Canal Du Midi

Canal Du Midi

Another early morning. Get up at 6:45. Head over to train station to find the time the trains run in order to decide whether to bike to Castelnaudary and return by train or the other way around. The train to Castelnaudary leaves at 8:00 and the bike rental opens at 8:00 so the won’t work. So we will bike there and catch the 17:01 train that returns to Toulouse.

Go to rent bike near the tourist office for 2 euros each and start cycling along the canal. In total it should be about 60 km which is paved for the first 45 km and gravel for the remaining 15 km. We make it find through Castanet-Tolosam, Montgiscard, Montesquieu-Lauragais, Gardouch, and Renneville. Just past Port-Lauragais the canal must have split to a stream, which we followed. We didn’t see any sign that indicated where the canal continued, but we must of missed it. Although it was much narrower we thought we were going the right way since the road was now gravel which we expected and we appeared to be in the right spot on the map. In the end when we can to a road, we decided to take the road the last 10 km into Castelnaudary. Arrive in town around 13:00, we had stopped for lunch around 11:30 at Port-Lauragais because dad had only eaten the last little bit of a baguette that we had bought previously for breakfast. We cycle through Castelnaudary stopping at a patisserie for a meringue, but since it is really just sugar it’s a bit too sweet for my taste. We find the part of the canal that we missed and cycle back a bit towards Toulouse while we wait for the train. Then catch the 17:01 train back to Toulouse. We find the train car that takes bicycles without any issue and arrive in Toulouse 40 minutes later.

Dinner is Lebanese tonight, we both get assiette de chawarma for 7 euros.