"Biking the canal du Midi"
The guide is now avaliable in english!		 "All you need to know about the canal du Midi", the reference book now in english And now THE DVD! "Canal du Midi : history, secrets and legends" is alsoavaliable in english
Welcome to the French Midi Canal website. It came on line on 23 April 1999, since when it has been visited regularly.The best way to discover the site is to adjust your screen resolution to a minimum of 800x600 pixels. At the top of the page, there is a menu which will guide your exploration.
On 7 December 1996, this fantastic engineering work, which had been on the drawing board ever since ancient times, was placed on UNESCO's list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. It was the tenacity of one man, however, that brought to term what had remained right up to that time a foolish and unattainable dream: the construction of a canal 240 km long, 10 metres wide and two deep, to join the Garonne (and hence the Atlantic) to the Mediterranean. And remember, the building and topographical know-how available in the second half of the 17th century, Louis XIV's, was not what it is today.. As the Canal took shape, as it wended its way through the countryside, especially in the Languedoc, countless obstacles stood in its path, calling for the most amazing, unusual or imposing hydraulic solutions. It is with the aim of making all these, together with the towns and villages along the Canal's banks, better known, and to whet your appetite for a trip to our marvellous region, that I have set up this website. I have no vested interest in doing so. I simply want to share with you my passion for the Canal du Midi.

You want to rent a boat without a licence? Just click!

The site creator, Philippe Calas, Primary teacher in Portiragnes, near Béziers.

 The idea for this effort came to me when, in 1998, I proposed a project on the Canal to my pupils in CM2 (fifth year of primary) at Portiragnes, a small village in the heart of the countryside through which the Canal flows. I next carried out my own research and studied the Canal more thoroughly at first hand. This website is the fruit of my labours. The more I studied this magnificent construction, photographed it, and travelled on and along it, the more material I wanted to include in the website. My greatest reward has been the dozens of messages I have been receiving from around the world - if you read some of them in my "visitors' " book , you will understand that I can't help feeling that my work has been worthwhile. Another kind of recognition came when, in 2000, France Telecom, awarded me the prize for the best site in the Languedoc in the category "Tourism and Region" in its competition Nets d'Or. As you browse through this site, you may be struck by the total absence of advertising. No publicity flashes either! I don't want to make money out of these documents; I would simply like to share with you my passion for Pierre-Paul Riquet's great work. On the other hand, if you would like to help me in my voluntary undertaking (for which a minimum outlay is of course necessary), then I invite you to look at the 'Projects' heading. I hope that your pleasure in discovering these files will match mine when I wrote them.
To enable me to improve the site, could you find a moment and send me a little email using the form, telling me what you think about it. It would also be interesting to know how you found out about it, so that I can add cross-references.
Copyright.
You will be consulting a site which has involved considerable research and document collection. Therefore I request you not to copy or quote the site without my prior agreement.

From the same author : http://www.canalmidi.com
Association's 'Le Canal du Midi en Languedoc' logo