For newcomers

At the bottom of each post there is the word "comments". If you click on it you will see comments made by followers, and if you follow the instructions you may also comment and I always welcome that. I have found many people overlook this part of the blog which is often more interesting than the original post!

My blog nick-name is SIR HUGH. I'm not from the aristocracy - my middle name is Hugh which relates to the list of 282 hills in Scotland compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. I climbed my last one (Sgurr Mor) on 28th June 2009

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Monday 24 August 2015

Canal du Midi - Day 12



I am writing this at home a couple of days after my return.

I was able to get a good photo of the boat next morning because my canal path crossed to the other side from Colombiers onwards.

Two and a half hours took me to the point of departure from Canal du Midi at Ecluses de Foncerannes. Here there was a Tourist Information Office and they booked me into the Hotel de France in the centre of Béziers which involved a forty minute walk, again in oppressive heat, and after  more than 150 miles of flat, unwelcome ascent.

I had been given a street map, but it only gave main names and I was having difficulty in a maze of steep little streets. I was hot and bothered, soaked in sweat, and trying to read the map when I fell with no conception of it happening - at one point I was walking and in a nano-second my face had hit the concrete - I had tripped over a four inch high concrete strip - these were embedded at intervals to one side of the pavement, for what reason I know not.

My nose was bleeding, and a lady and a man appeared and helped and took me to a nearby water pump where I cleaned up. The lady departed and I was left with Mr. T (T for taxi - more in a bit). At first I was very grateful and thanked Mr. T profusely. When he learnt where I was heading he offered to take me. It took about twenty minutes to the hotel, and as we walked we chatted in French and he established I was flying back the next day and revealed that he was a taxi driver and wanted to get the job of taking me to the airport. I had already established bus transit details and wanted to stick to my plan, but he became ever more insistent, and I think he was mentioning a potential fare of 60 Euros. I found the change from my gratefulness for this guy's help to my dogged declining of his pestering very uncomfortable, but I was determined and stuck it out until we got to the hotel where we parted on a less friendly basis than our earlier meeting.

I had a siesta in my room then a wander round the town and a trip to the bus station to locate the exact departure point for the airport bus. I had an enjoyable evening meal to celebrate including a good cigar which the waiter had obligingly disappeared into the town's darkness to procure, returning with the trophy and refusing payment. I do not smoke, but I occasionally indulge in the pleasure of a good cigar, the last time being over three years ago.

Next day the bus didn't depart until 14:50. There is only one bus that day which relates to the particular flight you are taking, so if you miss it you are in serious trouble - Ryanair only fly back from B to Manchester on two days of the week.

So, I partook of sacred French déjeuner, but before that I was having a leisurely morning coffee at a tree lined square, pavement café watching the world go by and musing on recent events when my thoughts were interrupted by someone addressing me - it was Mr T !

I don't know if it was coincidence on his part or whether he had found some means of tracking me, but he started all over again with his sales pitch for the taxi job. He tried to unsettle me by saying there were three airports, Bézier (which he gave another name to), Toulouse, over 150 miles away, and Montpelier, perhaps 60 miles away, and he was suggesting that if I din't go along with him I may end up at the wrong one. Again I managed to fend him off.

French bus stations are organised much better than ours with electronic signage and clearly marked destination boards, and my bus arrived promptly and the twenty minute ride cost less than 5 Euros.

CLICK PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

Inside my boat chambre d'hôtes

The boat next morning from the new side of the canal

Béziers

This guy was propelling his infant by radio control

A Pierre-Paul Riquet - mastermind of the Canal du Midi

A bientôt !

8 comments:

  1. Glad to see you are back in one piece from your lovely French sojourn.
    Brandy and cigar - you must have been pleased with completing your adventure. Well done.

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  2. I wondered if anybody would notice the Cognac. You get bigger measures over there.

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  3. About four or five years ago - bringing your present age and mine then more or less together - we as a family were sauntering about Lodève about 40 km north of Béziers. We had decided to inspect the huge church there and I wasn't paying too much attention when I stumbled over a parking bollard. People rushed to my aid, many of them - it seemed - older than me. My wrist was sprained but the sense of humiliation predominated. I managed to insist that a pharmacie, about to close for lunch (the time was about 12.59.5) stayed open and they sold me a wrist brace that cost an appalling €45.

    I wondered if my accident and yours were destined to happen to members of our family if we persisted in holidaying in the Languedoc.

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  4. RR ` I wouldn't mind going back there, but not to walk in summer. If we went together do you think we could have a simultaneous accident, a bit like synchronised swimming?

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  5. your reply to RR raises an interesting (philosophical? - not just semantic) point - can one plan an accident - or would would be less deterministic ?
    I enjoyed your walk
    Although springtime might be kinder, I suspect that sustenance might be even harder to find !
    (the website I referred to was for boat-hirers, and was cited to show how misleading they are, not your veracity !)

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  6. gimmer - I have from time to time experienced a phenomenon which leads me to consider the plausibility of causality. For example, having the thought that I haven't fallen so far on a walk, then almost straight afterwards falling. This has happened in other contrasting contexts.

    The science studying coincidence is interesting. We often wonder at unexplainable happenings - the sensing of danger to another at the exact moment when they are miles away etc. But scientists and statisticians seem to take the romance out of these events and find logical answers.

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  7. Hope you have recovered from the fall. It sounded like a challenging walk and rather an ordeal in the heat.

    Interesting phenomenon - thinking of something and then doing it. It's almost certainly related to the suggestibility of your subconscious mind.

    Most of the everyday things we do, such as the action of walking, eating, getting dressed, etc. are triggered by a conscious thought but are actually carried by the unconscious part of our mind while the conscious bit of our brain starts thinking about something else. 'I'm going to put my shirt on now', for example, will trigger the action of getting dressed while you begin to think about what you might eat for breakfast.

    So, when your conscious mind thinks of an action, like falling over, your unconscious mind may attempt to be helpful and carry it out.

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  8. A very logical sounding explanation from one dedicated to science to one who finds it all a bit of a mystery. Thanks.

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