| The Canal du Midi runs for 240km from the River Garonne at Toulouse via Carcassonne to the Mediterranean at Agde. It was the brainchild of Pierre-Paul Riquet, a minor noble and tax collector, who succeeded in convincing Louis XIV (and more importantly, his first minister, Colbert) of the merits of linking the Atlantic and the Mediterranean via the Garonne. The work, begun in 1667, took fourteen years to complete, using tens of thousands of workers. The crux of the problem from the engineering point of view was how to feed the canal with water, when its high point at Naurouze, west of Carcassonne, was 190m above sea level and 58m above the Garonne at Toulouse. Riquet responded by building a system of reservoirs in the Montagne Noire, channelling run-off from the heights down to Naurouze. He spent the whole of his fortune on the canal and, sadly, died just six months before its inauguration in 1681. The canal was a success and sparked a wave of prosperity along its course, with traffic increasing steadily until 1857, when the Sète-Bordeaux railway was inaugurated, reducing trade on the canal to all but nothing. Today, the canal remains a marvel of engineering and beauty, incorporating no fewer than 99 locks (écluses) and 130 bridges, almost all of which date back to the first era of construction. A double file of trees lines most of its length, giving it a distinctive "Midi" look and impeding loss of water through evaporation, while the greenery is enhanced in spring by the bloom of yellow irises and wild gladioli. With all of this and the occasional glimpses afforded of a world beyond – a distant smudge of hills and the towers of Carcassonne – the canal is a pleasure to travel. You can follow it by road, and many sections have foot or bicycle paths, but the best way to travel it, of course, is by boat. Outfits in all the major ports rent houseboats and barges, and there are many cruise options to choose from as well. For boat rental and cruises, contact Crown Blue Line, Le Grand Bassin, BP1201, 11492 Castelnaudary (tel 04.68.94.52.72, [email protected]), or Locaboat, Le Grand Bassin (tel 03.86.91.72.72, www.locaboat.com), both of which have a number of branches in Languedoc and the Midi; or Nautic in Carcassonne (tel 04.68.71.88.95, fax 04.67.94.05.91). Canal information can be found at the port offices of Voies Navigables de France, at 2 Port St-Étienne in Toulouse (tel 05.61.36.24.24, www.vnf.fr), who also have English-speaking offices at the major canal ports. For a quicker taste of the locks, the cruise barge Lou Gabaret does ninety-minute and longer excursions; contact Allan Millian, 27 rue des 3 Couronnes, Carcassonne (tel 04.68.71.61.26).
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