Introduction

Our week-long cruise on the Canal du Midi was the filling in a sandwich whose outside consisted of our first visit to Narbonne and a quick return to Montpellier. Our time in those two towns is mentioned at the end of this post.

Hiring a boat

Between 1982 and 2004, we owned a 40-foot narrowboat and cruised the UK canals; since selling our boat, we have sometimes felt we would like to have another go. On previous cycling trips, we had seen the Canal du Midi from the towpath and had the impression that all of the hire boats were white plastic cruisers (aka ‘gin palaces’).  But when we discovered that Minervois Cruisers were renting out traditional UK narrow boats, we felt inspired to renew our cruising experiences with a familiar type of boat. The Montpellier at 49 feet is a little bigger than ours was, but we were pleased to have the extra space – you need to be very tidy in a 2-berth boat.

Our choice proved a good one, the low-slung steel hull of Montpellier gave her total stability even in the heavy winds we experienced on several days and the tiller steering positioned on the rear deck – as found on virtually all UK canal boats – gave us more precise control than wheel steering. The downside was that you are always outside and exposed to the elements while travelling – we were used to that but the exposure to the sun might have been a problem had there been more of it!

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