Category Archive

Castelnaudary

Narrow streets and alleyways with the aged doors of buildings at times exhibiting dates denoting their age, it was a town worth wandering through. The buildings themselves were a mix of sepia tones and brightly coloured. Intricately designed wrought iron gates led into an old manor house that was undergoing renovations, and well worn the steps of […]

Laval Lock to Castelnaudary  

With high moisture levels in the air, the droplets from a misty fog fell upon the earth this morning, thereby creating a cooler commencement to the day. What a relief, after the burning heat of yesterday. First lock – another round and we had the hang of things – what a beautiful setting. Doors in shades […]

Night shots of Toulouse

    We arrive in Castelnaudary tomorrow,

Castanet – Tolosan to Laval Lock  

Time against us since a train station had to be within reach for Jamie who was soon to depart, Montisgard was passed by until next time, as a hard half day motor pushed us ever closer to Castelnaudary. This was the day we were introduced to the round locks. No currents on the outside, but […]

A bit of Toulouse

Click the link below to see some of the pics:   www.gratisaustralis.com/?page_id=2676

Victor Hugo Market, Toulouse

The day commenced with an early visit to the Victor Hugo Market. What a difference! All stores were open and mouth watering delicacies enticed the taste buds. Fresh vegies of all shapes, sizes and colours. The famous Toulouse sausage, still made according to the original recipe – free of wheat and nitrates, what a boon! Fish […]

Jacobin Convent and Saint Sernin Basilica, Toulouse

As with the towns visited to date, Toulouse had that mix of old and new. Buildings no longer cared for rot and decay as, like ancient sentinels, they cracked and crumbled whilst mouldy odours wafted lazily upon air currents from their darkened cellars to tickle the noses of passers – by. A few rare jewels […]

Raining here in Toulouse

Grey, rain, thunder and cold here in Toulouse: about 20 degrees. Out looking at bikes. The pic is one of the sites we came across when heading to St Jory.  

Sunday the 26th fully on

Click on the link below to view. www.gratisaustralis.com/?page_id=2676  

Sorbet With a Difference

In a trip to the Victor Hugo Market in Toulouse today. besides meat, fruit and veg this is what we discovered: sorbets of all sorts and in all sizes and beautifully packaged. So cold, the delicacy had yet to start melting 30 minutes later. It was as delicious as it looked: in fact the best sorbet we’ve […]

Victor Hugo Market, Toulouse

A visit to the Victor Hugo Market this day provided us with sorbet from heaven. Beautifully presented, expensive, but what manna!!!!! Disappointingly, much of the market was closed.

Toulouse Arrival

We arrived in the Canal du Midi and Toulouse Sunday afternoon after yet another interesting bout with the locks. This is a pic of the last lock though which we motored.

Canal du Midi

The first of its kind, the aesthetics of the architecture and landscape that make it so unique, Canal du Midi is world heritage listed. Envisioned by Pierre Paul Riquet in 1662 this 240km long canal is the largest of its type and links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean Sea. Constructed between 1667 and 1681 (with […]

St Jory to Toulouse

An early start on a bright sunlit morning, knowing what we’d learnt about the water actions after observing the lock/water flow design St Jory last night the first lock was a breeze. St Jory lock water flow. St Jory lock Put it all together and it looks like this: Lock walls were encased in green ferns, […]

Castets – en – Dorthe to Fontet

A sleep in this morning and our lazy days of travel have commenced. A change to the dinghy arrangement, a quick ‘house’ clean and we were off. Boats are moored close together here and the stern mooring is placed dead centre. In reverse, our motion rapidly came to a dead stop. Believing the prop had […]