The French Finale - Almost

Today is Friday and our final day to play. We traveled from Argens back to Homps and found a slip for our boat. We went into the little town to discover the local sights. Judging by the looks of most of the buildings and, having seen quite a bit of this country's architecture, this is a well-preserved medieval town.








We know for a fact it's been around since the 7th century because we found St. Stephen's church dating back to that era. We also found the ruins of Chateau Knights of the Maltese Cross. Along with these old places we walked along cobble-stoned streets; some lined with apartments and businesses. There are some cute cafes lining the banks of the river; one which will be our dinner destination.







We found a local marche and purchased some lunch meat, baguette, and souvenirs (all in one store!). Then we found another store where they sell wine and gourmet foods. We all bought gifts to take home; hopefully, TSA won't have a problem with what we're trying to bring with us.

Our dinner reservation is for 7:30 this evening. It is 5:18 PM here and some are reading, some are napping, Kath is doing crossword puzzles, and me... I'm happy to be sending you a snippet of our journey.

Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 8:00 AM. Tour de France 2011 is about to come to an end. It has been a major success; most of our trip went rather smoothly which is remarkable considering the size of our group. However, none of this was by luck. We have been talking about and planning this trip for almost a year. Julieanne, Susan and Linda researched Prague and it's glorious sights. Kathy, Amelia and Karen led us through Paris and the canal as if they've lived here all their lives. My hat off to all and a deep sense of gratitude.

It has been my absolute pleasure and honor to bring you some of our most memorable moments. Thank you for clicking in and following the adventures of these 7 Broads Abroad. Stay tuned - who the heck knows where we'll go next.






Au revoir!
BBB

Sailing the Ocean Blue (Not really)

It's more like put-putting the canal brown!

Me again, BBB, broadcasting from Homps (the last little town we will visit today and the place where we say adieu to our boat The Magnifique).

I am a day behind so I will catch you up to the last two days. We were motoring up river towards our turn-around point; maneuvering the locks and enjoying the quiet. The scenery was beautiful and we were all reveling in our leisurely cruise. Please travel with us for a little while...








We are in the Languedoc region of southern France; not too far from the Mer Mediterranee (yea, yea...the Mediterranean Sea). They produce a lot of wine here and have been doing so since the 8th century B.C. The Romans came here around 118 B.C. but after the fall of the empire wine making declined. Afterward, most of the wine being produced was coming from abbeys and monasteries. Trying to avoid heavily taxed Roman roads through Bordeaux, the wine-makers had to ship their products around Spain. Both options were not very profitable; as a result, wine production was at a stand-still. The opening of this canal, the Canal du Midi, in 1681 that gave winemakers better access to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. (I'm sure you didn't need this little history lesson but it's important that you get the whole picture of the place...these villages are ancient). Traveling this canal requires boats to pass through a series of locks.





Most of our day's journey was quiet and uneventful; if you can call squeezing into a small space with two other boats and being lowered or raised about 10 feet uneventful. Actually, the lock system is very fascinating for those of us (like mois) who've never seen them up close and personal. As a matter of fact, many people stop at the locks to watch all of the maneuvering; some of them waiting for someone to fall into the murky, filthy water. It is a harrowing experience if you're on the boat clinging to a rope to hold the boat steady or at the helm trying to figure out if you're too close, too far, or too anything. I hope you all know what a lock is; if you don't, read about them because, as I said, it's a fascinating process.

I will add this now: my boat mates were not experts at bringing a boat through a lock before we got here but you would have been proud of them. Julieanne (in this picture shielding herself from the disgusting spray) and Susan expertly slung the bow and stern lines to our ground people, Linda and Karen. Our hooker, Amelia, made sure we didn't hit the wall with the side of the boat and Kathy maneuvered the boat in and out of the chambers. It got to the point that it became a fun game for all of them and they handily got us through with only one mishap (we lost one bumper - a big plastic tube that cushions the side of the boat from being smacked - but were close enough to retrieve it). Everyone had a job to do and they all did it well.

The tranquil scenery and hot weather lent itself to sleepy lounging and game playing. On Wednesday we pulled over on the banks of the canal near the town of Argens-Minervois and under the shaded canopy created by the sycamore trees that line both sides. It was a perfect spot for us to be away from the hub-bub and yet close enough to walk to the small marche (market) for fresh bread and fruits. Susan started us off with appetizer platters of different cheeses, salami, fennel and baguette. Kathy made us an incredibly delicious dinner of cassoulet and au-gratin potatoes. Linda made a tomato and onion salad and we cut up lots and lots of baguette. Twas magnifique!!!

On Thursday morning we walked into the little village. There was not much to see other than an old castle that is being converted into homes. However, Susan found the remnants of an old church from the 10th century as well as the town cemetery. After our walk, we went back to the boat, and proceeded down river. We had breakfast on the boat as we headed toward Chateau du Ventenac-en-Minervois, our final destination westward and turn-around point. It was a fun stop where we purchased some good wine and even had one of our large water bottles filled with their local swill. Later we commented about the inexpensiveness of the great wines we'd been buying.

 

Again we stopped at Argens-Minervois for the night. We dined at a lovely outdoor cafe right on the canal and had scrumptious food: prawns, duck, mussels, beef and lamb. We shared some desserts and, 3 hours later, got back to the boat.

We had our night caps and recaps at the cafe and were ready for bed. Lights went off, we closed our eyes and all was right with the world.

Flying Pigs and Knights of Carcassonne

First, I apologize for bombarding you with three blogs at one time. You see, we're in southern France, on a boat, cruising the Canal Midi at about 5 MPH, and have very little access to Wi-Fi. Did you miss them? I thought so....

As I mentioned previously, we were driven to Trebes, our final (now starting) destination. We woke up early on Tuesday, ate a quick continental breakfast, ordered a taxi and 20 minutes later we were facing a well-preserved castle dating back to the Romans and the place where Charlemagne was fooled into retreating from a three-year siege. Let me 'splain, Lucy: the lore surrounding this place is that, many moons ago, Carcassonne (then called La Cite) was under attack by Charlemagne and his knights. At one point, after three years of mayhem and close to starvation, a certain Madame Carcas (don't know what importance she had in this small village) had the brilliant idea that she would fatten up a pig with all the food they had left and have it tossed over the walls onto the enemy camp. Charlie's peeps were taken aback; if these people had so much food left over that they could fatten a pig, there would be no end to this siege. They left.

You can believe what you want; but it's a pretty clever story and there is a statue in one of the squares dedicated to Madame Carcas.

Picture yourself a knight or lady back in the medieval era. More often than not, those pictures come from a movie you once watched. This place looks just like a movie set. Everything is old, older, oldest. There are walls with arrow slits, moats, a drawbridge, iron gates, cobble stone streets as narrow as my driveway, the requisite church, a torture chamber (that we didn't see), and many shoppes selling a variety of wares. If not for the throngs of tourists, it was a step back into time. Two quick notes about that church: One, it has not been prettied up like the rest of the churches we visited in Paris. It is rustic and medieval and "looks" old and very cool. Two, there was a choir of five male voices that sang for the crowd. AMAZING!!! We bought their CD.

While it seems like it, it was not our intention to specifically visit mostly churches in Prague and France. However, because of their religious, historical and architectural importance, Europeans have and will always show them off to the world and we were just 7 Broads ogling at their beauty. The added bonus was that, in Paris, there was music, incredible music; the kind that touches your soul and blesses you with it's beauty.

We had a quick lunch within the castle walls (cassoulet is their specialty - a delicious stew with duck, sausage, and white beans - yummmmyyyy!) and headed back to boat. Our captain gave us our instructions, different jobs and we are off!!

We came upon our first lock; which is when I paused in the previous blog. Unfortunately there was an accident with a boat ahead of us; a man broke his foot when the boat smashed it against the locke wall. This was not a good thing to happen but it helped as a lesson to the rest of us on what NOT to do.

The first leg of the trip was full of locks; Amelia counted 13 chambers that we had to prepare the boat. Let me introduce you to the "lockers": Kathy at the helm, Amelia and Linda in charge of the stern, Karen and Julieanne in charge of the bow. Susan and yours truly on stand-by. We were trying to get as far down river as possible to find a place to moor for the night. The ride down the river (where there are no lockes) is rich with vegetation, quiet, warm and breezy. Truly serene.


We found La Redort, a small village along the Midi that has a nice place to park your boat. The small restaurant within 20 steps of our landing offered delicious and plentiful dishes. We had our customary carafes of vin blanc and vin rouge and back to the boat for night caps and re-caps; with the world all was right. :-)

Chatanoogois Choo-Choo to Le Boat

Bon jour! Monday was a loooooong day; we had to be up by 5 a.m. to be picked up by the transportation service to take us to the train station on our way to Narbonne. It was a quick four hour trip since all us napped on the way there. Arrived safely and groggy and hungry (what else is new?)

After grocery shopping and lunch, we were picked up by a lovely woman (her name was Katerine) in a very comfortable and roomy van to drive us into Homps where we were to pick up our barge. Honestly, I don't know the diff between boats and barges so I won't even try to explain it to any of you and I don't have Wi-Fi power to look it up. Aaaanyway, on the ride there, Katie told us (under the dome of silence) that our boat would not be ready. She said the rental company was trying to fix it but weren't sure if they could by the time we were supposed to take it over and we may have to be transported to Trebes to pick up a different boat. The bad thing about that is Trebes is where were going to end our trip down the Canal Midi.

Katie suggested that, if they were going to change our plans and send us chasing another boat, we should bargain for a better vessel and free transport. While the turn of events was very disconcerting, the information she offered was incredibly valuable; it gave us time to think about our reactions and options.

And so it was that at Homps we were told our boat was not fixed. We were offered another boat to be picked up at Trebes. And guess what? (Sorry, you wouldn't have any idea.) We were given the Mystique, a beautiful 4 bedroom boat that we had considered renting but decided against it because it was too expensive! We, with our best poker faces, accepted their offer and innocently inquired as to how we would get there. The manager asked Katie to drive us to Trebes and the entire transport would be on the house! Yipeeeeee, not a bad deal at all.

At Trebes, Captain Kathy and co-captain Amelia were given instruction on how this beauty works. In the meantime, Karen and Linda decided they would go to the store for ice and bread by bicycle. Silly them, they woke up with Mal de butt. What were they thinking?

We ate at a small restaurant across from where we were moored. I need to mention that one of the offerings (which I had to try) was Mexicaine pizza. It was a large pie with fresh tomato, cheese, onion, oregano, sausage and chorizo. The only funny part to this story is that the chorizo, while delicious, was not Mexican at all! Is was Spanish; we truly are of one world.

Back at the boat, some night caps and re-caps later; we slept on our boat for the first time. All was well with the world.

Adieu Paree

(Sorry for the delay in posts. We are traveling down the canal and are finding it hard to get an Internet connection. I am posting what I can today and will try to catch up tonight. Also, I will update the pictures later...having some technical difficulties.)

C'est fini! BBB here writing about our last day in Paris. Last we spoke, we went out to dinner to celebrate Linda's birthday. For some reason, a third and fourth gear kicked in for all of us and we didn't go to bed until 4 a.m. Some of us were out dancing, others of us were at the apartment enjoying night caps and reminiscing our previous three fabulous days. It's up to you to guess who was where.

Needless to say, it was a slow Sunday morning. We awoke with a desire to watch news about back home about any memorial celebrations dealing with the tenth anniversary of 9/11.

Wait a sec..... ok I'm back. Had to stop for a while because we are moving the boat to another holding position. More on this another time...

Back to my story... we were able to watch a CNN special of the commemoration events. We were all moved and talked about the memories we each have of that fateful day. May God bless America.

After munching on a wonderful quiche that Kathy made for us, we were off on our last adventure. We caught two cabs and were whisked off to Montmartre, another historic (what isn't) part of Paris and the area where the original bohemians, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, hung out. Our taxi dropped Julianne, Susan and I at the bottom of the butte so we had to hoof it up some cobble-stoned streets. With some huffing and puffing we made it to the front of Sacre-Coeur (Sacred Heart) Basilica at the top of the hill and met up the Karen, Amelia and Linda. What a gorgeous view!!! You can see Alaska from up there! (Can you tell a little exaggeration when you read it?) Ok, maybe you can't see Alaska but you can see pretty far.

We entered the massive structure that was actually built just a century ago (brand new by Parisian standards). Rick Steves' book mentions that France's catholics raised money to build the church as a kind of penitence. They were convinced they were being punished for the country's liberal sins. There was a Mass service being held while we were there with nuns singing and the priest praying for harmony throughout the world. A special prayer was offered for the victims of 9/11.

We walked around the little square, did some shopping, and even stood outside the small lounge where Edith Piaf first sang "La Vie en Rose". Karen and Amelia did more walking and the rest of us headed back to the apartment to pack and get ready for the third leg of the trip. We asked our cab driver to drive past the Moulin Rouge for pictures; we knew we wouldn't be able to see the famed Can Can dancers but at least we could say we saw the building.

We had pizza for dinner; finished off the rest of the open wine and all was good with the world.

Disneyland Part Deux

Bon soir! Yes it's me again, the BBB, writing a new piece about our past two days in Paris. On Saturday, the seven of us leisurely made our way to Notre Dame where we met our friends from Germany, Magda and Barbara. The line was long but was moving rather quickly; each of us was taking one picture after the other perhaps in hopes that the digital image would better describe the reality in front of us.


We were told that it took 200 years to make this cathedral; and, wow, was it worth every second! I was afraid to ask how much it cost; I don't think I can count that high anyway.


As we entered the famed and mammoth building, it was immediately apparent that this was not your average, run-of-the-mill, medieval church. First, we could hear angels singing (ok, maybe I exaggerate a little, it was music from a CD being piped in through some very modern speakers but it sounded like angels to me).


I am not too proud to admit that after a while, I was on sensory overload and a when I came upon the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary and her Baby Jesus, one or two tears escaped from my eyes. It was a magnificent piece. I tried to recover enough to enjoy the rest of the beautiful art that is housed there and there is much. We were told that THE Crown of Thorns resides at this church. We didn't get to see it because they only bring it out on special occasions; I guess Rome didn't get word we were headed this way... maybe next time.


In front of the church building there is a round marker that designates the center of all France. It is said that all distances are measured from here. Why?


I know I've said this before, so I won't say it again...

After much picture taking and blubbering we left Notre Dame and split up into smaller groups. Our group decided our next destination would be the Louvre. Note to self: when you are looking at a map and the place you want to reach looks like it's just a couple of blocks away, it isn't. We walked and stopped and walked and stopped and walked even more.





Needless to say, we were exhausted and hurting and thirsty but we got there. First impression? Huge. Second impression? Even bigger than we thought; the place goes on forever.


Do the French know how to make anything small? No matter, we got to see some beautiful Renaissance paintings and the Lady herself.


We caught a taxi for home (the apartment) and relaxed for a few hours in preparation for our night out in celebration of Linda's birthday. Bon anniversaire, notre amie! Grand dejeuner, grand vin and all is right with the world.

Location:Rue du Champ de Mars,Paris,France

Misc Pics.....too tired to write!

Linda with her Birthday Scarf!



Julienne and Susan just a hangin' !!



Karen and Amelia saying Bonjour in the morning!



Tish checking out the Versailles!



Gosh, I can't remember who took this picture, but apparently we were going out on the town for my birthday dinner!



Girls on the way to Versailles, via the C RER!



Guess where we are?




And moi with my sultry french look......darleeen!!

More later,
This post by Kathy