susiebelle

2 couples are going to France for 3 weeks (Sept/Oct).
We will be on a one week self-captained cruise on the Canal du Midi in late Sept. In the remaining 2 weeks we will tour Normandy, Paris and Barcelona.
Any advice on provisioning for this cruise from Part Cassafieres to Homps?
Any advice on transportation by train or rental car between Paris, the canal area and Barcelona?
Any hints on where to stay in Barcelona? Price range of around 100 Euro/night.
We have res. in Normandy and are working on Paris.
Hoping someone out there has done this kind of travel and can give us some hints!

Viajero2

Rent an apartment in Barcelona.

Sarastro

1. If you do not have a car, you can ask Leboat to provision the boat for you (at additional expense) or wait until you reach Béziers, which is very close, and provision there. There will be opportunities to stop and resupply en route at one of the many small towns you will pass.

2. From Paris, you can take the TGV to Béziers, taxi to Port Cassafieres.

http://www.voyages-sncf.com (in French only)
http://www.tgv-voyages.com (select the UK as were you will pickup tickets, you will actually pickup them up in France)

3. Homps is a short taxi ride to Carcassonne where there is good rail service. You will most likely not want to take a rental car one way into Spain as the drop off fees can be astronomical.

Michael

Why is Barcelona thrown into the mix? From Homps rent a car and go to Normandy, taking a couple days to get there. Visit Normandy and drop off the car in Paris. One week on the boat, a little more than one week on the road, a little less than a week in Paris.

If you insist on Barcelona, fly there, and then fly out of Paris at the end of the trip.

uhoh_busted

We spent the month of November near Perpignan last fall, and flew into and out of Barcelona. It was easier than flying into Paris. But then, we had a car for the whole time. (You definitely do not want a car in Barcelona, though!) Personally, I could spend a week on Canal du Midi and then a week just bouncing around Languedoc-Rousillon. Montpellier is a gem of a "big" city, Ceret (in the direction of Barcelona) is heaven, etc. And to the East, Uzes and Pont du Gard...The weather in that part of France is nearly always sunnier than the rest of the country.

Are you flying in and out of Barcelona? Is the TGV service between Paris and Barcelona operating yet? (We saw the nearly completed construction.) I suppose if you had to, you could do your canal trip, then pick up a rental car to drive North to Normandy, then back down to Paris, then train it from Paris to Barcelona. I am a bit confused as to why Barcelona is in the mix, as well. Or maybe it's Normandy that's the odd one out. It's all doable, but does seem to require a couple of long haul drives or train trips.

Maudie

uhoh_busted, we are looking at renting a house in Roujan next year, its just out of Beziers. Did you do a trip report at all? Would love to read about your trip.

traveltheworld55

In the first week of Sept, 2007 we (2 couples) rented from Locaboat and went from Negra to Argens on the Canal du Midi. It was a fabulous trip and I highly recommend it. I might be concerned whether in the last week in Sept the weather may be getting sketchy, either rain or cold, have you checked climate for that time of year? We had great weather with rain only one morning, but it definately would not be awesome to have a week of rain on the canal. The scenery is beautiful and being on deck all day is key to a good time. We had a few provisions put on the boat (expensive) and bought food at markets along the way. We rented bikes from Locaboat but they were poorly maintained and not fun to ride. We rented 4 bikes, I would suggest 2 and have a provision party go out for supplies. After we docked in Argens, one person rode the bike to a car rental place and got the car, then we turned in the boat and bikes. We then went to the Dordogne area of France and had a great week, primarily staying in a single B&B for most of the days and making day trips in the area. Flew from the states into Toulouse and out of Bordeaux for the return home. Our trip was only 2 weeks, I would suggest spending one of your non-boat weeks in Southern or Northern France and the last in Paris. Barcelona seems too far a field to include.

StCirq

I'd skip Barcelona too. You have the whole wonderfulness of France between the Canal du Midi and Normandy/Paris. Why not simplify the logistics and just head northwest? Spend a few days in the Languedoc. Spend a few days in the Dordogne. Head over to La Rochelle and Ile de Ré, up through Brittany to Normandy. Zooming over to Barcelona seems to defy directional logistics.

uhoh_busted

@ Maudie - not to hijack this thread, but we looked at a fantastic rental in Roujan that was too big for us, but wow, great location. No, I didn't to a trip report. Our trip was too focused and covered so much, (a month is a LONG time!) I don't know if I'll ever get the time to do it.

I don't think I'd worry about weather in September in that region. It should be wonderful.

Maudie

Thanks uhoh, I just wanted to pick your brain. We will have 5 weeks to fill!!!

susanna

We, two couples, did the houseboat thing four years ago at the end of September for 10days. It rained most everyday, all day , it wasn't much fun in the rain.
After you pickup the boat and ride for a while, there is a small town that has great provisions, sorry the name escapes me. We rode our also poorly maintained loco bikes to the grocery store, bought a ton, and they delivered it for free to the boat, he wouldn't even take a tip. We had also bought groceries in town while the guys figured out the workings of the boat and just took a cab back to the boat with our groceries.
I don't want to discourage you but f you want to read about my not so fun trip on the canal du midi, click on my name and scoll down.

jenmorg

Hi, We, two Australian couples, did the canal du midi from Carcassonne to Agde in June last year. We had a great time but were disappointed in the the shower/toilet and oven on the boat. We had read susanna's trip report and were a little concerned but had lovely weather, great food and would recommend it to anyone. We booked through Nautic so maybe your boat will have a proper shower.
TAKE ANTIBACTERIAL HANDWASH! The water in the canal is putrid. there are South American rodents called, I've forgotten, will find out and post later. there urine causes kidney failure. When your ropes drop in the water you get dirty hands so the handwash was great.
As we were getting on in Carcassonne we went to a big supermarket to buy all the essentials before we got to the boat. We didn't go into Port Cassafieres so I don't know what is there but I would definitely recommend a trip to the supermarket before you get to the boat. WIll you have a car? this makes a difference to how much you can carry from the supermarket.
You can read both mine and susanna's trip reports on fodors if you search for "canal du midi".
Agde has good supermarkets and many towns have small supermarkets. We were advised not to stop at Bezieres as there had been break-ins on rental boats left unattended. We did stop in Villeneuve-sur-beziers which has a small supermarket close to the mooring area.
Hope you have a great time and write a trip report at the end.

jenmorg

Rodent is called coypu.

Michael

The boats we rented did not have holding tanks. It is good idea to have gloves to handle the ropes.

traveltheworld55

We brought tight fitting gardening gloves with leather palms. They were perfect for keeping our hands from getting chaffed from the ropes.
Never thought about the dirty water, eeewww. Did see at least 2 people go into the water. One lady fell in at a lock when she was holding the rope. She was hurt and they had to cut short their trip. It was a real shame, they were from New Zealand and this had been her lifelong dream trip. Another was a guy lubricated on wine who seemed no worse for the wear when he got back on deck of his boat.
The boats that you start out with from the rental spot will generally meet up with you at various locks and stopping points so you do become acquanted with some of your fellow travelers along the way - and we weren't the gregarious sorts that many of them were. During our trip there were many New Zealanders and Australians, very few French or other Europeans.

sheila

When you say "Canal area" where do you mean?