The Bridge at Capestang – Finally (31/7 – 5/8/25)

Poilhes – (Capestang) – Le Somail – Ventenac-en-Minervois – Homps

Bridge at Capestang

Unencumbered by considerations of when locks would be open (there is a long, 54 km stretch from the Fonseranes staircase until the next lock on the way to Homps), we set off just after 8 am under clear skies and light wind to tackle the Bridge at Capestang. An hour later, with the bimini lowered

it came into sight.

Early, as it was, the tourists were not out, and Lisette only had to hail one fellow boat owner (on the left in the photo) not to judge us as we approached. Our dash cam captured our passage:

Once Lisette had finished checking that the bow was home free she turned and recorded the wheelhouse and bimini coming through:

After all of the anticipation, Catharina Elisabeth made it through with ease. Sighs of relief and hugs of congratulations followed.

After a further, pleasant but uneventful five hours we arrived in Le Somail at mid-afternoon.

Le Somail

The only moorings in the town attracted a fee but provided power and water (the latter hidden underground). The town was small but pretty and toursity. Lots of brasseries and in the evening, live music playing at a couple of establishments. The striking feature of the port is the lovely arched stone bridge that crosses the canal with the Chapel of Saint-Nazaire-d’Aude built into the steep side of the arch.

The bridge provided good views of the port downstream

and upstream

Next to the bridge was a striking circular building, which used to be an icehouse, where ice was stored underground, allowing ice to be stored all summer long.

Next morning, as we wanted to have a photo of Catharina passing the bridge, Lisette walked up just beyond, standing amongst the early morning coffee drinkers. The photos were worth the effort:

I pulled across just after the bridge and, with a cheerio to the breakfast crowd, Lisette clambered aboard and off we cruised.

Our original intent was to moor at the junction of the Canal du Midi with the Canal de la Robine, which takes vessels down to Narbonne and the Mediterranean. This canal was closed at the time because of a lack of water. The only good mooring at the junction was taken by a hire boat, but we tried to moor right on the corner with the assistance of a boat owner nearby. However, the angle of the edge made it entirely unsuitable, and a nearby flour mill was making a lot of noise, which our mooring guide told us would continue 24/7 at this time of the year. We decided to move on.

Ventenac-en-Minervois

Seven kilometres and an hour later, a pleasant if windy cruise found us approaching the village of Ventenac-en-Minervois.

The quayside mooring was taken up by a large cargo barge, so we took up a wild mooring just upstream and tied up a wooden pole and put in some stakes. However, the mooring was clearly not going to be a peaceful one.

A bit of investigation revealed that we had arrived for the annual August fête weekend. We were right next to the bar, and just beyond, a large soundstage with impressive speakers was being established.  We had a chat and made the decision that, while it might get a bit noisy, it would be fun to be a part of the celebrations.

And so it turned out. The first evening, we made the short trip up to the bar and the tables where they were cooking a small variety of snack foods. So we were well fed and watered before the music started. It was quite pleasant, some songs we knew, not too loud.

However, it didn’t finish until after 2 am, but with the experience of Bessan behind us, we put on noise-cancelling earphones, and slept well.

The next morning, the locals were clearing up and came down to have a chat. They asked if we wouldn’t mind moving Catharina ten metres or so upstream. They needed more space behind us for an event. We happily complied. So, it turns out that each year, the locals in Ventenac challenge another nearby village to a tug of war – across the canal. Best of three. We had the best seats in town for the contest, sitting on our aft deck. Lots of happy noise and cheering took place, and Ventenac were easy winners.

They spent the afternoon setting up for the evening celebrations, and we were subjected to the worst music of the weekend as the tuneless and probably hungover locals sang along to the radio they had with them. The night started much the same as the previous one, but moved on to a much louder but more professional group of performers on the stage. Still, it was easy to listen to – none of that interminable duff-duff stuff. Then, about 10:30 pm we were treated to feu d’artifice (fireworks), for which we again had prime seats.

Music then resumed and finished at about 4 am – but again, we slept perfectly well.

Between the partying, we explored the village. It was small, clean and charming.

Every street name was provided in French and the local Occitan dialect.

The most striking feature was the building with the tower. None of our photos does it justice, so here’s one from www.audetourisme.com

The building is called the Château de Ventenac en Minervois, but there is no evidence that it has ever been a fortification or used as a residence. However, it has been repurposed into a winery, providore and museum. The winery side of things allowed us to taste some of their wines and we purchased a few half-dozen cases of the good stuff – at a very reasonable price. Nothing tempted us on the providore side of things, but the tour of the winery and especially the museum was well worth the few euros entrance fee.

One of the many posters. All in French, but worth taking the time to translate because they covered all aspects of the Canal du Midi.

There were good views of the canal and the countryside through the windows:

Moored just outside of the Château is a beautiful old wooden barge, Marie-Thérèse.

She is currently being restored. Built in 1855, she was used to carry 176 tonnes of wine and other produce along the Canal du Midi. She human-hauled for most of her working life, only gaining a motor in 1950, and is considered to be the oldest canal boat in Europe still capable of navigation.

All in all, we very much enjoyed our stay in Ventenac and would certainly intend to visit again.

Homps

We started the four-hour cruise to Homps nice and early as the next écluse was a fair way up the canal. Along the way, we passed the town of Argens-Minervois. We noted potential moorings in the town that we might use on another occasion. From a distance, the town looked very scenic.

It was also here that we hit the first écluse (#56) since finshing the Fonseranes staircase, after 54 km of uninterupted cruising. There would be 37 more before we reached the summit pound.

Around noon we arrived in Homps and moored just upstream of the écluse.