The Winter Travel Talk series will continue on Wednesday, February 15 at the Woods Hole Public Library with an illustrated presentation by Arthur Gaines of Falmouth. He will speak about a trip last June when a group of family and other friends rented a canal boat on the historic Canal du Midi. The canal is pat of a waterway created to join the Atlantic and Mediterranean, designed by Pierre Paul Riquet in the 1600’s. The passage between the two seas was made possible only through the construction of a series of locks; the most famous is a “staircase lock” of seven steps.
For a week the group traveled slowly along the canal, enjoying the local scenery, history, food, and wine. (As a friend from Falmouth had warned ahead of time “The water down there costs a lot more than the wine. I’m afraid you’ll have to drink wine.”) The vineyards of Languedoc and Minervois lay along this section of the canal.
The trip started just upstream from the town of Agde which has been a port since Phoenician times. On the first day one half of the ship’s company walked up into the city of Beziers, which was the site of an infamous massacre of thousands of Cathars in 1209. On that day in June, 2011 the central part of the city on the summit of the high hill above the canal was ringing with rock music.
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The group would anchor every night in a scenic location, always within a short walk or bike ride to the nearest village bakery for the morning baguettes and croissants. Afternoons often included visits to the local wine caves to sample the local products.
The trip culminated in a journey to the walled town of Carcassonne, which has withstood sieges many times through the ages, but now opens its gates and portcullis to hoards of tourists.
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The public is invited to see photographs of these places and hear more stories of the trip at the presentation in the lower level of the Library starting at 7:30. The event is free and easily handicapped accessible. For more information, call the Library at 508-548-8961 or visit the website at www.woodsholepubliclibrary.org .
