Leaving Canal du Midi – Arrive Calella Spain

The Canal di MidiYou never know what you will find on the Canal di MidiBuying local wine from the lock keeperThe lock masters controlsA long way downA lock keepers hut
9 locks at BéziersBéziers 21 meter lift of 9 locks

1/7/2011

This was our last day on the Canal du Midi and we had to have our boat back to Homps, the original start point by 2pm. We timed this to perfection but when we arrived the office was closed so after successfully backing the boat into it’s mooring we waited for them to open.
By 3pm we were back on the road. We had heard about a place called Fonserannes Lock (French: écluse de Fonserannes, les neuf écluses). This is a staircase lock on the Canal du Midi near Béziers. It consists of eight ovoid lock chambers (characteristic of the Canal du Midi) and nine gates, which allow boats to be raised a height of 21.5 m, in a distance of 300m. The most we had negotiated was 3 so we decided to go and see this. (see pics)
From here we made our way via the tolled roads to Calella in Spain. It cost us another €16 for this privilege but saved over an hour of travel time. Again we passed through a border but this time it was more noticeable. Spain is drier and appeared more expansive and the buildings design changed.
Something that we found quite different on the Spainish motorways, was the prostitutes dressed in really skimpy provocative underwear, sitting on chairs under an umbrella, about every 100 meters at one stage.
We arrived into our really nice BB at Calella around 7:30pm after having a little trouble finding it as there were a lot of one way streets. It’s only about a 3min walk to the beach and even closer to the many shops with sales on……oooooh no.
Around 10pm we went out to a cafe called Top Bar Cafe for a mixed selection of Tapas as advised on Trip Advisor and then headed back home around 11:30pm.

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