CANAL DU MIDI ❘ FRANCE’S WATERWAYS


MARVELS MIDI


Steve Turnbull unveils the delights of the Canal du Midi as he explores by boat, bike and on foot


the tunnel with a professional guide. Like this, you can step back in time and learn the remarkable story of how it was built, as well as what makes it so special. As our guide, Maïté Gérard, explains, the 165m-long construction, which dates from 1680, is not only an extraordinary feat of engineering, but the fi rst navigable canal tunnel in the world. Et voilà! The UK may be proud of its canal-building prowess, but the French got there fi rst. More specifi cally, it was Béziers-born Pierre-Paul Riquet who masterminded the project, solving a specifi c set of problems in situ. As we also learn, the tunnel is the only one on the canal. But the most surprising fact about it is that it was dug in little more than a week – much to the chagrin of the sceptics, who numbered amongst them the then fi nance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert. But back to that story in a moment.


A


The next stop on our trip is a short walk up the hill overlooking the tunnel. At the top, we discover the Oppidum d’Ensérune (‘oppidum’ means fortifi ed town or settlement in Latin). Listed as an historical monument since 1935, this is widely regarded as one of the most important Gallo-Roman sites in the south of France. The newly refurbished museum certainly holds an impressive collection of artefacts, illustrating the range of civilisations, Celtic and Iberian included, that left their mark here. It also puts the site, which dates from the 7th century BC to the 1st century AD, into a very clear historical context with the aid of models and state-of-the-art multimedia technology.


❯❯


The Tunnel de Malpas, a remarkable feat of engineering on the 17th-century Canal du Midi


s anyone who has done a boat trip here will tell you, gliding through the eerily dark Tunnel de Malpas is great fun. But to really experience this emblematic site on the Canal du Midi, a few miles west of Béziers, it’s best to walk along the towpath inside


Feb/Mar 2023 FRANCE TODAY ❘ 83


IMAGES © STEVE TURNBULL


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148