We are something of a curiosity on the canal being almost the only narrow boat. Canals in Europe are much wider than the UK (at least double the width) so the boat designers are not so constrained and all other boats are at least 15ft wide. Despite the name of the hire company being displayed on the side most people, including lock keepers, assume it is our own boat and that we have sailed it from the UK. (this can be done but crossing the channel in a narrow boat is not for the faint hearted). At the quayside people nudge each other and point to our boat, they probably think we are very hard up to have such a strange craft. A bit like being seen driving a Caterham.
Hire boats are limited to 15m long, other boats, mostly converted barges to 30m. We have met a few Brits sailing converted barges, Sirus from Bristol at the top of the page (yes they do sail it even with all the plants on deck) and Berendina from Lymington. At the top of the tree are the floating “Hotels”, Savannah pictured right has four cabins, sleeps between 2 and 7 guests and costs between 15,000€ and 30,000€ for a six days cruise see www.savannah-barge.com should you wish to book it.
On English canals there is very much a “neighbourhood watch” mentality amongst the people who own their own boats, go past at more than 2mph in a hire craft and they give you abuse and they certainly look down their noses at part time sailors. There is none of that here I am pleased to say, it is a far more relaxed atmosphere with the exception of the Italians.
They are maniacs, they rush round the boat throwing ropes in all directions while the captain (who almost certainly has a “Captains” hat) shouts at everyone. They then race down the canal and even jostle for position when leaving a lock. The two in the picture became stuck together as they were both pushing forward before the lock gates opened, the bad driving habits they have learnt on the streets of Rome have been brought to the Canal du Midi.
We have just passed back though Carcassonne on our return journey and found a better viewpoint for the classic city view shown below. Some idiot in the Town Council obviously thought it would be a good wheeze to encourage tourism by offering inducements to Ryan Air to use their airport. What they did not think through was that the take off route is straight across the city and the airport is quite close so every hour of so there is an almighty racket as a 737 roars across the rooftops.