The Top of the Canal du Midi ( 20/8 – 23/08/2025)

Castelnaudary – Océan – Montgiscard – Toulouse

Castelnaudary

With a bit of time pressure, inasmuch as we wanted to give the girls a reasonable time at Toulouse, we decided to spend only one extra day in Castelnaudary. Rather than a hotbed of tourism, perhaps it is better known as the home of Cassoulet – a slow-cooked dish made from haricot beans, pork rind, knuckle, shoulder and sausages, and duck confit. We have eaten tinned versions of this before, and Ian is not a great fan (mainly of the white beans, although he has made Cassoulet several times). But we felt we should experience it while we were there. Odile had given us a list of recommended restaurants where one could experience the genuine local dish, and we managed to squeeze into the one that she said was the best. It was quite small, and several other groups were turned away just after we sat down.

The chef, who also served us, had excellent English and explained that he took great care with the slow cooking to create a dense, flavourful crust on the surface.

It was indeed delicious. The meal was incredibly filling due to the large content of beans, but we all gave our ramekins a red-hot go, and left replete with a better appreciation of the town’s local speciality. We, as indeed all of the tables, were given the remainder to take back to Catharina Elisabeth with us.

However, on the first evening, we took a stroll around the small but sweet town. Walking up over the bridge ahead of us, we saw several boats we knew, but no one was on board at that time. Checking out the town itself, we found ourselves caught in a terrible rainstorm. Ian raced back to Catharina to close any open portholes, while the girls and I took shelter in a bar and had a drink while we waited for the rain to pass.

Later, in the evening, we decided to have another meal out – a bit excessive perhaps, but there was some peer pressure involved. We had a delicious meal at ‘Le Centre’, beautifully presented, like my main course:

Leaving the restaurant, we found the preparations for the annual ‘Cassoulet Festival’ in full swing. Stalls and sound stages were being set up, and music was in full swing, so we paused a while to listen.

Upon returning to Catharina, Kathryn decided to emulate Juliet’s attempt to dispose of the lid to our stern locker box and tossed it over the side into the port (WHY!!!).

As it floated away in the dark, it seemed that a nighttime dip in the water was going to be necessary, so Ian prepared himself.

Fortunately, the crew of the boat behind us managed to throw a line across the lid and drew it back to their boat

and then passed it to Kathryn to return it to its rightful spot. Clearly, in addition to our normal checklist of rules for guests, we are going to have to add, “Do not throw the locker lid into the water”.

Because we had arrived in Castelnaudary just before their annual Cassoulet Festival, we had been told that we could only have a very short stay and have to leave before the weekend. That worked as the girls had only a limited time to stay with us, so after only a couple of nights in this delightful, friendly town, we took our ropes back on board and headed off.

The first lock we came to was a single and should have been a snap to pass. We were on our own for once, and when we were in, the lock filled as expected, and as we reached the top, we could see a hire boat ahead of us, waiting for us to exit so they could enter. We paused and (fortuitously as it turned out), Ian said to loosen the lines to the shore. The gates remained closed, and Ian and the crew retired to the wheelhouse to wait. After a few minutes, and very much to our surprise, the lock started to empty again! Had we left the lines taught, we would have been hung up, and rope-slashing would have been our next activity. The giveaway was when I felt a tug on the ropes as we tilted. So, ropes off, and since I was the one on now marooned onshore, I was going to have to make a call to sort things out. Fortunately, one of the chaps from the hire boat had come to see why we were taking so long to leave the lock. Being French, he offered to make the call, and we were told someone would show up in about 15 minutes. The éclusier was very friendly and had the lock working properly in no time. Smiling and shrugging in that cute Gallic way, he told us it was not the first time this lock had behaved like this. With a smile, I replied that it was a first for us.

We passed through the next few without incident and had to wait after a triple for the regulation déjeuner break. Laura got off at one spot, took one of the bikes and followed us along the towpath so she could take photos while we coasted along. There was much giggling as she raced to stay ahead of us, then stopped the bike and ran backwards and forwards snapping photos and avoiding muddy puddles on the towpath. It is always such a treat to have photos and videos of Catharina moving. Note the raised mast – Ian likes it to be up if we are being filmed, as it looks pretty cool.

Shortly after this we tackled the triple staircase at Mas-Saintes-Puelles. Then, to keep us busy, we cruised to the next double lock as the showers we had been dodging turned into rain that absolutely poured down as we entered the next double lock. Not our first rodeo in the rain, but it gave a taste of another aspect of the joys of cruising to Laura and Kathryn.

Océan

Shortly after this we reached the summit of the Canal du Midi. Moorings were not plentiful, well, sparse really, and it took us a little while to determine where and how we would tie up. We only intended to spend one night here so we could explore this significant spot on the canal. We always try to leave room for other boats, and although there was little in the way of bollards, and we did need to put out the passerelle, we did our best and were soon joined by a hire boat heading in the same direction as us.

The towpath beside us leads to the summit pond of the canal, so all of the bikes came off (after the regulation end-of-cruise beer), and we set out to see a part of the feat of engineering that was built to feed the canal. The route took us through a stand of trees, marked with tapes and caution signs where one had come down across the path. We soon reached the old pumping station,

The fundamental reason that the Canal du Midi exists is because Riquet had the unique combination of local knowledge, engineering expertise and recognised that it was possible to supply water to a canal at this point. All the previous proposals for a canal from Toulouse to the Mediterranean had foundered on the issue of a stable water supply. The hydraulics and water delivery is quite a complex subject, but very interesting, you can read more about it in this article. But, basically, Riquet linked several rivers with tunnels to feed what at the time was the largest dam in the world, to store water that could be fed into the canal. This dam supply was then fed through a feeder canal to this point, where it could be released in a controllable fashion.

Naturally, there was a monument to honour Riquet, the engineer who designed the Canal du Midi, and continuing on past the pumping station, we climbed a steep hill to find ourselves outside a gated space enclosing an obélisque, raised by Riquet’s descendants. While we could not get right up to it, we could see it through the gates. It did not look to be well cared for, a shame in our eyes.

Returning to the bikes it appeared some people had way too much time on their hands, (probably just low blood sugar)

so it was time to return to Catharina for dinner.

From here on the locks would be taking us down, not up. So although we had to still put someone off before each lock, avalant (descending) feels much easier than montant (ascending). Plenty of locks still to go between us and the end of the Midi, another 50 km, and most of them would be single locks. You would think it was my birthday!

Montgiscard

The next morning, we left and just around the corner was Port Lauragais.

This place had special significance for us as we stopped at the aire (highway resting spot) in 2010, and while inside, Ian looked at a display about the Canal du Midi. It showed a map and highlighted that it allowed travel from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and that it was even possible to travel the canal networks of Europe beyond to eventually reach the Black Sea. Ian commented at the time that perhaps that would be an experience worthy of consideration when we retired. There was nothing there to indicate that long-term cruising on the waterways was a thing, but this fact of extensive waterways and retirement settled into Ian’s unconsciousness and surfaced with other half-remembered things to become the idea that took us to where we were on this day.

We had it in mind to see if we could moor there but we were uncertain if they could take bigger boats, wanted to stop at Océan and had to get to Toulouse so, regretfully, we cruised past the marina – perhaps another time.

The cloudy weather soon cleared to a bright sunny day, and as we travelled, we enjoyed one of the delights of cruising – looking at interesting boats.

A bit of poetry.

And a literary allusion dear to Ian’s heart. As a long-term science fiction reader, since teenagerhood he has carried this acronym from Robert Heinlein’s 1961 book, Stranger in a Strange Land, and uses it frequently:

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch – a deft summary of the First Law of Thermodynamics and a widely held social trope.

Meanwhile, the crew were getting more professional as they became more practised.

The next stop was Montgiscard, where we found a spot just past a lovely lavoir (the old wash-houses) and just in front of the next lock.

The girls decided we should step off for dinner and we were fortunate to secure the last table at a restaurant just across the road from our mooring.

The food was sensational, with a very Spanish flavour. The others had a mix of tapas to sample, but I opted for the squid ink pasta, which was amazing.

Toulouse

From Montgiscard, we continued on right to Toulouse, where the girls would leave us. It was a very pleasant cruise, lovely weather and the scenery before we entered the city environs was pleasantly rural. The stands of plane trees created a tunnel of leaves and dappled light.

The girls were alternately working

and relaxing in the sun.

As we came closer to the urban area, the side of the canal was cheek-by-jowl with residential barges of all shapes, sizes and quality. As we had to drop our speed down to 3 km/h (by regulation), it took quite a while to pass them, but again, interesting viewing.

Just before we reached the port, we came to an impressive pont canal (canal bridge) that took us across a six-lane freeway. Interesting viewing for us and, I suppose for the motorists below.

Naturally, we gave a loud blast on the horn as we approached and cruised across without incident. But just as we finished the pont canal, a large peniche loomed ahead of us. The canal was extremely narrow at this point, and Ian had to handle Catharina quite deftly to get far enough over to avoid any mishaps.

Why do these things happen at the worst possible moment – we had cruised the entire canal without having to pass against a single large boat!

Not long after, we cruised up to the port and moored temporarily at some pontoons that were secured from land, so we couldn’t get off Catharina. It was déjeuner, but once the capitainarie reoppened, they called us over to the main part of the port where we were given a prime position close to shore. With only two further full days to spend in Toulouse, Kathryn and Laura were eager to get out and look around. For us, we decided to stay here for our next guests, my sister Gill and her granddaughter Elora, who would be joining us in two weeks’ time, so we could be more relaxed.