The Canal du Midi at Trebes Majestic Plane trees form a canopy

The weather is great, and Veleda is doing well considering that we have grounded a half dozen times and dug furrows on the canal bottom due to the shallow depth of this canal. Going through the half dozen locks between here and Carcassonne will be more difficult now that our friends have left. The locks are smaller and oval shaped, and the lock masters let the water in full blast, with the upper part of the lock looking like Niagara Falls.

Entering a lock	Somewhat turbulent	Foredeck crew - fend off!

But, the scenery is wonderful, and each night is beside another charming French town of Provence.

Enjoy this log about Toulon and Marseilles, and try the fish chowder recipe some time. My next log should get us into the Rhone delta and maybe get the mast down and into the canal.

All the best,

Aubrey

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Log #35b Toulon and Marseilles Beziers, Canal du Midi, France June 4, 2005

After refueling (96 Euros for 78 litres of diesel), we were directed over to the next pontoon inlet to moor alongside, near the capitainerie and the showers in Darse Vieille (old port) (43˚ 07.04’N, 005˚ 55.82’E) behind the ferry and cruise ship docks, and within a few hundred metres of downtown Toulon and its waterfront promenade. The Rade de Toulon (roadstead) consists of two well sheltered large bays, Grande Rade, the larger outer bay (4 miles by 2 miles) and Petite Rade the inner bay with the old harbour and navy base (2 miles by 1 mile) and protected by a large and smaller breakwater on the west side of Grande Rade.

The history of Toulon as a navy port dates back to the late 1500’s when the governor of Provence ordered Darse Vieille to be built. For 100 years or more the port was also known for the galley slaves, political and religious prisoners who rowed, and later were housed in, the ships, until the mid 1700’s when galley service was replaced by land prisons and transportation to colonies overseas. During the French Revolution, Toulon sided with the Royalists and in 1793 handed over the city to an Anglo-Spanish force to protect it. It was then that an artillery officer named Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the British at “Little Gibraltar” in the Toulon Rade in 1793, to be instantly made brigadier-general, starting his meteoric rise to French and European dominance. A technique he used in siting his forts was to have the gunports down low near the water level so that the balls skipped across the water to damage marauding ships. The departing British took part of the local population with them, but those unfortunates who remained were subject to the bloody retribution of the Republicans.

The harbour expanded with the French fleet and is now the largest French base in the Med and the second largest French naval base (after Brest). In 1942 during WW II, after France had surrendered to Germany, Vichy Admiral Laborde ordered over 60 French naval vessels scuttled in the harbour to prevent them falling into German hands. The admiral in charge of the French fleet in Oran in North Africa was not so decisive, and the British Royal Navy had to attack and destroy the fleet there to prevent it from being turned over to the Germans, as the Vichy government was prepared to do.

Much of Toulon was destroyed by Allied bombing during WW II, and the Germans blew up what was left of the dock area before they left. The Maritime Museum was OK. We found an internet café where I was able to network my laptop with its system, a handy arrangement when it is available. Around the waterfront were many tourist shops, local ferries, tour boats and bus ferries around the Petite Rade. A couple of blocks in from the waterfront were older buildings, narrow streets and a large market operating along several blocks while we were there. A tour train took us around some of the lovely beaches and parks, but nothing spectacular was seen.

We took a “busman’s holiday” by going on a harbour tour which took us around the naval docks and past some of the low-lying forts that once protected this strategic port. The weather was clear and sunny, and we had a good view of the ships in port. The aircraft carrier Clemenceau was in port, possibly being decommissioned as it looked stripped down and a bit forlorn. We passed many other ships: destroyers, frigates, minesweepers, support ships and submarines. The most interesting ships for me were the new stealth frigates. I had heard that the US navy was developing these, but here the French navy had operational a half dozen dull gray slab-sided missile-carrying frigates that are supposed to eliminate, deflect or reduce any radar detection.

Our next destination between Toulon and Marseilles was Les Calanques (same word we encountered in Corsica meaning steep sided inlets or fiords, similar to the Spanish term “Cala”), a dramatic region of high granite and limestone cliffs, deeply indented with narrow canyons, between Cassis and Cap Croisette. I would rate the Calanques of Corsica better because of the more colourful ferrous red cliffs, although the calanque in which we finally anchored, Calanque d’en Vau (43˚ 12.08’N, 005˚ 30.6’E), is magnificent because of the 300 foot jagged pinnacle-clad cliffs on both sides of this narrow (less than 50 metres wide) inlet, and the sandy beach at the end leading up a dry canyon over to Cassis a few miles away. The water is azure blue, crystal clear, with great visibility for snorkeling along the dramatic underwater rocks fringing the steep-to jagged shoreline. From Veleda we watched mountain climbers practicing scaling the cliffs with their pitons and lines, and rock walkers gingerly clambering across the low-lying stone faces along the shore, their rubberized footwear seeking out niches to wedge into while their powdered fingertips sought grips to traverse the sheer rock faces above the water. The fact that both the male and female climbers were wearing bikinis added to the interest.

We had looked at Cassis and it was just another big town with a marina. Calanque de Figuerolles had the beach sectioned off and the approach was uninteresting to us. We then tried the long narrow Port Miou, but it was covered with boats, boardwalks, and sailing clubs its whole 1.5 kilometre length. Port Pin, the other calanque extending NE from the entrance to Calanque d’en Vau, was exposed to the SW winds. Thus we settled on Calanque d’en Vau for a peaceful night and a dramatically stupendous view which we would rank as one of our top three scenic anchorages since arriving in Europe in 1999. The other two would be mountain-encircled bay of Senno di Ieranto (40˚ 34.5’N, 014˚ 42.1’E) (see Log #33m) on the Sorrento Peninsula, and Loch Scavaig on the west coast of the Isle of Skye in the middle (literally) of the jagged peaks of Cuillin Mountains of Scotland, (see Log #16f Highlands part 3). Next morning Andree, Jacques and I took a hike up the canyon marveling at the dramatic Gothic pinnacles reaching for the sky, isolated from the 300 foot cliffs edging this narrow chasm. A fairyland anchorage and canyon!

Off we went the 15 miles to Marseilles, motoring between Ile d’If around the outer Pointe de la Desirade and Chateau du Pharo and the historic Fort St. Jean (in cloudy rainy weather again) into the Vieux Port. Judy wanted to be in the old port since hearing the Tom Lewis shanty about Bunts, the Heinz 57 mascot of an RN tank landing craft that moored in the town centre here. The diplomatic landing ceremony was disrupted by the dog rushing off the gangway to copulate with an Afghan hound in front of the reviewing stand to the cheers of the sailors “for the first one who scored!”

The Captainerie where we first went had no space and was on the outer end of the port, and so we phoned ahead and went further in to the SNM Club for a comfortable mooring with water, showers and electricity for 25 Euros a night. It rained all afternoon! Jacques and Andree left us for a warm dry comfortable hotel at the end of the port before heading to Paris next day. However, we joined them for a farewell dinner at a local restaurant. Judy and I had bouillabaisse which is supposed to be a specialty of Marseilles. It was only OK, as I have liked milk based fish chowders more, such as the Joy of Cooking recipe which I have included at the end of this log.

The fisherman’s market still opens up each morning in the plaza at the end of the old port. The marine museum had many ship models, but otherwise was not of any great interest. The Musee d’Histoire de Marseilles was interesting, with well displayed archeological artifacts from Greek and Roman times uncovered when a new shopping plaza was being built just off La Canebiere, Marseilles’ historic central boulevard. Much of Marseilles was destroyed in WWII by both the Germans in retribution for the resistance fighters who plagued their occupation and then the Allies. We took a tour train ride around town, and enjoyed Marseilles more than Toulon. A force 8 gale was blowing outside and we had some frightening panoramas from various strategic headlands of the maelstrom, the whitecap covered wind-whipped seas bashing dramatically onshore. We were thankful Veleda was secure in the sheltered old port.

Orange, the maxi-cat that we last saw in Barcelona four years ago just before The Race of maxi-cats started their around-the-world race, is based in Marseilles and was out practicing each day, her silver and golden orange sails glistening in the sunlight.

We left for Iles de Frioul on the far side of Ile d’If across from Marseilles, heading for an anchorage in the sheltered Port de Pomegues, and as we were about to enter the bay, I heard a bang, but could not identify the source of the sound. Then I noticed our engine was no longer pumping water. I shut off the engine and turned seawards, unfurling the genoa to get us offshore while Judy opened the engine compartment to discover our alternator belt had broken. About six weeks earlier we had installed a new water pump belt and at the same time tightened the alternator belt. I guess we tightened it too much. We had spares, but the first one was the wrong size. The second one fit. However because of the heavy duty alternator, in order to install the belt we have to take off the engine pulley, fit the belt, then screw the pulley back on and adjust the tension before tightening the bolts on the alternator arm. Lots of fun!

When we finally entered the bay, we had to stay just inside the entrance as the whole inner bay is now taken up with a fish farm. Next morning we went around into the marina at Port Frioul to leave Veleda while we took the ferry across to Ile d’If to tour the Chateau d’If made famous by Alexander Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo. The chateau was originally a defensive garrison when built between 1524 and 1531, then for several centuries was a prison for Protestants and other heretics, debtors, and opponents of Napoleon III. It is a three story square citadel with a small courtyard in the middle, three corner towers with gun platforms to dominate the sea entrances to Marseilles, and dungeons beneath each. There was even a cell with stones removed to represent the cell of the fictional Edmond Dantes complete with the passage he opened to link up with Abbé Faria.

Port de Frioul is a well-protected marina and resort area in the lee of a large causeway linking the northern Ile Ratonneau and the southern Ile de Pomegues. The islands are lightly populated, and have a couple of forts now abandoned, plus one still used as a communications and antenna farm. As well, there is an abandoned quarantine hospital settlement where 200 years ago thousands of plague victims were isolated and died. I enjoyed exploring these ruins, scaling the heights of the islands. However on being dive-bombed by aggressive seagulls I took defensive measures and actually hurled handfuls of gravel at them to keep them at bay. It felt something like Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds”. I remembered smiling at the sign at Chateau d’If warning about aggressive seagulls, but now realized why it had been put up. The islands had several idyllic calanques, nestled into the cliffs with clear water revealing the rock formations along the shorelines, several having sandy beaches at their inner ends. I was tempted to take Veleda into one of them for a day or so, but we wanted to get into the Camargue area, specifically to Saintes Maries de la Mer for the Gypsy Festival on May 24th and 25th, and so left next day for the Rhone Delta.

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Fish Chowder (8 to 10 servings)

Prepare 3½ pounds of boneless skinless fish fillets (salmon, monkfish, cod
or halibut)
(excess skin and bones removed)

Place in a large soup pot 4 ounces of meaty salt pork or 4 slices of diced
bacon and cook, stirring over low heat until slightly crisp, for about 10
minutes.

Add and cook
4 tablespoons (one stick) of salted butter
2 large onions diced
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
until the onions are tender but not browned, about 10 minutes on low heat.

Stir in:
3 large potatoes peeled and diced into ¼ inch cubes
3 cups of fish stock or broth

Bring to a boil reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender (about 20
minutes).

Remove the bay leaves. Stir in the fish fillets and 2 cups heavy cream.
Simmer until the fish is cooked through and beginning to flake, 8 to 10
minutes.

Season with:
Salt and ground pepper to taste
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley or chervil

Remove from the heat and serve, topping each bowl with a dollop of butter.






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