Art of Living
Heritage site: A magnificent feat of civil engineering
The Canal du Midi, 240 km of navigable waterways!
Discovering the Languedoc by water is surely one of the most
pleasant ways to appreciate the charm and gentle way of life this
region has to offer.
The 240 km long navigable waterways of the Canal du Midi, once
known as the "Royal Canal", stretch across the Languedoc plain.
This is the most significant work of civil engineering ever to have
been undertaken in the Languedoc.
It has contributed to the economic development of an entire
province as it provides a means of transporting grain, wine, oil,
fruit, cloth, and construction materials, among other products.
The mild climate of the
Languedoc enables year-round
navigation of the canals; however
the opening times of the locks
must be taken into account.
Generations of people had dreamed of linking the Atlantic with
the Mediterranean. It wasn't until the spring of 1681 that this
dream came true, thanks to the determination and the genius of
Pierre Paul Riquet, a native of the region...
This undertaking would have been impossible without this man's
imagination, resolve and energy. The obstinacy of the minister
Colbert and the intelligence of the Chevalier de Clerville brought
him even more support.
His brilliant idea was quite simply to supply the future canal with
water from the streams on the Montagne Noire (Black Mountain).
With great determination, he was able to get the necessary
authorization and financing to put his great plan into action.
Thanks to the support of the Archbishop of Toulouse, who was
convinced of the feasibility of his project, Riquet obtained backing
from Colbert, and in October 1666, an edict from Louis XIV
ordered the construction of the canal for navigation and
communication between the two seas: the Atlantic Ocean and the
Mediterranean.
Riquet then invested all of his personal fortune in the project and
www.les-jamelles.com - [email protected]
BADET CLEMENT & CO - 39, rue de Beaune - 21220 L'Etang Vergy - FRANCE
Tél. +33 (0)3 80 61 46 31 - Fax. +33 (0)3 80 61 42 19
took on responsibility for the work. In exchange, the canal became
his for life. His heirs were thereby able to appropriate the canal and
make a fortune off of it. Construction was completed in record
time.
For fourteen years, heading a an "army" of 12,000 workers, men
and women alike, Riquet built the astounding Saint Ferréol
reservoir, and overcame all obstacles by building 328 structures
such as locks (including the 8 successive Fonsérannes locks near
Béziers to compensate for the 21.5m difference in water level),
bridges (one of the oldest is the Pont du Somail), aqueducts,
tunnels (such as the Malpas tunnel beneath the oppidum of
Ensérune), etc.
The responsibility put a great strain on Riquet's health and he
died, exhausted, on 1 October 1680, six months before the official
inauguration of the navigable canal linking Toulouse and Sète.
His work was to be completed during the centuries that followed,
thanks to the works of Vauban in the late 17th century with the
Cammazes Gap, in the 18th century by the Canal de Jonction et
de la Robine that links Narbonne and Port la Nouvelle, and in the
19th century by the construction of the canal alongside the
Garonne River which links Toulouse with Bordeaux, for a total of
450 km of navigable waterways between the Atlantic and the
Mediterranean.
During the French Revolution of 1789, the Royal Canal's name
was changed to "Canal de Midi", which was deemed to be more
democratic.
www.les-jamelles.com - [email protected]
BADET CLEMENT & CO - 39, rue de Beaune - 21220 L'Etang Vergy - FRANCE
Tél. +33 (0)3 80 61 46 31 - Fax. +33 (0)3 80 61 42 19