C’était Triste

After another good sleep, the plan was to spend the day close to Agel, checking out one of the biggest markets in the area in the morning and spending a lazy afternoon on the canal.

If you have every spent any more time in France than a quick trip to Paris, you most likely have come across, and probably come to love, the markets. They put the farmers markets in the US to shame because 1) they are much bigger, 2) they happen more often, and 3) the prices aren’t something that only rich people can afford. In other words, they are the way of life.

If you are planning a tip to France, this site seems to be a good one to find out which markets you can visit during your trip.

The market for this day was the one in Olonzac. With a street full of clothiers and household items and another street full of food it is easy to wander around and just take things in for an hour or so, and also very easy to be tempted (and cave) into buying something.

After the market, it was time for another lunch. This time I started with pâté and moved on to cassoulet.

The pâté was quite good, but unfortunately the cassoulet was quite dry and not as good as what I have had in the past. This was a bit of a bummer as this is one of my favorite French dishes.

After lunch, we headed off to catch the boat for our cruise of the Canal du Midi. I was looking forward to this based on it having been quite beautiful and relaxing the last time that I did it. Sadly, due to a fungal infection that has decimated the plane trees (sycamores) that once bordered the canal.

The ceratocystis platani fungus has infected the trees along our route making the view along most of the waterway look like the last two pictures below, whereas 3 years ago most of the canal appeared as in the first photo.

There is a massive effort underway to remove the infected trees and replant the banks with a species that will grow more quickly.

However, there will still only be one species, so the same type of devastation could occur again. Have we not learned from this type of thing happening in many places in the world?

Dutch elm disease

emerald ash borer

Even sadder, is that I learned later, once arriving in Aix-en-Provence, that the disease is not only affecting trees next to the water as I had heard during that day, but is much more widespread as this article discusses.

And it’s all because of a parasite that tagged along in the wooden crates used to ship weapons from the US to France during WWII.

At least the trip though the locks was just as interesting as the time before.