Day Seven: Thursday, October 9th On the Canal du Midi

Warmer this morning. Slightly overcast. Pretty quiet on the canal last night. We believe our boat battery is weakening. What better start to a day would French baked goods be? I can't think of anything else? Al and I hop on the bicycles to find some bakeries. Pat doing her sewing and Lana her word puzzles on her iPhone. We use our Google Maps to navigate to the bakeries. About 3 kms ride to Maison Mathey Boulangerie/Patisserie. I volunteered to sample a croissant! Yup, I know tough job and I can sacrifice for others! Bought one baguette de Cereals for the boat. 

These bikes have small wheels! Lots of fun on the bikes though, but not easy peddling, steering and checking on my iPhone Google Maps at the same time. Very good weather again. At various times we are cycling through vineyards, farmland, orchards full of olive trees and main highways. The second bakery is L'Atelier Ginestas. We buy a bunch of French pastries for 5.50Euro! Pain de chocolate, mini pain de chocolate and a croissant. Funny, but once we check our GPS to get back to the boat we discover it is a much shorter ride to the boat.


L'Atelier Ginestas baked goods or what's left....I am pretty sure French pastries are some of the best in the world with their butter, salt and flakiness. 


The baguette!

Back at the boat, we decide to head upstream and begin our return trip slowly to Trèbes Le Boat hub. We loved our time in Venetac-en-Minervois yesterday so will return and have lunch on the boat. Very strong wind gusts today which makes navigating more difficult for our skipper. We are heading into the wind the entire time. We moor close to where we moored yesterday. The ladies have made a delicious salad for lunch and I open the Rosé I bought the day before. Very light pink colour with a punch involving a Syrah/Grenache blend. Now around 14:45 and we will attempt to figure out where we will eat dinner tonight. Our phones are fully charged and it is 22 degrees in the sun. 


Check out the colour of this Rosé.

Tough decision, but we head back to Chateau de Ventenac that we wine tasted at yesterday afternoon. Same young engaging woman as yesterday pouring. At start all the lights were out as some sort of power outage in the village. No surprise given the winds. We sampled about five more wine each. Al bought a Viognier and I purchased two more wine to take to Vancouver as keepers. A Cuvée 38 at 12.50Euro being a red blend of 70% Syrah, 20% Grenache and 10% Carignan. Plus, my other keeper wine was a Cartagène 100% Grenache sweet and fortified at 16Euro. Lots of fun wine tasting!

These Minervois wines were excellent and inexpensive by anyone's standards. Next, we decide to wander around the village which meant heading uphill. Pretty sleepy small village. Al and I encountered an older German woman who had been sitting at the bus stop. She walked over and wanted to engage in a discussion. She did not speak French which seemed a little weird and my German is not good enough to hold a discussion. By the tine we return to the boat, most of the other boats are gone. Another lazy day and we are not keen on doing any more time going upstream. Our dinner tonight will be a two minute walk to La Grillade de Château. I phoned the restaurant to ensure they were open tonight at 19:00. All good!


Online pic of La Grillade de Château



This was quite a unique experience! As soon as we sat down at our table inside, we were welcomed by two chickens who figured we had some food or at some point there would be food on the floor. Maybe the owners have the chickens scrounge their food from diners and then serve the ducks when they are fattened?

We ordered an aperitif (Muscat) and a Pichet La Verre Blanc. A picket is basically a 'house' wine that can be served in various sizes. Verre is a glass. Pichet is the word for the wine that you can buy from a hose. We were never disappointed by their house wine. Total cost of meal = 48.50Euro.


Chèvre Chaud (Salad of warm goat cheese). This picture does not show just how large this salad was--it could have fed 4 people easily. 




Assiette Mediterranéene of shrimp, scallop, cuttlefish, mussels and two fish for 29.50Euro. Serving sizes are huge here!



Longest wifi password in history? Have you seen a longer password?




Sunset on the Canal du Midi!






Not sure why, but during the trip we could be inundated with flies. Swatting flies in the kitchen/galley.


After dinner Al and I went for a walk up the canal and back in the dark. Still windy! Used our headlamps so they came in handy. Total steps = 6,825. Another fantastic day on the canal! This really is a novel vacation experience. Everyone is enjoying themselves. Food, wine, new experiences...  

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