Explore the Canal du Midi in Occitanie

Explore the Canal du Midi – slicing south-west across the Occitanie region for 240km, this incredible waterway links the Canal Latéral de la Garonne in Toulouse to the Mediterranean coast at Sète, passing through 63 locks and beneath more than 300 bridges.

Ever since the Roman Empire, men had dreamed of a coast-to-coast waterway, but the problems of cost and geography seemed insurmountable. The brightest brains puzzled over how to ensure a constant flow of water and, in particular, how to cross the highest point, 190m above sea level. But tax inspector Pierre-Paul Riquet was confident he could do it and in 1666, Louis XIV authorised him to start work on the Canal Royal du Languedoc, providing employment for thousands of local workers.

Explore the Canal du Midi

The canal took 14 years to build, decimating Riquet’s fortune, and when he died in 1680, there was still 4 km to complete, but after its completion in 1681, this liquid thoroughfare launched an economic and agricultural boom. No more lengthy journeys sailing round Spain and paying hefty port taxes. Now barges could sail down the Garonne river from the Atlantic and along a continuous canal to the Mediterranean.

Riquet understood that only by harnessing the waters of the Montagne Noire in the department of Tarn could a canal cross the watershed. So in 1648, he settled in Revel eventually discovering a place where mountain streams flowed through a narrow gorge. Between 1667 and 1672, an army of workers created the lake of Saint-Ferréol on the border of Tarn and Haute-Garonne to retain water from the mountain behind a huge dam – the first of its kind in France. From there it was channelled to the watershed at Naurouze.

Today, the highest point on the route is marked by an obelisk whilst the lake at Saint-Férreol has become a popular place to swim and stroll through the pine-scented forest. Discover how Riquet achieved the impossible in the Reservoir Museum at Revel in Haute-Garonne.

The canal was not perfect, especially where it crossed rivers with fluctuating water levels, but improvements were made by the Marquis de Vauban, military architect and Mr Fix-It to Louis XIV. Walk through the Voûte Vauban, a 122-metre brick tunnel at Les Cammazes beneath the Montagne Noire and enjoy the combination of history and natural history.

Renamed after the Revolution, the Canal du Midi saw 300 years of commercial traffic come to an end in 1990, but today the UNESCO World Heritage site has a new lease of life as a leisure attraction. Enjoy a river cruise holiday, take a guided boating excursion, or walk or cycle the shady towpath. Many of the 42,000 plane trees planted between Toulouse and Sète have been lost to disease, but a major replanting programme is now using species better suited to the Mediterranean climate.

Many towns and villages at canal level offer exhibitions and activities beside the water. At Castelnaudary, take a short excursion cruise with commentary, rent a small boat for an afternoon, or hire a bike. And at Port Lauragais, find out more about the Canal at the Haute-Garonne Visitor Centre, or maybe rent a boat for a two-day mini cruise to Toulouse; the city’s beautiful old town is just a 20-minute walk from Port-Saint-Sauveur.

But it’s hard to top Riquet’s home town of Béziers for waterway wonders. The Nine Locks of Fonseranes that form that unique staircase. The Malpas tunnel, secretly excavated in just three months without royal authorisation. And the 19^th century bridge that later diverted the route at the 7^th lock, enabling boats on the Canal to cross over the Orb, 12 metres above its capricious water level – Riquet, one feels, would have been seriously impressed!

By Gillian Thornton, one of the UK’s leading travel writers and a regular writer for The Good Life France Magazine and website.