Made it to the Mediterranean. Hiked the kilometer and a half from the Le Boat basin/marina to the beach at Portiragnes. Walked on the beach (water a bit cool) and had a nice lunch. Packing this morning then talking a noon train to Paris and one more night in France before catching a five pm flight to New York tomorrow.

A couple of observations before heading north and then west tomorrow:

-- running these charter boats on the canal is more like renting an RV than chartering a boat. If you can drive a large vehicle, you could handle these boats.
-- going downstream in the locks is significantly easier and quicker than going upstream.
-- the locks do not open until 900 am. They close from 1230 to 1330 for lunch. During the summer they operate until 1900 but in October they stop at 1800.
-- there is no anchoring, but pulling up to the side of the canal and then pounding in two stakes to tie the boat up is pretty cool.
-- the towns in the south of France particularly in the off season looked deserted on the weekends. Even Beziers seemed empty on Saturday and Sunday and almost everything was closed.
-- never walk along a french sidewalk without keeping an eye on the ground. Dogs like to leave gifts and their owners don't always clean up after them.
-- no one wears scarves like the french.