I Must Tell You About Our Summer Holidays

People often ask Patty and I - ' You live in such a lovely area, but do you ever go away anywhere else for a holiday?'

Well before this year ends and I forget, I must tell you about this summer´s adventure to French-France.

Le Canal du Midi
This summer we took our annual family holiday in France during the early part of July. We normally go somewhere different and love exploring. Saying that though, I was pretty exhausted after working leading tours all over Spain and other destinations in Europe. I had just finished a tour to Hungary and Austria then flew directly from Budapest, spent the night near Gatwick then met another group early the next morning at the airport. From there we flew south to Toulouse and had a great birding and wildlife tour to the Val d’Aran in the Pyrenees, for eight days. We returned to Toulouse at the end of the tour where I said farewell to the group and co-leader from Limosa, Mike Crewe.
This was the point where I could unwind and I had arranged with Patty, my wife to meet up at Toulouse airport. She had flown up form Seville to Girona, hired a car with our two daughters and had driven the three hours across to Toulouse.
From here we all set off for the Lot region of South-west France to stay with friends who have a lovely house in a small hamlet overlooking the ruins of an 11thC Cistercian Abbey.

We spent five nights there and explored the area including trips to Cahors and Sarlat and the closest main town Gourdon.
Later in the week we drove down to the Canal du Midi to Le Somail, (Minervois), where we had rented a small apartment.
The canal is a great place to take a holiday. There are even super birds to watch like Golden Orioles, their wonderful, tropical sounding calls ringing out from on tops of the lines of leafy poplars that line the banks together with numerous brightly coloured Rollers, ‘croaking’ as they flew over the endless miles of vineyards.

There are some wonderful barges that move up and down the canal or can be seen more or less permanently berthed alongside some of the hamelts, villages or quiet restaurants that are dotted between Beziers and the Mediterranean Sea.
Looking at the history of the area and learning about all the different trades and good that relied on this transport system make you think why we don’t have more canals like this in Europe. Everything seems to hurried and people want goods yesterday!
The canal was built in the 17thC and was ripe for use with merchants wanting to move the two major crops from the area. These were wheat and wine. Textiles were another important of the local economy and the nearby town of Nimes, the home of denim produced this famous of heavy cloth as well as silk.
The best way to appreciate the area and be taken by it’s tranquility, great food and superb wines is to visit the area and absorb life on the canal in full. This is one area that I would go back to - next time renting a house-boat!