Non-Sailing Topics
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Day 4 - 6: Touring Carcassonne and Returning to Argens Minervois- (Back to Day Three)
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  The
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. The party was held next the to
the ecluse, near where we were berthed. Since it was a wine party we had to
join.
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  That
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. |
 Many
of the other medieval fortresses in Europe are not much more than ruins.
Carcassonne is remarkable for both its level of preservation and
restoration. |
  As
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 next day we returned the barges and departed Argens Minervois for our various individual destinations. |