Canal du Midi

After an exciting weekend, marching on the 'Anem Oc' demonstration for official recognition of Occitan language and culture, visiting the Cité and eating some really excellent meals, we left this morning along the Canal du Midi which looked calm and quiet. There were just a few Sunday joggers and cyclists on the towpath.

The Canal du Midi was planned by Pierre-Paul Riquet, from Béziers, and built in the late 17th century. It is 240 km long and connects Sète to Toulouse, enabling boats to navigate from the Mediterranean to the river Garonne and from there to the Atlantic. It was very important commercially in its time, before the railways were built, and is now a peaceful tourist waterway, lined by plane trees.


For fans of colourful demonstrations, I've put some of my photos from yesterday on Flickr - here.