By Matias Tugores, Photojournalist
For his contemporaries, baron Pierre-Paul Riquet was quite bananas, no doubt.
At the respectable age of sixty, this layman in architecture and civil engineering threw himself, in an almost obsessional way, into a titanic endeavour: linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic with a navigable waterway.
He was to devote his huge fortune to this mammoth venture to be: the Canal du Midi. So beloved was this project to him that he used to refer to it as “the dearest of my children”. His own children, however, were far less happy with their father’s reckless expenditure for it left his two daughters of marriageable age without a dowry!
On April 15, 1667, was laid the first stone of what was to be “one of the greatest engineering achievements of the Modern Age”. The Unesco inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in December 1996.
In the record time of 14 years, up to 12,000 workers, 600 of them women, cut a 254-km long waterway linking Toulouse, the home to the Airbus and aeronautical industries, to the Mediterranean, along which Riquet built 328 structures, some of which unprecedented at the time. Reaching the Atlantic from Toulouse along the Garonne river was feasible then, though it was a hazardous route strewn with obstacles.
The most imposing of Riquet’s master works is the octuple lock of Fonséranes, at the foot of Béziers. – 8 lock chambers pieced together as it were, designed to get over a difference in level of 21 meters over a distance of hardly 280 meters. The lower lock is the point of departure for a two-hour long trip to Port-Neuf along the pont-canal over the Orb river (the waterway flows on a bridge). Built in the mid-19th century only, it is the most monumental aqueduct along the canal, with its 180 m in length and its 7 arches.
The smooth outward journey, some 20 meters above the ground, commands a spectacular view over the town of Béziers, Riquet’s birth place. The return trip to the upper lock of Fonséranes, however, is far more hectic and at times hair-raising. Once the boat of the Bâteaux du Soleil (Sun Boats) has entered the lower lock, the gates behind it close while the upper ones open, letting masses of water gush forward. When its level is high enough, the houseboat “climbs” to the next lock, and so on until it reaches the 8th and last lock. The boat brushed the sides of the chambers and I wondered – as well as, probably, the 70 or so trippers gathered on the deck- if it would really make it to the top. It did, of course, and debarked slightly shaken but delighted passengers.
The canal ensured the prosperity of the regions it flowed along, and of Southern France in general, until the 1970s when it became less and less in demand. A decade later, fluvial tourism took over and has now become a real craze. During the peak periods in July and August, the most frequented stretches of the canal are virtually jammed.
This waterway lined with plane trees and umbrella pines winds its way along sun-soaked and
tile-roofed balmy villages, lock keeper houses, vineyards, wheat and sunflower fields. It flows
in a quietness disturbed only by the chirpings of the cicadas, by the shrieks of the birds and the quackings of the ducks. It blends so perfectly with its surroundings that it seems to be the work of nature.
From Spring to early October, boat keepers offer trips along the canal for anything from an hour to several days, and those wishing to be on their own can hire fully-equipped houseboats for 2 to 12 persons.
That’s just what this couple of Dutch retirees I met near one of the bridges of Capestang had done. Four years ago, they discovered the canal during an outing in the Pyrenees and ever since have been staunch aficionados of it. They make it a duty to explore it, bit by bit, during a week, every year, usually during the month of June when there are not too many tourists.
“It was instant love, says Hanah; we enjoyed the beauty and peacefulness of these landscapes, the slow drifting along these placid waters, the friendliness of the people…”and “the wines of the Minervois are not bad at all, chortled Jayden, her husband; and let us not forget about the cassoulet !” This stew of beans, confit d’oie (goose meat), sausages and other kinds of pork meat, is almost an institution in the Midi (another name for Southern France). Three towns claim it as their own. So as not to wound people’s feelings, gourmet and cook Prosper Montagné used to say “The cassoulet is the god of the cuisine of Occitany. The Father is the cassoulet of Castelnaudary, the Son of Carcassonne, and the Holy Spirit of Toulouse !”.
They were partaking in a more frugal meal of greens, pâté and cheese on the deck of their moored pénichette ( as these houseboats are often called).
At a snail’s pace (speed on the canal is limited to 8 km/h) houseboats of all sizes and designs were gliding over this stretch of water, at times two in a row, at times with intervals of ten to fifteen minutes.
To propel these “floating caravans” which do not require a license, is child’s play. The fifteen minutes of instructions the trippers get before embarking are sufficient to master the skill. The excursionists are free to make a stop wherever they fancy, to stretch their legs, for a picnic or a nap in the shade and on firm ground, or for a sightseeing tour to the surrounding villages, as long as they do not obstruct the way.
The most frequented stretch of the waterway, from east to west, goes from Sète, on the Mediterranean, to Castelnaudary and Carcassonne. It is a route strewn with many locks and most of Riquet’s works are there. One of these is the pont-canal over the Répudre rivulet, near the village of Paraza. It was the first ever built in France and the sight of barges cruising high above their heads filled the people with wonder –as much as it still does impress today’s visitors, more than three centuries later.
From there, the canal heads towards the tiny hamlet of Le Somail. Over the years it has become an “in” resort patronized by artists Trippers often make a stop-over there. It was created by Riquet as a halting place where the boatmen of the Mail barges and their passengers would spend the night. Of Riquet’s times there remain the ivy-covered guesthouse where tourists can still stay, a small chapel resting against a hump-backed bridge and a cool house where the delicate eatables were stored.
Moored at a cable length from there, is a floating grocery shop where fresh bread and other essential food stuffs can be bought, which is clearly the answer for those who recoil from riding their bike to the neighboring shops. Bikes, however, will be indispensable to ride to the two local curiosities: Amphoralis, the Gallo-Roman settlement-cum-museum, and the massive barracks-like lock of Gailhousty which serves as a sluice, a dry dock and an épanchoir (used
to evacuate the excess waters).
We are in the Minervois (the wine-producing area in the Languedoc region) and everything
there is subordinated to the wine trade. Many villages along the canal accommodated themselves to it, with warehouses and cellars, like those of La Redorte, Homps and Vintenac whose winery is housed in an elegant turreted building of the late 17th century. They welcome visitors throughout the summer for a tasting of their best products.
The vineyard extends, to the west, as far as the foot of the medieval walled town of Carcassonne (another World Heritage Site). For many trippers, it is often the end of the journey. Seen from the canal, this mighty fortress, with its 3-km long ramparts and its 52 towers silhouetted against the sky is breathtaking –and even more on July 14, France’s National Day, when, at nightfall, it is set ablaze with Bengal lights and fireworks, converting it into an incandescent block of stone.
RSS
