Canal du Midi 2025 - The Journey Down

 We had booked a canal boat holiday in September last year when we were boating with Steve and Tracey from Over the Moon.  They mentioned that they would like to do the Canal du Midi and it had been on our bucket list too. 

The first three days of the blog are about our journey down and not the most riveting!  As I usually publish three days at a time, bear with me - the next post will be much more interesting 🤣

Folkestone - Saturday May 10th

We left home at 1pm and drove to Folkestone, arriving at the Holiday Inn about 20 mins before S & T.  Rio was excited to see them along with Ted, Richard and I were excited too!!

We went out for dinner at the Gatekeepers in Etchinghill, where we have been twice before. It was then an early night. 

Romanèche-Thorins - Sunday 11th May

The alarm was set for 5.40am - far too early!  After a good breakfast (free) we drove the short distance to the pet reception at Le Shuttle. Rio’s new passport was fine - I had been a bit concerned about it. We were put on an earlier shuttle but, in fact, that was delayed so we weren’t any earlier. 

We stopped for a coffee and bought sandwiches which we ate for lunch at a very nice aire.

Being a Sunday the traffic was much lighter than usual (no lorries) which made the journey easier and more enjoyable. 

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Les Maritonnes Parc Vineyard Restaurant Rouge & Blanc, in Romanèche-Thorins about 4pm. It is a converted 19th century farmhouse and very tastefully done. Each room was individual and modern. We had booked a table for dinner. The food was excellent but very expensive, as was the wine, we only had one bottle between the four of us. 

Homps - Monday 12th May

We had a bit of a lie in, well later than yesterday!  We didn’t have breakfast in the hotel as they wanted €22 (£18.50) for a continental breakfast. I had seen a boulangerie in the village as we passed through so we bought croissants in there and ate them at an aire with a lukewarm coffee. 

The journey to Homps was OK but busy. It had been a long couple of days. 

We arrived at Le Boat at 3.30pm and checked in. We found our boat and had a brief look round before Tracey and I went off to the supermarket. Back on the boat the men had done some unpacking - well bags in cupboards!  They had also found a few things wrong. The boat is very tired but is fine for a couple of weeks, we think she is 18 years old. We had a handover  and finished unpacking. By now the men had found more things wrong so we stayed overnight in the port so they could rectify problems.