{"id":1040,"date":"2018-09-27T08:59:57","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T08:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1040"},"modified":"2018-10-27T18:48:25","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T18:48:25","slug":"the-canal-du-midi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/?p=1040","title":{"rendered":"The Canal du Midi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in 1666, when Louis XIV was 28 years old and not yet the Sun King, he and his ministers decided to actualize a long-held dream: to connect Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea via a canal running through the Midi, a familiar name for the Southwest of France.\u00a0 The engineering work fell to Pierre-Paul Riquet, who is still celebrated in that region, and it was completed by 1681.\u00a0 All of which is mildly interesting history, except for the fact that you can boat, live and walk or bike along the Canal du Midi today.\u00a0 If you are visiting Languedoc for wine tasting, leave yourself some time to enjoy the canal as well.<\/p>\n

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For the most part, the canal wends its way through shady glades and lovely little villages.\u00a0 Life does not go very fast along the Canal du Midi.\u00a0 It is 240 km. long but only 10 meters wide, just enough for two rather narrow boats to pass by.\u00a0 You couldn\u2019t go fast if you wanted to, unless you wanted to smash your boat against one that is anchored on the side, drown in a lock or take your head off passing under a low stone bridge.\u00a0 So you are forced to slow down your inner clock, take it easy and enjoy the scenery.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the best part of that scenery is the willows and reeds along the banks.\u00a0 On others, it\u2019s the pretty small villages along the canal and also the glimpse of castles and cathedrals off in the distance.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re\u00a0walking or biking along the banks rather than boating, there are pleasant pathways that give way to breathtaking vistas especially, so we have found, as sunset approaches.\u00a0 Both the boaters and the walkers seem to enjoy a friendly wave as they pass one another.<\/p>\n

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Our personal experience has been to take a tour from just outside Toulouse to a turning point half way to Carcassonne. \u00a0It\u2019s only 30 or so kilometers and can be driven in a half an hour, but it took us all day.\u00a0 There are other, similar tours all up and down the canal.\u00a0 Make sure you find one that goes further than just around the sections that are in urban areas.\u00a0 Nothing against cities, but the joy of the canal is the French countryside as you glide by. We have also spent time in a house along the canal, which was wonderful.<\/p>\n

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Another idea is to make the Canal du Midi the vacation itself.\u00a0 We haven\u2019t done it ourselves, but we know that you can rent a boat (called a p\u00e9niche<\/em>) and pilot yourself along the canal.\u00a0 There are dinky little boats available as well as large cruisers that sleep up to 10 people, although we mostly have seen parties of six or fewer.\u00a0 From what we can see from the banks, the most popular rental agency is the unimaginatively named company, Le Boat (www.leboat.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n

There are numerous places along the canal where you can pull up and spend the night or a few days.\u00a0 If you are next to a village, you can pick up groceries or have your meals in caf\u00e9s or serious French restaurants that line the shores.\u00a0 It\u2019s the best fun you\u2019ll ever have in the 17th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back in 1666, when Louis XIV was 28 years old and not yet the Sun King, he and his ministers decided to actualize a long-held dream: to connect Toulouse to the Mediterranean Sea via a canal running through the Midi, a familiar name for the Southwest of France.\u00a0 The engineering work fell to Pierre-Paul Riquet, … Continue reading The Canal du Midi<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1040"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1040\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/powertasting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}