Our first stop of the day was at the 9 Locks of Bezier on the Canal Du Midi.
The locks are a set of 'Staircase' locks on the canal and it consists of 8 chambers that raise and lower boats up and down through the set. Due to the limited size of the chambers, only small boats were able to pass through so a plan was divised!
A giant multi wheeled contraption that looked more at home emerging from the belly of Thunderbird 2 was created. The vehicle was set upon runners above a large slope from the high point of the lock to the bottom. The idea would be that the large boats were attached to the vehicle which was used to stabalise the boat and water would be allowed to flow down the slope. The vehicle would then tow the boat slowly to the bottom. This was a French invention that has only ever been used twice since (1985?) due to insurance reasons - FAIL.
Beziers was next on the list. I quite like this town and was dragged round it a lot when younger. As usual for French towns there was a lot of dog poop on the ground but other than that, not too bad.
I would recommend staying away from the lower old town, It is very shabby and run down and there is not a great deal there apart from drunks and hobos. As you move up towards the theatre and the old town the streets become cleaner and more welcoming.
We popped into a church to have a look round and ended up having a tasty omelette outside the theatre in the main avenue.
After leaving the city we went to a feature known as the Oppidum d'Enserune, this is a hill top settlement, founded by the Romans in 6BC. The hilltop has views over the former Swamp of Montady. This circular swamp is now cut up like pieces of pie after it was drained for form farmland in the 13th C.
In a very cool coincidence we met a couple of Geocachers here from the Netherlands
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