canal du midi

The Romans always dreamed of connecting the Mediterrenean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, in order to avoid the dangerous route around Gibraltar; perhaps for military means. None of the Cesars not even the emperor Augustus suceeded.

Charlemagne failed; Francois I. and Henry IVth of Navarray had calculations prepared for a canal royal between the two seas; yet, work never started.

Finally Pierre-Paul Riquet (1604-1680) suceeded; he presented his genius plan to Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louix XIVth’s minister of finance. By chance Monsieur Riquet discoverd the watershed of Narouze between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterrenean Sea. Many years he had crossied the land, puzzling over a plan to lead the water of the many wild mountain strams through a reservoir to a canal and to distribute it. The minister hesitated and Riquet financed the first section of a guide canal himself.

29th July 1666 construction work for the royal canal started; favoured by the king Louis' need for a new war harbour at the Mediterrenean Sea; a new city named Séte. Thus, construction work started here.

The section Toulouse-Trèbes - 118 km - near the city of Carcassonne was finished after only 5 years; even though Monsieur Riquet had had many of the barrages destroyed and reconstructed because they did not meet his ideal of the perfect canal.

To complete the other section from Séte to Toulouse was much more difficult; unforeseen problems due to strong slopes and the wild mountain streams arose. Construction costs were exploding, the population was against the canal and minister Colbert threatened to stop the construction work.

Again Monsieur Riquet had one of his great ideas; he solved the problems of the many slopes constructing twin-, threefold and four-fold locks. And Bèziers became his masterpiece: a water step consisting of 8 lock chambers; and the untamed waters were tamed by being led through aqueducts.

For 15 years 12000 people worked on constructing this canal of 250 km length. They had to construct 64 locks in order to level 57 m height difference between Toulouse and Narzouse and another 190km between Narouze and the Mediterrenean Sea. Near Bèziers the canal was led through a mountain for 55 m. They were digging an up to 19 m wide fairway, built 103 lock chambers and planted 34000 plane-trees, which still exist nowadays..

Immediately the canal became the main trade transport route in the South of France; it took the transport boats only four days from Séte to Toulouse. In 1681 the Canal Royal entre des Deux Mers was opened; without Pierre-Paul Riquet. The genius engineer had died on 2nd October 1680.

In 1996 the UNESCO declared the Canal du Midi a World Heritage; the second world heritage of the Departement of the Aude. Carcassonne being the first. Even though the canal was only an active transport route for not more than 200 years - due to bigger ships and the cheaper railway transport routes - it was maintained in its original form.
Nowadays this unique monument is used by holliday sailors, passing the old plane-trees and rediscovering the landscape of the Midi and the fascinating history of cathar country.