing ultimately covering the whole region to the Pyrenees, where some Cathars had sought refuge.  We visited many of these sites.

The size of the Medieval City of Carcassonne is hard to grasp.  This is my picture of an image projected on a wall there.

The castle was almost leveled in the 19th centurydue to decay until a local historian and prominent architect Viollet-le-Duc
 started the restoration effort in 1853. His efforts are credited with saving the landmark.

The chateau within the castle walls.  Following the horrors in Beziers, the Crusaders attacked Carcassonne.  The City
surrendered within a week due to lack of water.  Everyone was forced to leave, but there was not a slaughter.

The bridge to Minerve was not built until the 19th century.  The
mountain-top fortress provided insufficient protection as the
Crusaders used trebuchets to pummel the city from a nearby ridge.
Upon surrender, the Crusaders demanded either conversion or death.
In the end over 140 Cathars were burned to death.

A trebuchet was able
to fire on Minerve.

We visited the castle at Puilaurens in the
Pyrenees, one of the last Cathar refuges.

We had an invigorating hike up to the castle.

All along the Canal du Midi we could look southwest and see the snow-covered Pyrenees.  We had to visit them!

We rented a car over the last four days of our trip visiting numerous French towns and castles all the way to the Spanish border in the Pyrenees.  After spending the night in Bourg-Madame, a French border town, we meandered back to Toulouse with two stops - we soaked our feet in the hot springs of Aux de Termes, and we hiked into the Niaux Cave to witness wall painting carbon dated around 16,000 years ago!

We walked across the open border to Spain for a quick visit and some ice cream.

View from the Spanish town of Puigcerda, where we walked for ice cream.

Soaking our feet in the hot springs in Ax les Termes, France.

Before finding the hot springs
 in the town square, we explored
this park. The water was way too hot!

Niaux Cave paintings that were carbon dated to 16,000 years ago.  No pictures are allowed in the cave, and I took this image from a book that we purchased.

The entrance to Cave Niaux in the Pyrenees.

The pictures below are from our visit to Villefranche-de-Conflent, considered one of the most beautiful towns in France, under the hilltop Fort Liberia.  The Fort was built in 1681 in order to help defend the town from cannon warfare, a new threat at the time.  It is now a UNESCO heritage site.  One unique feature is an underground 734-step staircase that links it directly to the town below.  We were too tuckered out by the time we got there to do this hike.  

The main street in Villefranche-de-Conflent.

Fort Liberia, above Villefranche-de-
Conflent

Lunch in the village

Here we are in Carcassonne with Juliette, the owner of the wonderful Villa-de-Carcassonne, where we stayed for two nights.

SOME DIFFERERENCES BETWEEN USA & EUROPE - Recyling containers in multiple locations; plastic bottle tops remain attached to the bottle; every trash bag has a plastic string attached at its bottom to be used for a tie; a good bottle of red wine goes for $7 and the food is spectacular.

Olive grove, vineyard and the Montagne Noire Mountains in the background.
Au Revoir, France!  We hope to return.