Carcassonne to Trebes

Wednesday, September 19th

We were up at 8:00am to get baguettes for breakfast. We then head off to La Cite to see what Carcassonne is most famous for.

It’s a very imposing walled citadel on a hill to the south east of modern day Carcassonne.  The walk of a few kilometres from the port was relatively easy, and the exercise required. While the exterior walls, the castle inside the walls, the cathedral and the ramparts are fantastic, 

the old town inside the walls has become a tourist paradise/nightmare. 

There are numerous restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, hotels, guest houses etc, etc. 

By the time we were ready to leave, around midday, we were glad that (a) we had visited the citadel in the morning, and (b) it was September and not July or August. On a “good” day, the place would be unbearable. But in any case, it’s a must see.

We had lunch and prepared to leave port at 1:30pm when the locks opened after lunch (you get the picture by now). The Canadians were also ready to leave, so we left in convoy and were pleased to see that many of the boats moored in the port for the night had already left before lunch. We were the only ones leaving at that time, apparently.

We decided to end the day at Trebes, and with only seven locks we thought we would be there early enough to be in the bar before 6:00pm. Unfortunately, a large barge coming the other way upset the usual “rhythm” of the locks, and so we had a few unusually long waits. But…when we got to Trebes and looked for a berth for the night, the port seemed full, so we motored up to the nearby lock (almost jumping  the queue) and discovered a canal boat traffic jam.  Indeed, if it weren’t for the age demographic, there could have been some lock rage.

And guess who queues best?! The English of course:

Apparently this triple lock is renowned for being slow, so we joined the queue and waited. Who cares which side of the lock we spent the night anyway? Besides, everyone else had already started on the wine, so we joined in.

After two hours watching boats of all shapes and sizes going up and down in one hour cycles, the lock closed right on 7:00pm with us first in the queue for the 9:00am opening tomorrow. 

Dinner was left-over chicken, salad and steamed string beans (and wine, of course). The crews (and captains) of the other 30 or 40 boats on both sides of the locks seemed to prefer the various restaurants beside the canal.  One of these is beside our camping spot – let’s hope they have an early night.