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

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.

Finding Johnny Cash, Cherokees, Rosboroughs and a Navy on the Beautiful Upper Tennessee

This was our 2nd time cruising on the Tennessee, the first being in 2019 when we did the Great Loop and took a side trip up to Chattanooga.  We returned this fall to attend a Rosborough Boat Rendezvous and cruise further up river from the city.

The Bluegrass Festival was mobbed.

 The Rendezvous attracted 15 boats from all over the east, and we docked adjacent to the Aquarium, which dominates the riverbank.  The event was a wonderful mix of socializing, cruising and exploring Chattanooga.  We found our go-to local ice cream parlor, listened to some great music at the Bluegrass Festival and walked to Southside and the historic train station made famous by Glenn Miller singing Chattanooga Choo Choo. 

Our Rosborough group - 1 of 2.

Our Rosborough group - 2 of 2.

                                                      

One of the Rendezvous cruises went 38 miles south to Nickajack Lake.  Most of the boats chose to dock at the park while Salty Paws and our good friends Otto and Anna on Vega choose the opposite side of the Lake to give us easier access via dinghy to Nickajack Cave, a place where nature and legend meet in a most unusual way.  

At dusk, the air comes alive as thousands of bats spiral from the cave mouth daily from April to early October as they sweep out across the river and landscape to feed.   Now, did we see thousands?  No, but we did see 100’s, and our view was limited in the darkening landscape.  We should have followed the local kayak guide and gone out to more open water with a larger view of the sky.

Even Tory kept a lookout for the bats, but we were still at least 30 minutes away from dusk.

Otto, Anna, Molly and I challenged the
 capacity of out little dinghy but we all did
 wear a life jacket and enjoyed an Old
Fashioned while waiting for the bats.

The cave is also famous for its part in reinvigorating the life and career of Johnny Cash. As Cash himself told the story, he drove to the Nickajack Cave in 1967 with the intent of ending his own life.  Cash was in despair and broken by addiction.  He crawled deep into the cave, and then his flashlight gave out, leaving him in total darkness.  After much contemplation, he felt the presence of God, telling him that it wasn’t his time.

Following a faint breeze, he was able to crawl back to the light and began  a new commitment to sobriety and faith.  He still had his relapses, but his redemption had started.  In 1968 he married June Carter, and the following year he began hosting his own show on ABC.

Anchored off ft. Loudoun with the mountains not that far away.

After the Rendezvous, Salty Paws and Sabbatical (Dan, Jeremy and their great dog Rufus) were the only boats that continued upstream.  Two days and three locks brought us to the Little Tennessee River that cuts southeast into the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.  What a beautiful cruising ground!  We anchored off Fort Loudon Historical Park.

Fort Loudon.

The Park includes many walking trails and a replica of the 1757 British outpost.  At that time Britain and France were in a battle for dominance in North America.  Britain controlled the lands east of the Great Smoky Mountains, and France claimed lands west of the mountains.  The area between was Cherokee country. 

 The Cherokees were initially aligned with the British and fought bravely on their behalf.  Unfortunately, as always seems the case with Native Americans, misunderstanding and broken treaties led to the slow conquering of their lands and in less than 70 years the forced departure of most of the Cherokees on the Trail of Tears to Oklahoma.

Sequoyah in
the U.S. Capital.

Sharing the island with the Park is the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum.  Sequoyah was born in c. 1775, the son of Virginia fur trader and his Cherokee mother, who raised him in Tennessee country.   He grew to be an accomplished silversmith and painter and even served in the U.S. Army.  He became convinced that the key to the white man’s success was having a written language as it allowed for the retention and transmission of more knowledge than just relying on word of mouth.                                                                                                                                                                    Sequoyah spent 12 years experimenting by first developing pictographs for each word.  This proved too cumbersome.  Later in 1821, with the help of his 6-year old daughter, he identified 86 unique syllables in the Cherokee language and created a symbol for each.  His fellow Cherokees were initially skeptical of his efforts, but soon saw the benefits.  In fact, in less than a decade 90% of Cherokees were literate.  And, to think that the language was developed by someone who was not literate in any other language!

The Sequoia tree was named after a Sequoyah, and he was further honored by his statue being one of only 100 (2 from each state) that rest in the U,S, Capital Rotunda.  Oklahoma gave him that honor in 1917.

Sabbatical on the Little Tennessee. 

Salty Paws and Sabbatical then continued up the Little Tennessee into the foothills of the Smokies for as far as the river was passable.  In Addison to the beautiful scenery, we were also focused on the depth gauge as the last few miles were not covered by navigational aids or our chartplotters.  We also enjoyed watching the water temperature fall from 70 degrees to 62 degrees.

The end of navigable waters.

Unfortunately, due to a marina mix-up, Sabbatical was unable to get a slip at the Fort Loudon Marina that evening.  They decided to proceed back downriver while we stayed for our trip the next day upriver to Knoxville and the beginning of the Tennessee River.  

The next morning we covered the 45 miles to Knoxville in a couple of hours and were soon surrounded by Navy boats.

A typical Volunteer Navy boat.

Rather than guns and cannons, their only armaments were flagpoles all adorned with large orange flags.  You see, this was the Volunteer Navy in support of University of Tennessee football.  The stadium is close to the River, and the Vol Navy tailgates on boats  before the game begins.  The tradition began in 1962 when the UT broadcaster started traveling to games by boat to avoid traffic.  Now before each home game, hundreds of boats raft in groups of 8 to 12 boats off every dock on the waterfront.

Molly, Tory and I had to cruise by this gauntlet of boats to reach the headwaters of the Tennessee River, 5 miles away.  The only orange on board was one of my shirts and a glass.  I donned them both and was quickly self-enrolled in the Navy so we could safely pass.

The beginning of the Tennessee River is where the French Broad River and the Holston River meet.  The intersection wasn’t overly dramatic, but now we can say that we have been on every mile of the Tennessee River!

Molly and Tory in the Park.

Jeremy and Dan with our two boats
ready to go.

Two nights, three locks and almost 200 miles later we were back at the boat ramp in Chattanooga.  Dan helped us pullout, and we said our final goodbyes to Sabbatical.  After a nice walk through River Park, we trailered 150 miles to visit our daughter Elizabeth and family outside of Atlanta before returning to Maine.  

 Below are additional pictures from our cruise.

This is a typical Tennessee River lock, and it is filled with Rosboroughs.

Each lock seems to have either an adjacent nuclear or hydro-electric power plant run by the atennessee Valley Authority (TVA). 

Our trip down took us through New York and Pennsylvania, and seemingly thousands of trucks
destined for Canada were idled at truck stops as the shutdown closed the border crossings,

Salty Paws headed up the Little Tennessee River.

Molly is great at taking the wheel, and often affords me great napping opportunities while underway.

The moon and the anchor light on Sabbatical stand out as observed from Salty Paws.

Salty Paws and Vega trailered down to Chattanooga together from Otto and Anna’s home
in Webster, NY.  We used our boats as an RV outside of Columbus, OH.

On the way home, we used Salty Paws as an RV.  Here we stayed at an equestrian center in Natural Bridge, VA.  Just beautiful.

Natural Bridge is named for its spectacular natural bridge.  It is now a state park but was once owned by Thomas Jefferson.  He bought the land because of this spectacular feature.

I didn't mention earlier that there are no small houses on the banks of the Tennessee River!