Our Blog - July 4th

Normally, there would be a picnic for the 4th of July in Toulouse, a joint event with the Americans in Toulouse, Democrats Abroad, and France Etats-Unis groups. However, with COVID-19 this year, that event was not held. Instead, the US Consulate in Marseille had a small celebration on a boat in the Bassin de Redoub de Toulouse, which is the refitting basin or pool for boats. It was built in the 1830's by Urban Maguès to allow boat repair for boats that traverse the Canal du Midi. Initially, the boat repair workshops were located at other ports (first at Saint-Etienne, then Saint-Sauveur). But eventually, the workshops had to be moved as they were disrupting the traffic on the canal. They created a new repair basin with 4 cales (holds) and the various workshops and offices at this location. It was quite special to be able to have this event here, along with a little private tour, as normally the area is only open during the Heritage Days in September. Tom was quite interested in this and I think we will be making another trip down here in September for another tour.

You can reserve one of these holds to do maintenance on a boat. Of the 4 original areas, 3 remain and this one is covered. It was built in 1841 in the typical Toulouse architecture. Having it covered allows you to work even in bad weather. It has a curved crossbowmen frame, today covered in tiles, that was originally covered in zinc.

They bring the boat up through the canal and into this little "finger", and then they can move it into the covered maintenance area by use of an interesting set of gates and pumps. They explained how this works ... the boat floats up to the doors and valves are opened that allows water to flow into the hold. Once the water levels are even, the gate is opened and the boat is taken inside. Then the doors are closed and the water pumped back out. This puts the boat into a dry dock where maintenance can be done.