The Canal du Midi, is a man dug canal, situated in the south of France, and joins the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean sea, via the Canal Garonne. The water sources which allow the canal to be constantly navigable, come from the Montagne Noire, (situated in the south west of the Massif Central, near Mazamet, in the Tarn area), by three lakes, and the Saint Ferréol dam. This technical challenge, first imagined in 1539, stayed a project on paper for almost a century, until 1636.
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It was Paul Riquet, an ingenious engineer, born in Béziers in 1604, who started the first portion of the Canal in 1636, under the reign of Louis XIV. The Saint Ferréol dam was built in 1667, and in 1680, the locks at Béziers, called "Les écluses de Fonseranne" were built. Pierre Paul Riquet died that year, and the very first navigation between Toulouse and Sète happened in 1681, the year following his death.
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Needless to explain the difficulty of the task for the workers who achieved this colossal construction. The soul of the problem being that seeing as the water in the canal comes from a series of lakes and dams, the slope necessary for a steady supply of water, enough to fill the canal so that it's depth allows boats to navigate on, had to be very precise. The Canal du midi therefore goes through tunnels and over bridges, down locks and past sleep cliffs! It cost many human lives to build. Originally for commercial cargo use, today the canal serves for touristic navigation.
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So that's done with the quick summary, but in fact, I wanted to extend this review to talk about the locks at Béziers, as they are very spectacular and technically amazing for the 17th century.
The problem they had, when digging the Canal, was that when they arrived at Béziers, they were confronted with a 25 meter drop to continue the Canal to Marseillan, near Sète, where the Canal comes out in the "étang de Thau", which leads to the Mediterranean, and another famous Canal, the Canal du Rhone, which leads, very obviously, to the Rhone.
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The "écluses de Fonserannes" (locks of Fonseranne) were also conceived by Mr. Pierre Paul Riquet, in his natal town (coincidence or calculated project?) in 1697. They are spectacular in that there are 9 consecutive lock gates to reach the bottom of the 25 meter drop! Their total length is of 315 meters, and the 8 oval locks can hold only 2 large barges at a time. That said, it actually takes a good hour to get a boat up or down this ancient "elevator"!
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On the side of the locks, there is a pedestrian path, with lots of steps, of course! I am a fan of these flat bottom boats and every time I go there, I always end up helping the "sailors" to moor their barges, to hold them in place whilst the water level drops or rises before they open the next lock to repeat the operation. The atmosphere is quite something.
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For some obscure reason a (very ugly) modern lift was built in 1984, but finally it is not used at all!
Not far from the locks if you follow the canal, downside, under the shade of the trees, you get to the "Pont Canal", another amazing construction which enables the Canal du Midi to go over the Orb river! Yes you did read right, the Canal goes over a bridge! It is a very strange sensation to see a barge on a bridge floating over a river!
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This beautiful bridge, built of many large arches, above which are smaller arches, where there is a pedestrian passage inside the bridge, under the water level of the canal. I did feel sudden panic when I saw leaking cracks as I strolled through the passage! Further on, a small port where you can rent boats, or just admire some of the old restored barges which are lived in, with garden terraces and cars on their decks!
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If you feel like seeing some nice pictures, check out this web site : http://www.canaldumidi.com/Galeries/Image.php?gal=galerie_6&vue=12 Thanks for reading, Squidge
