We are now two days into our trip along the Canal du Midi with Tony and Rosemary Watt. We met up in Beziers. We had trained it down from Avignon and arrived in Beziers about 2 pm and moved into The Hotel Imperator, an impressive sounding place situated on the main boulevard. It has been around a while but then so have we, so it was more than ok…. the showers were hot, there was plenty of room and the bed was comfortable. After some wandering around town we enjoyed dinner at a small establishment down a back street….very tasty chicken and prosciutto,  and also a ground beef with mushroom sauce……. forgot what else was eaten! Next day we continued our wandering. Beziers is much more sprawling than we first imagined. It is a very old town and has an inviting aura.

Beziers central boulevarde

We walked down to the Canal du Midi and inspected some locks, the Watts have never experienced these before so this was a bit of look-see ahead of the trip. Later we were off to see some old cathedrals and do the initial shopping to providore the boat ahead of the canal trip.

Flower market in Beziers each Friday

Blacksmith doing his thing, lots of knives here

At the appointed hour of 2pm the 4 of us set off in a small taxi for Port Cassafieres to pick up our boat. After a bit of a wait, followed  by an induction and familiarization session we took control over the boat. We had decided to stay the night in the Port and start off the next morning. Timing wise this was good as it allowed us to familiarize ourselves with the boat and not rush off ill prepared.

The first stage of the trip is to take us to Colombiers about 25 km up the Canal. This will take us most of the day. But more of that next time.