We decided we had to give Avignon two nights despite the noisy road past the moorings and the cost of those moorings – even after Alex had managed to negotiate a reduced rate if we took no water and electricity!
But the town itself was great - lots of narrow winding streets in amongst the tall ancient housing in which it was more than easy to get lost. Alex set off on his bicycle to circumnavigate the protective wall, which, still largely intact, protects the town. Only two short sections had been closed to the general public: one a private block of flats, and the other the University of Avignon, which was closed for the summer recess. The rest was available, extant and impressive.
The Pont d’Avignon is not available without cost - €3.50 per person to walk out upon the remaining 4 arches and look into the remains of the burial chapel (in arch number 3) of ? responsible for its construction.
There is some confusion about the words of the song which celebrates the Pont c’Avignon. Some say it is ‘sur le Pont d’Avignon’, and some say it is ‘sous le Pont d’Avignon’. We decided it was cheaper to danse SOUS le Pont d’Avignon, and that’s what we did on one of our many bicycle trips under its first arch!
We also looked at many of the historical buildings and squares, which make up this intriguing city.
Eventually we cast off (and as usual the helping current flow had all but ceased!) and made our way down the last few kilometres of the Rhone before entering the ‘Petite Rhone’ and our hoped-for next mooring.
On the way we were amazed when the first lock waited at least ten minutes for us to arrive, forcing a commercial in the lock to wait for little us. Our surprise was only increased when on exiting the lock we saw that two enormous commercials were waiting to come up and were too big to go in together. So one minute they red-light us as we arrive and a couple of days later they hold the lock for 10 minutes to let us in. Weird!
We turned off onto the Petite Rhone and the first possible mooring had just been taken by a hire boat. We hadn’t downloaded the DBA mooring guide for this small section so were working on our own initiative at this point, but from a couple of sources we had been assured that we could moor on the banks of the Petite Rhone in several places. We spotted one such place which was a high commercial quay in front of which appeared to be a family of coypu swimming against the current. We made to turn round and a speedboat immediately appeared coming towards us so we waited while he went past then started again. Another speedboat appeared from the other direction so we aborted again. Typical! Nothing for hours then two at once when you least want them!
Meanwhile the strong current was taking us further and further away from the potential mooring, but eventually we turned and made our way back to the quay. Alex approached gingerly and suddenly it became apparent to Louise at the bow that the family of coypu were in fact the tops of a nasty set of steel posts set into the river to act as groynes. We backed off sharpish and continued on our way.
In fact, these groynes were just above, or worse, just below the surface all the rest of the way down this short section, but we did eventually spot a short official pontoon 2kms before the lock onto the Canal du Rhone à Sete, where we moored for a couple of nights: we were joined on the second night by GERMINAL with Rose-marie and Claude on board.
While there we rode into St Gilles town to restock and have a looksee. We hated it! Dirty, unkempt, slummy is what we thought, but on the plus side we found NOORDSTER moored there and had a cup of tea and a chat with Judith and Simon.
We set off hoping to moor at Aigues-Mortes but before we got there, Rose-marie phoned ahead for us and then texted to warn us that there was no room, so we took the Aigues-Mortes canal bypass and moored onto a short lightweight wooden pontoon with no obvious method of securing ourselves. Our lines eventually were tied to a stout bush, the structure of the pontoon and one ground anchor screwed into the soft ground but actually, despite numerous passing trip boats and commercial carriers, our mooring held remarkably well, though we did find ourselves aground a few times as the water level went up and down by some 20cms. We speculated that perhaps the Mediterranean tide was having an effect, there being no lock between us and the sea.
This whole area is amazing: water stretches everywhere on either side of the canal which is built right across the shallow inland seas or étangs. On either side of the canal is a ribbon of slightly raised land with a road on one side. A crumbling stone and earth wall on the other side denotes where the canal ends and the étang begins! Here and there there are ‘entrances’ into the étangs which only the tiny fishing boats are allowed to use. The étangs, canal and the Mediterranean are all linked, so as the small tide in the Med rises and falls, there is a slight flow into and out of the canal and the étangs. It is a most odd area and we have seen nothing quite like it, not even in Holland where some canals are built right across inland seas, but they are on a much bigger scale and usually there is no view as you cross because the banks are much higher than the boat.
Next we reached Palavas-les-Flots which is something of a ‘refined’ seaside resort: no kiss-me-quick hats, no amusement arcades, candy floss or fish and chips – at least not on the sea front, which is all good looking apartment blocks set in gardens! The canal is one kilometre from the sea front and we moored up ahead of a converted Dutch barge – MR PIP – which had gone past us on our moorings on the Petite Rhone. Philip, his ex wife Therese, daughter Stephanie and her boyfriend Andy all came for drinks that night and we had a return match the following night. Phil et al set off next day but he has booked his winter moorings in Buzet sur Baise, same as us, so hopefully we will see him again.
Being just a kilometre from the sea front a bike ride to it and a swim in the Med was a must. It was actually a bit colder than we expected but once we became acclimatised it was great fun.
Then a visit to the Abbaye de Maguelone, 5kms ahead of us and on the only ‘high’ ground in the area, proved to be well worth the effort and we also bought 4 bottles of its own domaine wine.
Brian Wall, a friend of many years, who now lives near Gaillac (4 hours away) happened to be passing our vicinity when we rang him, so he came for the night and we all enjoyed a bottle or three of the abbey wine, good food and chat.
The high winds over the last few days, whilst giving us the blessing of a bit of coolth, have also meant that we cannot proceed to cross the Etang du Thau, so we have just had to wait at Palavas-les-Flots until they die down. One of the plus sides of this is that we are at one of the few wide and deep spots on the canal and all the really big barges (up to 100m x 11m) stop here to let opposing barges pass. It makes for a great sight and although we will be glad to move on in due course, we will, no doubt, miss seeing these big boys doing their stuff. Once onto the Canal du Midi there will be no commercial craft at all.
We have also taken the opportunity, while stuck here, to catch the bus into Montpellier. Having lived in Harrogate the name ‘Montpellier’ is very familiar to us (it denotes a very chic part of town) and we found ourselves curious to know what the eponymous city itself was like. And it came up to expectations – a fabulous city with a mix of ancient and modern architecture any city would be proud of. The old part - narrow twisting streets and buildings with typical French frontages and cast iron balconies - was really intriguing, but even the newer parts have largely been built with a grandeur and style that perfectly complements what went before, with only a few 1960/70s horrors cropping up here and there. We really loved it – enough to treat ourselves to moules frites on the terrace of an upmarket restaurant in the main square, followed, after a ‘Petite Train’ ride round the old town, by the cheapest coffee in all France so far, just €2 for two cups! Brill!
Today we will ‘finish off’ Palavas by visiting the ‘old’ fortress, which many years ago was surrounded (literally) by a water tower. In recent times the water tower was dismantled, the fortress moved stone by stone to a new site and a magnificent, iconic tower (or carbuncle depending on your viewpoint) incorporating a conference centre, panoramic gallery and revolving restaurant was built on the old site.
By the time we have done all that, we will have been stuck here for nearly a week, so we are hoping sincerely that tomorrow the wind will have died down and we can get on. After all, the Canal du Midi is now only one day’s travel away!
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