The Canal du Midi in the Département of Aude by Hilke Maunder

On the Canal du Midi near Castelnaudary at the Écluse de Peyruque. The Canal du Midi is one of the most beautiful waterways in Europe. Its cradle lies in Occitania, where towpaths adorned with plane trees, fields of sunflowers, manor houses and Gothic bell towers, villages and market towns accompany the blue ribbon of the south.

It is the path of summer under the warm southern sun, the favourite route of houseboaters in France. With a length of 240 kilometres, the Canal du Midi connects Toulouse with the Mediterranean - a technical marvel that makes leisure skippers marvel. And sweat profusely. Its 63 locks add variety and excitement to the tranquillity of gliding along, the leisure of being on the water.

Even the Romans dreamed of a waterway between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. Powerful people and movers and shakers tried their hand at the idea. Even Leonardo da Vinci failed.

Until a baron from Béziers found the solution, convinced the Sun King Louis IV and dared to break ground in Toulouse in the autumn of 1667: Pierre-Paul Riquet (1609 - 1680). In 1666, Louis XIV signed the royal edict for the construction of what was then called the Canal Royal, now known as the Canal du Midi.

The baron from Béziers mastered the question of how the canal, which climbed 194 metres in altitude along the way, could be constantly supplied with water with a stroke of genius.