Saturday 17th August
The good people of Beziers put on a special festival to welcome us.
It was huge, there were two big stages (seriously large with good sound systems and big screens to show the performers) and a third stage dedicated to Flamenco dancing. It had a Spanish theme and the poster featured a bull fighter but apart from the very nice steak I had at one of the stalls there was no evidence of animal cruelty. There were at least a thousand places to sit for diners and by 9pm the place was packed but somehow it was not as good as Michaelmas. The bands on the stages were awful and there was little going on besides that, no street theatre or other entertainment. Post Nice they have concrete barriers all round the town and armed soldiers patrolling! What good is a 20 year old with an automatic weapon in a crowd of civilians?
They did have a very good parade, the event has been going for 20 years and to celebrate they had 20 samba bands in the procession. Apart from that the best bit of the evening was watching the fountains which are lit at night, they are there all through the summer, so not really part of the festival.
It went on till 3am but we were safely tucked up in our cabin by then. This morning we did the sights, a Roman amphitheatre which, unbelievably to me, the water and telecoms companies were allowed to dig through to install sewers and cables for the surrounding houses. Can you imaging BT or Severn Trent being allowed to dig near a Roman site in England? We also visited the Cathedral which was big but not very pretty but it did have a splendid view from the top of the tower once we had climbed the 168 steps to get there.
We are now in Villeneuve des Beziers, a nice little village where hopefully we will have a nice dinner and good nights rest before going back up the staircase of locks tomorrow.
They also had very public, public toilets, at least for the men. Soldiers on patrol below - a bit worrying.