Nederlandse versieFifth day: from Villesèquelande to Castelnaudary

It is Wednesday evening. Today we navigated to Castelnaudary . We are moored in the Grand Bassin, an artificial lake of 7 hectare in the middle of the town.

Grand Bassin at Castelnaudary

We took our time this morning. After having breakfast we drank a cup of coffee before leaving Villesèquelande . After one hour we moor at Bram, a village where the train had stopped. Maarten has remembered the name of the vilage for some reason and often repeats it. Bram is built in a concentric way around the church. There is a market this morning but it is already broken off. With annoyance Marga establishes that it 's always siesta when we are going to visit at a village or city.

In the evening we make good progress to Castelnaudary: We take nine locks followed by a triple, a double and finally a fourfold lock just before Castelnaudary (La Roche).

Fourfold lock just before Castelnaudary

The canal meanders always further. There are less plane-tree along the canal: Mostly just on one side of the canal and on the other side various planting or open spaces. The plane-trees are yet less high than at the beginning of our trip. In this part of the Canal du Midi are few tourists than in the part we navigated on earlier this week.

It is remarkable that all villages don't have much in common with the canal. They stay at some distance retracted in itself. The habitants on the other hand are walking along and fishing in the canal. We have seen two places before where inhabitants used to do the laundry in the canal in earlier days.

In the afternoon all single locks appear to be tend by hand. The children are helping fully and are not interested in us so we have to keep them occupied to moor us in the locks. As far as they are concerned they let us bob up and down in the lock . The manoeuvres are getting better every day. We just need the hook to push us away from the walls leaving the locks. During the day I notice that the children and Marga are bored with the locks. The boys can't concentrate anymore, are playing all sorts of games or are having quarrels.

At a triple lock all gates are open. The water flows to meet from afar to meet us as the hatches from the upper gate are opened. When the water is high enough we have to navigate a little further, the gates behind us close so we can rise again.

The water flows from afar to meet us at the lock of Vivier

Just like the rest of the week, the weather is fine. There's just a heavy wind which makes manoeuvre difficult. I have to speed up before entering the locks. Despite the wind it is hazy. We can just see the tops of the snowy mountain-sides of the Pyrenees, we have spotted from the train.

It 's hard work for a lockkeeper. I notice from the boys as they are helping, how much power is needed. Especially the opening and closing of the slides in the gates. They can barely turn the handles. There is of course an grand water-pressure on it. The lockkeepers are very friendly. They mostly let the children do their work but keep an eye on them. After a view locks the children know exactly what they have to do and they anticipate on that.  With a gesture  they tempt the lockkeepers to begin. The result is that the clothes of Maarten are rapidly full of grease.

In Castelnaudary I see a lot of plane-trees at a square. It 's a miracle they grow as well as along the canal. The French just put asphalt around the trees.

At night the illuminated church rises high above the city which is built on a hill. The light of the street-lanterns reflects in the water of the Grand Bassin.