Dining on the Canal du Midi

#moulindetrebes #canaldumidi #thegoodlifefrance #unescoworldheritagesite

Friday May 31st, 2019

Well it’s the end of May, the end of my birth “day” month and tomorrow we are heading back to “Home Sweet Home”.

I followed my usual morning routine checking the view from the bedroom window, it looked to be a promising day! The sky was blue and no clouds were visible over the rooftops and mountain.

Can you see the rays of sunshine and the swallows?

We did some packing and then headed off to Trèbes for a send off lunch on the canal at “Le Moulin”.

It was a glorious day with blue azure skies, bright sunshine and hot temperatures ... maybe “Mother Nature” & the “Weatherman” finally got it together. 

I was treated to another trip beneath the plane tree canopy. 

We arrived early in Trèbes in order that we could do a couple errands before lunch. 

Today we were lunching along the Canal du Midi. 

A bit of history from the Canal du Midi tourism site.

“The construction of the Canal du Midi is one of the major achievements of Louis XIV’s reign (17th Century).It is 240 kilometres long and links the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. This masterpiece of engineering, thanks to the genius of Pierre-Paul Riquet, is one of the prides of the Languedoc. The canal brought commercial prosperity to the region. Today, leisure cruises have taken over and the Canal du Midi has been a major tourist attraction since it was granted world heritage status by UNESCO.

Pierre-Paul Riquet

Born in Béziers in 1609, Pierre-Paul Riquet made his fortune as a salt tax inspector. He was thus able to acquire the Domaine de Bonrepas, near Toulouse, where he carried out numerous experiments to find a solution to the problem of supplying water to the canal at its summit at the Seuil de Narouze.

Having convinced Louis XIV and his minister, Colbert, of the commercial benefits of his project, Pierre-Paul Riquet embarked on his great enterprise which was to take 14 years. Riquet’s strong personality and perseverance enabled him to overcome all the obstacles encountered during the canal’s construction. Sadly, Riquet died penniless on 1st October 1680 without having completed his masterpiece, which was inaugurated soon after his death in 1681.”

Le Moulin de Trèbes is owned/operated by the Chef Pascal and his wife Sophie, both very friendly and personable. 

We were seated at one of the tables nearest the canal on the terrace ... from here we could watch all the activity thru the locks. 

Today’s menu was interesting and delicious.

Salmon tartare with a shiitake mushroom /coriander confit and brightened by the citrus smear from the aromatic “yuzu” ... a variety of lemon.

Mouthwatering delicious and beautifully presented.

Roast pork a top a bed of eggplant/ zucchini with roasted potatoes and a Parmesan/ olive oil sauce. 

Yummy.

And the finishing touch to this wonderful meal ...

A pineapple (thinly sliced) salad with coconut and brown sugar crumble! 

I will be making this one at home. 

Light and just enough sweetness. 

It was a perfect lunch date to celebrate our last day in France.

Thank you Pascal, Sophie and Anais for the delectable food and superb service.

The boats being lowered in the lock ... the water draining.

 I’m thirsty ... said this puppy! 

Tomorrow it’s hurry up and wait day on our way to “Home Sweet Home!”

A Week in our French Life

Week of May 20th -May 26th 

We are on our second last week of our French stay. 

This week the weather was once again mixed. 

Monday we did a village walk; we stopped to smell some beautiful roses! 

Tuesday our road trip took us to Limoux. 

“The Venus out of the Water surrounded by four children riding dolphins” fountain in the Place de la République.

One of the children riding the dolphin ... isn’t he cute? 

Now look at that Wisteria ... can only imagine what it looks like in full flower.

Wednesday to Trèbes for a grocery shop and then some lunch. We first went to Le Moulin however it was full and there wasn’t a table available. We made a reservation for tomorrow. 

We chose the Trattoria Napoli on the Quai, the food and setting were excellent. 

The phylo pastry wrapped goat cheese & honey that look like egg rolls were so yummy. 

I’m going to have to try to make these.

It was a warmer (24C) sunny day and we had a great table to enjoy our meal and watch the activity in the canal.

Everything has a red tinge because of the red umbrellas! 

I said to Monsieur Honey “Let’s do this sometime” ... rent a houseboat and travel on the Canal.

I don’t think he was too interested.

Thursday back to Trèbes for lunch at “Le Moulin de Trèbes” situated at the locks on the Canal du Midi.

Has the weather finally broken? Let’s hope so! Looking out the window this morning it was clear and sunny! 

The menu and our lunch.

We enjoyed our lunch immensely (très bon!) so much so, we’ve decided to go here again on our last full day in France.

As the sun was shining and temperatures were finally warmer, we watched the activity in the locks where three boats were passing through, one of which was sporting a Canadian flag. We chatted and found out that these three couples were from B.C. The boat they rented had 3-bedrooms, 3-bathrooms ... sounds perfect.

Friday and Saturday we were experiencing some dreary weather (dark, cloudy skies and rain)  ... we spent those days at home in the village. 

Sunday we headed to Lagrasse where there was a vide-grenier, school festival with lots of activités for the children.

Our highlight of the day was our lunch at Le 1900 ...

All in all a fairly full week! 

You can’t do anything about the weather and just have to make the most of it. 

Oh and let’s not forget it was Mother’s Day in France ... every lady guest at Le 1900 was given a beautiful rose!

À bientôt et bienvenue in Toulouse!

Tuesday, May 7th, 2019

We were up early this morning to make sure our “Peugeot Airbus/ Navette” made it on time for its scheduled run to Toulouse-Blagnac Airport . 

A little tongue and cheek! 

Our rental car this trip is a Peugeot 2008 and Toulouse is the home of Airbus headquarters along with the production location of many Airbus models.

The Navette is a very efficient shuttle service that goes from Toulouse-Blagnac Airport to Toulouse Matabiau station every 20 minutes with several stops on the way. 

Nowadays there is also tram service that runs into the city of Toulouse from the airport. 

When we first started travelling to Europe together back in 2003, Monsieur Honey and I did so without rental cars. 

We did most of our travelling by bus and train. 

One of my most memorable experiences was travelling with a Eurail Pass on our first adventure; we spent four days in Paris, took a train from Gare d’Austerlitz to Cahors (in the Lot Valley) where our French Connection friends met us. 

We spent a few days with them in Belaye, then ventured off on the train. 

We saw so much/many different areas of France ... 

Arles, Avignon, Carcassonne, Collioure, Orange  and many other places and we finished our travels on the train into Belgium for a week. We TGV’ed our way from Brussels to Paris CDG for our return flight home.

Just a little trip down memory lane ... these days we travel by rental car. 

The sky was lit up in glorious hues and shades of orange, pink and red as the sun was rising. 

Our friend Laury’s visit was ending; she was meeting up with another friend at the Airport for an overnight visit before returning to her home in Cadrieu. 

Daughter, Jennifer’s flight from Canada was scheduled to land at 10:30AM. 

We said au revoir / à bientôt to Laury and bienvenue to Jennifer.  

We headed back to Montlaur with a stop in Trebes for lunch on the Quai along the Canal du Midi.

A nice easy start for Jennifer’s French week! 

 

May Day / Labour Day ...

Wednesday, May 1st, 2019 

Today is a “Bank Holiday” in France, almost everything is closed ... with exception of cafés / restaurants in tourist areas. 

We are staying in a tiny village and most definitely everything is closed.

Happy May 1st Day ... here’s my bouquet of lily of valley for all of you! 

 “In France, May 1st is a national holiday – it’s their ‘Labor Day’. One of the ways the French celebrate this holiday is by offering a small bouquet of lily of the valley (“muguet-du-bois”, in French) to loved ones and to friends, to symbolise ‘good luck’ and ‘love’. That is why May 1st, i.e., ‘May Day’ is also known as, “La Fête du Muguet”.

We weren’t too ambitious today and just went for a short drive to Trebes located on the Canal du Midi.

The Quai was busy with families, visitors enjoying the holiday.

We enjoyed our wander and a stop on the waterfront for an apero in the sunshine and some people watching.Trebes is on our list for a repeat visit, we were here many years ago (first time in 2005) and took a boat tour along the Canal thru the locks .

Here’s Monsieur Honey sporting his “Ernest Hemingway” look on our cruise (2005) along the Canal du Midi. 

 

View of the Canal du Midi from the boat ...

The sun was shining brightly and the temperatures warmed up as the day went on ... which provided a perfect excuse for some relaxing on our terrace in the afternoon.

      

I was able to do some catch up on my photo editing and blogging. 

Monsieur was top chef and created a delicious menu with the “Toulouse Sausage” we purchased from the local butcher for our supper ... and bonus it was warm enough to enjoy our dinner al fresco on the terrace.