Canal du Midi - Secrets of Le Boat life

Cars, planes, trains, buses, subway, bike, on foot…we literally toured the South of France by every mode of transportation possible! Except for those adorable Vespa’s that filled the narrow streets!

Now that I mention it, I feel a little cheated we didn’t do that…I can just feel the wind in my hair… VROOMM, WISHHH, BANG as I collide with a tourist, wipe out an entire farmer’s market and probably a cat. All right they may have had a very good reason for skipping this mode, but look how cute they are! Vespa Photo from Diana Elizabeth – read her full post on Aix-En-Provence!

While the traveling by Rail Europe always provides some interesting sites, nothing tops the hands on experience received from two days of traveling via Le Boat. And yes, I do mean HANDS ON, it wasn’t exactly the relaxing river cruise we’d been envisioning after days among grand mansions and 5 star dinners.

Yet it’s probably one of the things I’ll remember the most because this was a true EXPERIENCE. Our boat had no choice but to be immersed in exactly what was happening each moment so as to ensure we didn’t sink, crash or miss the view in the moments we actually cruised.

RV PARK ON THE WATER
Let’s back up a bit to give you the full picture…we weren’t floating {yes not cruising these boats max out a bit slower than my easy paced run} alone. The Canal is filled with others who are out on holiday and many who seem to have dropped anchor for good along the beautiful shores.Inside the boat is exactly what you’d expect! A clean, comfy RV style living area with seating, a small kitchen, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. What it did not contain was a coffee maker, which meant that the group went old school to make their sweet nectar each morning…followed by an hour of attempting to boil an egg for scrambled eggs. Amusing to me since I needed neither of these things and thus was not waiting impatiently.

BOAT CREW
Our boat did not come with a captain or a crew…except the four of us who immediately began learning on the job! Le Boat provides the option to have a captain or to pilot your own ship so to speak. One of our boats had a captain {thank goodness or we never would have left port}.

Why no captain? Assume you are on a family trip for a week, do you want a random person hanging out 24/7 and sleeping there? Depends on the size of the boat and your level of comfort with boating. Personally we’d have been in trouble if Dave didn’t have his captains license because no one else had experience on a boat!Captain Dave passing below one of the many low bridges which required everyone to duck…trust me he looked far more confident the rest of the time..particularly when driving us through branches to create a little added hilarity to our day (thanks to Carol for capturing).
All right so what exactly was so much work?!
No we weren’t cleaning the boat, mopping or even cooking…
We were attempting to navigate through over 10 locks within a very short period of time.

What the bleep is a lock? {my thoughts exactly} “Boat locks are the infrastructure that lifts a boat from a lower body of water to a higher body of water without ever removing it from the water.” Sounds straight forward…if you know what you are doing and have a boat that is functioning 100%. Ours seemed to have rudder issues, drive issues and well us.

At the first lock captain Dave and I leapt from the boat, hold ropes from shore to keep the boat from floating forward as it descends. Watching the boat sink down, suddenly the captain is shouting across the way “GET ON”.

I’m sorry..what?

Get on the boat which is now feet below me and still moving? The person running the lock then began frantically shouting and my heart exploded {not literally}. Suddenly I was tossing ropes, running around the lock to leap on the other boat, then cross over to our boat…Whew well that was over! I laughed we started to cruise and roughly 2 minutes later hit the next lock. After repeating the process a few more times, we started to get the hang of it and could managed the initial tie up prior to the lock as we waited for traffic, then maneuver in to the lock with 3 other boats and get back out all body parts in tact. This was the one day I never changed out of my running gear as I was pretty much sweaty and covered in smelly water….but dang look at those legs.Eventually we had a moment to cruise and it was worth every single minute of sweat and confusion because the views were absolutely outstanding. In fact, my largest frustration is that we only cruised for the one afternoon. Then we docked for the night and were done on the canal.
Canal Du Midi Views from Canal Du Midi Catching my eye repeatedly were the many bikers along the path next to the Canal. We later learned it was a tour option set up by Discover France {yes I am absolutely trying to plan one of these trips!}.
Biking along the canal DINING ON THE WATER
One nice thing about having a captain…he was also the lunch chef! Firing up the grill atop their boat, he diced up a variety of fresh vegetables {which we helped him get at the market} and meats to create a seriously delicious lunch and yes of course the table was set, it was still France!

Because the French also do breakfast quite nicely, we were fully stocked each morning with the necessities: baguettes, croissants, jam, ham, prosciutto, eggs, coffee and stinky cheese.Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! I might ask to start in a location without so many locks and I would definitely take a day to bike along the canal, but it was super fun. The little towns where you dock overnight are charming and house surprisingly good restaurants. People on the water are friendly and everyone is just taking things nice and slow.