17 June Day 10 to Beziers

We started out as soon as we got up in the morning so that we could get into the morning queue for the Fonserannes.

Beautiful clear warm morning so we breakfasted on the roof. Bill was helmsman for the day. We made it to the Fonserannes in good time and got into the locks going down with the second batch of boats.

Interesting note about the staircase locks at Fonserannes –they had to be cut from solid rock and were built by a workforce of mainly women.

A note about the locks on the canal - they are 30.5m (100ft) long, oval in construction, 6m (20 ft) wide at the gates and 11m (36 ft) in the middle, all under the management of the French Navigation Authority (Voies Navigables de France)

Because we got into the morning session on the staircase it meant that we could tie up in Beziers and spend the day there.  

We walked through the “Plateau des Poetes” a beautiful public garden containing the monumental sculpture “Titan” by the architect Injalbert.

On strolling along the tree lined Allees Paul Riquet past the statue of Paul Riquet we found a café “Le Cristal” where we stopped for a salad lunch.

After lunch we continued on up the Allees and then weaved our way through the streets to the St Nazaire’s cathedral and cloisters  

Magnificent view of the Orb valley from the The Bishops Garden

Some of the group walked back through the streets of town, others walked back along the banks of the river Orb. We returned to the boat in the late afternoon for some R and R as it was pretty hot outside.

We decided seeing as it was our last night out that we should all go out for dinner, problem was we couldn’t find anywhere that was open. We finally found out that there were 10 restaurants at the top of a new shopping centre called the Polygon. A total contrast to where we had been during the day, wandering the ancient streets of the city. We decided on Le Patacrepe, where once again the meals (crepes) were huge.

The fountain In the centre of the shopping centre was a mini replica Fonserannes, so we couldn’t resist having a photo taken together alongside the fountain

When we got back to the boat we had another photo taken with Dorothy’s scarves