Day 4 - 6: Touring Carcassonne and Returning to Argens Minervois- (Back to Day Three)

 
Port du Plaisance, CarcassonneThe next day we moved our barges to a berth between the railroad bridge and the ecluse de Carcassonne.  That day there was a celebration of the availability of the latest vintage of wine from the Aude region (The Canal du Midi parallels the River Aude for much of its length).  The party was held next the to the ecluse, near where we were berthed.  Since it was a wine party we had to join.

 
Port du Plaisance, Carcasssone
La CiteLa CiteThat evening we all dined together at a small restaurant within the la Cite, the old fortress city of Carcassonne.  This is a remarkable living artifact of medieval times.  La Cite is the largest preserved fortress in Europe and offers a spectacular view at night.
La CiteMany of the other medieval fortresses in Europe are not much more than ruins.  Carcassonne is remarkable for both its level of preservation and restoration.
The Inner Moat, La CiteEntering La CiteAs we walked from the outer walls to the inner fortress we could understand how difficult it would be to successfully attack this imposing structure.
The following day we began to retrace our voyage back to Argens Minervois.  This was the major drawback to the having to return the barges to our departure point.  We were motivated to complete this return as quickly as possible.  This motivation combined with the a downstream  transit and the lack of other barges on the canal allowed us to nearly retrace our entire voyage in a single day.  We could have completed the return in one day, except a number of us wanted one more dose of Cassoulet at the restaurant in Homps.  The following day we returned to the Locaboat Port du Plaisance at Argens Minervois.   Several of us took the opportunity to tour the Minervois region on our rented bicycles.  We still had one more day before our barge rental was over so we moved the barges back into the canal and spent our last night on board tied off to the tow path.

The following day we returned the barges and departed Argens Minervois for our various individual destinations.  I returned to Marseilles for two more days of touring the south of France.