Rowing in Carnon

I learned to row at Green Lake in Seattle, Washington when I was 15 years old. Back then, the start command for rowing races was in

French, Êtes-vous prez…partez! I also knew the French word for rowing, aviron, from posters of world rowing championships of years past.

I rowed in college for three years -- long enough to need a break three times that long before I ever set foot again in a racing shell. In my forties, I joined a local rowing club and re-started the sport in earnest. This year marks my 8th year back.

From inside the boathouse at Mauguio-Carnon

When my family and I visited Paris and Lisbon, I made arrangements to row with local clubs in each city. In Paris, I was lucky to find a small group of similarly-aged men who rowed out of a boathouse on the Seine. They let me join their four, and then they invited me to dinner. They made me feel like family even though I hardly knew them.

For Montpellier, I contacted a local club and found the same, warm welcome. On my first day there, strangers greeted me with the

The canal goes on for more than 10 Km

three-cheek kiss customary in southern France. The members let me join practices and were very patient with my stultifying French.

My first outing was in a wide-body quad built for the sea. It was my first time rowing on open water. I really enjoyed being able to go offshore and row in the Mediterranean's swells with four other competent rowers. We stopped at the halfway point and three of the rowers jumped into the sea for a quick swim.

My second outing with the team was the longest row I'd ever done. With three others, we rowed a cox-less quad north along the canal past Grande Motte. It took all of Saturday morning, and we saw "les cabanes," which were squatters' homes built on a narrow strip of land between the beach and the nature preserve. When we returned to the boathouse, we'd gone 18 kilometers.

Rowing in Montpellier is different from rowing on the Seine. The clubs are located near the Mediterranean, next to Carnon and Palavas. They row on a

View from a single scull down the canal

narrow barge canal the runs between the sea and the large nature preserve that provides a natural storm buffer for Montpellier. It's  one of the most idyllic places to row, because the channel has very little traffic, and it's nearly straight in either direction.

Getting to Carnon was not easy. The tourist office suggested I take tram Line 1 to Odysseum and get off at Place de France. From there, I could catch bus 106 to Civadière/Marie annexe and walk to the boathouse. Unfortunately, the bus ran only once an hour

Tram 3 goes to Pérols. You can walk from there

or less, and the last bus was at 8 p.m. I did this three times before finding out from another rower that I could take tram Line 3 from Observatoire to Pérols and walk from there.

Here's a list of rowing terms I compiled to be better prepared next time I row in France:

• une régate - regatta, or boat race
• une couple - sculling (2 oars)
• une pointe - sweep rowing
• un coup - stroke
• nage - stroke seat
• barreur - coxswain
• d’appui - the drive part of the stroke
• retour - the recovery part of the stroke
• dame de nage - oarlock
• barrette - oar lock gate
• portants - oar riggers
• poignée - oar handle
• manchon - oar sleeve
• collier - oar collar
• mance - oar shaft
• bâbord / la rouge - port side
• tribord / le vert - starboard side
• cale pieds - foot stretchers
• coulisse - slide (for the seat)
• pelles, palettes - oar blades
• pelles au carré - blades squared
• pelles à plat sur l'eau - blades feathered, or flat on the water
• laisser glisser - let the boat glide, or run
• quart / demi / trois-quart / pleine coulisse - 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, full slide
• "bateau!" - row
• "arrêt" - stop
• tenir l'equilibre - set the boat
• cadence - stroke rate, e.g. 20 coups par minute (20 strokes a minute)

Selfie from a single scull