Log #35j Toulouse and into the Garonne Canal

Toulouse

Toulouse is the fourth largest city in France, with ancient churches and the medieval section and the main central part between the Garonne River and the canal where we were moored. However it is also a modern high tech centre, as its industries include manufacturing centres for the Ariadne space rockets, and the Airbus consortium that has produced the latest largest passenger airliner (the Airbus 380) about to go into service in the next year or so. We tried to get a tour of the plant, a rival to the Boeing plant in Seattle, but they were booked up until the end of July.

We did get to their Space Centre (Cite de L’Espace), a display area as good as if not better than the Kennedy Space Centre at Cape Canaveral. They had several of the Ariadne rockets and engines, and other space capsules on display. There was a copy of the MIR space station which we could walk through, and an IMAX movie of the International Space Station in operation. All the displays had printed English translations or English audio on the headphones we wore which could be activated for each display or area. They had several fun, hands-on activities, from sound directional telephones to GPS locators, hand spun gyroscopes on a rotating platform, and for us a computer game of the single-handed round-the-world race. The computer video showed fantastic pictures of the yachts, and the storm conditions they experienced in the southern oceans, including the rescue of Tony Bullimore, who survived inside his overturned yacht for several days before rescue. After viewing the summary of the race and courses of the various yachts, we were challenged to decide the best courses for various legs of the race, given the wind and wave directions and strengths, and barometric data. When we entered the chosen courses, the results were then given and compared to the courses chosen by the winners. There was also a planetarium presentation and other videos of the manufacture and launches of the rockets. A most enjoyable day was spent there.

We wandered through several of the ancient 11th and 12th centuries) cathedrals, including Saint Sernin Basilica, and the Cathedrale St. Etienne, found a couple of internet spots, visited the Musee St. Raymond, and enjoyed a sea shanty performance in one of the university’s cellar pub theatres, as well as a couple of enjoyable restaurant meals, courtesy of David.

One of the more disturbing museums we visited was the Resistance Museum, with a good display of WW II, focusing on the occupation of France and the Resistance movement. It must have torn French society apart and possibly still does. Toulouse was in the Free French zone, not occupied until late in the war as the resistance stiffened, especially in support of the allied landings in Normandy. We saw some horrible pictures of the concentration and death camps as they were liberated, even worse than we have seen in other Holocaust museums. The complicity of some of the French officials in handing over trainloads of Jews and others was outlined. If the Resistance were heroes, what were the officials who co-operated with the Nazis to try to save French society? – A terrible conundrum! In many of the towns we have seen monuments with many names from WW I, but not many from WW II, other than the occasional Nazi reprisal or death of captured Resistance fighters. When we were in Verdun, we noted that General Petain saw the slaughter of both sides in WW I, and possibly wanted to avoid such in WW II. He did for the French soldiers, but not for others.

We enjoyed the marina, paying only 5 Euros a night. The port captain is a very friendly and informative lady. It also had a washer and dryer for only 3 Euros a wash and 3 Euros a dry, assisted by the port captain. Judy started taking out the old Benmar self steering system and fitting the new computer, fluxgate compass and control panel of our new RayMarine ST 6001 Smart Pilot below deck self steering system in suitable locations. We even started running some of the wires to connect the system up. However we will need help as the existing quadrant has no centre arm to connect the linear drive to. This could be a major problem. We spent an evening on Limin’ Times, meeting Barbara’s friend from Canada and the friend’s granddaughter from England.

We had to wait over the weekend as we needed to renew our VNF pass for the canals, and of course the office was closed on Saturday. As it did not open until 1000 on Monday, Judy and David went for the pass while I took the memory wand for a walk, trying to find an open internet café. I found three of them with published hours from 1000 to 2100, but none of them was open by 1045, so I gave up in disgust after an hour and a half walking my memory wand.

Into Canal Lateral a la Garonne

We finally left at 1120 July 11, heading for the last three locks of the Canal du Midi and into the Canal Lateral a la Garonne, or as it sometimes called the Canal de Garonne or just the Garonne Canal. It runs roughly parallel to the Garonne River (thus Canal Lateral) for 193 kilometres to Castets-en-Dorthe, where it emerges into the tidal Garonne River about 25 miles or 52 kilometres above Bordeaux. Past Bordeaux it becomes la Gironde, a long estuary over 100 kilometres in length, until it reaches the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic Ocean.

The last three locks of the Canal du Midi from our mooring at Port St. Sauveur were larger rectangular locks, not like the small oval locks on the rest of the canal. I was to find out later that these locks were larger to accommodate large barges, coming from Bordeaux 200 kilometres away and from further up the Gironde, to the Airbus plant in Toulouse. These are big blue barges with Airbus 380 emblazoned on their sides, carrying wings, fuselages, engines and other large parts for this monstrous airplane to be assembled in Toulouse. It was a pleasure to be in large rectangular locks again, and still going downhill.

It only took us 40 minutes to go through these last three locks for a descent of about 12 metres, then we tied off a bumper boat for lunch rather than risk yet another grounding up against the banks. In the afternoon, after the lunch stop, we went quite expeditiously through 9 more locks to spend the night alongside (aground again) the bank at Grisolles, PK 27. The Pointes Kilometres are measured from the beginning of the Canal Lateral a la Garonne, PK 0, to Castets-en-Dorthe at PK 53 where it enters the tidal Garonne River. So that first day we traveled 33 km (27 on the Garonne Canal, and the last 6 km of the Canal du Midi) or 17 nautical miles and cleared 12 locks in 6 ½ hours from setting out to mooring, including a one hour lunch stop. It was an active day!

To add to the complications, the automated locks had a different system to activate them. We didn’t find this out until at the first lock on the Garonne Canal I had directed David, our shore party, to press the button with the finger pointing to it, as we could not see the usual green button for starting the process. However, that was the emergency call button! While talking to the canal emergency personnel, we discovered that there was a small lever, with instructions, in English as well, to activate the sequence. We turned the lever, the gates started to close, and the procedure continued. We tried to call back to the emergency centre, but he was already on his way. However we did not wait and just went through. The next few locks there were a few inconsistencies in the light display system. The proper procedure when approaching an automatic lock is to wait until a red and a green light are displayed, then proceed to the suspended rod about 100 metres from the gates, twist it, and slowly approach the gates when a flashing yellow light is displayed. The gates usually will open and then a green light is displayed indicating it is safe to enter and activate the rest of the procedure from inside the lock. However one lock displayed only red until we twisted the pole, then lights were displayed appropriately. There was another lock which gave us a green light, yet the gates were still closed on us.

To add a further complication, a crew member had to stay on the lock side to activate the opening of the gates after the water levels were equalized. This meant that this person then had to climb down a ladder in the lock, or go down steps the far side of the lock, to join the boat again. The gates were timed to close in three minutes. Any screw-ups and we were stuck inside the lock. Fortunately this did not happen to us. Other locks earlier in the Canal du Midi system were fully automatic and the gates would open automatically when the water levels equalized. It was not too bad when David was with us; but later, after he left, Judy, who stayed on board fending off forward during the descent, would have to climb up the ladder, pull the release lever, and scramble back down so we could exit within the three minute period (if I was able to manoeuvre through the backwash currents to get the bow over to the ladder without bashing our overhanging mast foot so she could climb on board). Lots of fun!

We found our speed was up in this canal, as the mid-channel depths were 8 to 10 feet rather than 5 or 6. We were not plowing furrows on the bottom as much now, but the banks were still too shallow to go alongside without grounding in the mud. There was surprisingly little traffic of charter boats, considering it was mid-July, but this canal is not as attractive as the Canal du Midi. It meant, though, that we had most of the locks to ourselves, a mixed blessing, as we were not afraid of a bumper boat bashing into us, but on the other hand there were no other crew to open the lock gates for us.

Things were going along reasonably well until David went in for an unplanned swim. More about that and our arrival in Bordeaux in my next log.

 

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