Trip down Canal du Midi and Kate Mosse tour day 2
It had been raining most of the night, but had stopped raining by the time we went down for breakfast. Our train wasn't due to leave until 4.30pm so we had the whole day to explore. We left our overnight bag at reception and started out.
On the way down to the canal we saw boat trips advertised,
so we thought it would be a pleasant diversion from our Kate Mosse tour, and in fact the Canal du Midi is mentioned several times during the book where the resistance fighters have had skirmishes or hidden under bridges.
We started off at 10 o'clock and negotiated the first lock, the locks are all electronically managed these days, but the winders and pulleys are still there. While the lock was filling up we could see the boats which had been moored on the other side start to line up to come through the other way. I guess the use of the locks must be limited in some way so that water levels can be maintained.
Wikipedia: "The Canal du Midi (canal of the two seas) is a 241 km (150 mi) long canal in Southern France. It was originally named the Canal royal en Languedoc but the French revolutionaries renamed it to Canal du Midi in 1789. It was considered at the time to be one of the greatest construction works of the 17th century.
The canal runs from the Garronne River in the city of Toulouse down to the Étang de Thau near the Mediterranean and along with the 193 km (120 mi) long Canal de Garonne forms the Canal des Deux Mers joining the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.
Every winter, a period of closure allows the cleaning of the canal. It is necessary to re-dig the canal bed every year for two months. These works are expensive and two months is not always sufficient.
In the 18th century the trees planted along the canal become a source of income. So mulberries were planted for rearing silkworms. Then, with the end of the silk culture in 1772, the mulberry trees were replaced by the poplar from Italy which was the most productive wood. Structures and lock-keepers' houses were decorated with fruit trees. At the Revolution plantations around the canal had approximately 60,000 trees when there were only 45,000 at the beginning. It was under the First Empire that Plane trees began to be planted to replace the cut trees, which are today the dominant variety along the canal.
It was the wheat trade that motivated the construction of the canal. Colbert authorized the commencement of work by a royal edict of October 1666. Under the supervision of Pierre-Paul Riquet the construction took from 1666 to 1681 during the reign of Louis XIV. The Canal du Midi is one of the oldest canals of Europe still in operation (the prototype being the Briare Canal).
The Canal du Midi passes through a 173-metre (568 ft) tunnel through a hill at the Oppidum d'Ensérune, and there are 65 locks. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Pleasure-boating has replaced commerce on the Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi is now used primarily by tourists, recreation, and housing."
And so we returned to our Kate Mosse story...
We walked up, back past our hotel and turn left onto Omar Sarraut, and then right into Rue Jean Bringer, known by his Resistance code name of 'Myriel', he too was murdered by the Nazis on 19 August 1944.
Then turn right into rue de la Liberte, cross Boulevard Jean Joures, left into rue d'Alsace and come to the junction with Rue du Palais.
Rue du Palais
This where Sandrine and her family lived in Carcassonne.
We had done well so far, so somewhere on this street was Sandrine's house, and as we checked our map and tried to imagine which one could have been used by Kate Mosse, a middle aged lady came up to us and obviously wanted to help us with our map. We tried to tell her as best we could in French that we were looking around and were ok, she insisted on looking at the map and pointing up the hill to where the Bastide is, I asked her if she knew where Sandrine Vidals house was (well you never know!), and she looked up and down the street and shrugged her shoulders, so again, lots of "mercies and aurevoir" she went on her merry way - I think I detected a slight shaking of the head!
Then lo and behold this car comes to a screeching halt and stops on the foot path just ahead of us, and out leaps a stocky middle aged man wearing a hi-viz vest, now here was someone who brooked no nonsense, he obviously saw how poorly the other lady had done in trying to help us, so rushed over to us and took command of the map, he pointed to it and said "Vous ici" - you are here - so in no time David corrected him and pointed to the correct place on the map. Then he started waving is arms and taking in loud French "aller à la fin", big arm sweep up the road we had just come down on, "tournez vous amène droit à Tobaconist", sweeping his arm full length to the right, "le rond-point tout droit" sweeping his arm round and round and then the other way "vers la gauche et continuer sur", he was great (don't quote me on the French language I could only just get the gist of it) and he was determined we needed to go to the Cite and Bastide. So much so I thought he was going to insist that we get into his car and he would take us there. Fortunately we were able to satisfy him that we understood his instructions, and with that he got back into his car and drove off. David and I started to walk back in the direction he told us to in case he had stopped around the corner and was checking on us just to make sure. So funny - and so kind.
The road is named for the Palais de Justice, the huge law courts where Authie and the collaborators of the Deuxieme Bureau set up shop.
Beyond the Palais de Justice is a tall white-stuccoed townhouse used by the Nazis as their Feldgendarmarie headquarters.
Square Gambetta
Square Gambetta, today a rather barren and paved area. There used to be fountains and ponds here, "Sandrine and Lucie sat on a bench in Square Gambetta. Both wore headscarves, plain summer dresses and flat lace up shoes. They looked like any other Carcassonnais women ground down by the daily struggle of trying to get by."
From there we turned up Rue du Pont Vieux from where we can see the panorama of the city.
Look down to the left to the far riverbank. Beyond the formal gardens and playground, on the high stone wall, there used to be graffiti - 'Sandrine, je t'aime'. It was there for years and it was how I knew what my lead character in the Citadel should be called. Down to the right is the niche in which she hid all through the long stuffy night.
Zigzag down through the lices two rings of thick medieval stonework. At sunset the orange sun through the murder slots cast bright orange bars on the inner walls. Further along is the tower where Sandrine and Lucie tried desperately to diffuse Suzanne's bomb.
Chateau Comtal. In Labyrinth this is where Alias lived before the crusaders came.
Follow in Sandrines footsteps and a head down past Hotel du Donjon and out through
Ports de l'Aude
The Aude is the river and downstream is the the lovely old bridge, the Pont View.
Follow the long cobbled ramp downhill to the church of St Gimer (Gimer was Bishop of Carcassone nearly 200 years before Alias was born). This location is probably where the majority of skirmishes between Trencavel's allies and the Crusaders took place.
My Languedoc Trilogy is complete. Labyrinth, Sepulcre and Citadel all grew out of this landscape - the city of Carcassonne and the villages, rivers and forests of the Pyrenees. I had no idea when I first started mapping the land - for days out, picnics, for places to swim, for visits to vertiginous castles on scarred slopes - that it would lead me so far. I am very lucky to have found readers willing to follow me in my exploration of this part-real, part - imaginary land.
We certainly enjoyed getting off the beaten track and seeing places with some meaning for us and having inter-action with the locals. It was great fun and quite adventurous for a couple of 'oldies'.
We walked back to the Terminus hotel to pick up our luggage, have a well earned drink (Rose of course) to Kate Mosse, and a good rain journey home.
Carcassonne from the motorway lay-by (taken by James)
Awesome journey and story, such adventures!!
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