Cycling the Canal du Midi. Declan Lyons
SUMMARY TABLE
Ventenac-en-Minervois (Stage 4)
Sète canal (Stage 5)
INTRODUCTION
On 13 April 1667, Pierre Paul Riquet began work on one of the world’s best cycle tracks. It wasn’t his intention; the bicycle had yet to be invented. He set out to construct a canal – the Canal du Midi – but the 240km towpath along its bank is now a cyclist’s dream.
Parts of the route are on tarmacadam
The canal’s towpath, linking Toulouse in the Haute Garonne with Sète on the Mediterranean coast, is an excellent, rewarding cycle. It passes through some of France’s most beautiful and historic countryside: rolling plains enlivened with sunflowers, dark mountain ranges, oak forests, tinder-dry garigue, Camargue-like marshland and sandy coastlines. The towns and villages punctuating its route are steeped in history and culture. This is part of la France Profonde, where the rural life still prevails; the towns and villages feel authentic and genuine.
Although it is manmade, the canal seems natural – fitting perfectly into its surroundings. It’s a thriving refuge and green corridor for a wide range of animals and plants.
Riquet built the canal to enable goods to pass from Bordeaux, on the Atlantic, to the Mediterranean ports without having to circumnavigate the Iberian Peninsula. This saved time and secured supplies in uncertain, turbulent times. Trade brought wealth, as evidenced by the elegant buildings in older districts of the canal’s towns. Tourist boats, walkers and cyclists have replaced the working barges, and the canal is a focal point for sporting and leisure activities.
The canal villages and towns predate its construction. Ancient Greeks founded Agde and the Romans developed Narbonne. Toulouse, the ‘Rose City’ has been one of France’s most beautiful and important cities for over a thousand years, while Carcassonne’s Cité is a restored 12th-century Cathar stronghold.
The arrival of railways in the late 19th century and the later construction of truck-carrying motorways undermined the economics of moving goods by barge. The Canal du Midi went into commercial decline, and the last commercial barges travelled it in 1970.
Villesèque lock (Stage 2)
UNESCO declared the Canal du Midi a World Heritage Site in 1996, recognising its unique engineering heritage and its historic importance in the development of the Languedoc area in the south of France. It rates alongside France’s great monuments such as the Eiffel Tower and the Papal palaces in Avignon. The Canal du Midi is a working, almost living artefact. As you cycle its banks you can feel, touch and taste the history and culture of the area it enriches.
This book gives information on cycling the Canal du Midi from one end to the other. It is ideal for those who want to spend a holiday canal cycling, and will also be of interest to those living or holidaying in the region who are looking for a few days of good cycling.
Those boating down the canal will also find this guide useful; most of the boat-hire companies offer bicycles for hire. Cycling presents boat users with the opportunity to explore the countryside that they pass through, and bikes give easy access to towns and villages at a short distance from the canal.
Regions of the canal
The Canal du Midi is part of a waterway linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Together the River Garonne and the Canal Lateral link the Canal du Midi to the Atlantic in the west. It joins the Mediterranean at Sète. A spur of the Canal du Midi – the Canals de Jonction and de la Robine – connects it to Port la Nouvelle on the Mediterranean coast.
The path was originally a towpath
The canal flows through Occitanie (Occitan) – a region created by the merging of Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées regions. France (excluding overseas territories) is further sub-divided into 96 administrative departments which are usually – although not always – named after the main river flowing through them, with each department assigned a number in alphabetical order; the Canal du Midi passes through the Haute-Garonne (31), the Aude (11) and Hérault (34), named after the rivers Garonne (haute referring to upper), the Aude and the Hérault.
This guide uses the more general term of Languedoc to describe the region through which the canal flows.
History
Early people
The countryside around the canal is rich in history and has been inhabited and farmed since prehistory. Excavations in Valros, about 20km north of the canal at Vias, revealed Neolithic burial pits, skeletons and artefacts dating from approximately 5000BC.
Seafaring cultures had easy access to the Languedoc across the Mediterranean Sea. Agde was originally an ancient Greet city; its ready supply of volcanic rock and rich volcanic soil for agriculture made it an attractive base for trade in the seventh century BC. Archaeological remains from that period can be seen in Agde’s museum.
Evidence of the indigenous Ibero-Languedoc people can also be found close to the canal. The Oppidum d’Enserune is near Colombiers, about 2km from the tunnel at Malpas; this rocky hill was occupied from 550BC in the Iron Age to the first century AD.
Celts and Romans
The Celtic Volcae-Tectosages people spread throughout the southwest of France in the final three centuries BC, and ruled from Toulouse to Béziers. The Volcae struck a treaty with the Romans at the end of the second century BC when the latter established the province of Gallia Transalpina. The Volcae broke the treaty and captured the Roman garrison in Toulouse. The Romans retaliated, and subsequently the lands became part of their Gallic province.
Remains of the Roman Temple of Venus (Excursion 5)
The Romans established themselves quickly, leaving their mark across the entire region. The wine trade, for example, flourished, and wine and other produce were exported to Italy. This trade presumably funded the extensive building and expansion of towns and cities.
The Roman infrastructure is still in evidence today. The Via Domitia (Domitian’s road) links Rome with the Iberian Peninsula. Part of it is visible in Narbonne and a stretch can be walked at Pinet, a village 8km north of Marseillan at the Mediterranean end of the canal. Roman bridges and aqueducts can be found throughout the region.
The Roman Empire’s decline had major ramifications for southwest France. In AD418 the Roman Emperor Honorius gave the Visigoths control of Gallia Aquitania in return for their help in regaining control of the Iberian Peninsula.
Section of the Via Domitia in Narbonne (Excursion 4)
Visigoths and Saracens
The