On a recent trip to the Midi region in southern France, I took  the time to explore a special place: the famous Canal du Midi in the area known as Languedoc/Roussillon.  This manmade waterway is a wonder of hydraulic engineering, and its entire length has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Here are a few facts about the Canal du Midi. It was built during the reign of Louis XIV by a wealthy individual called Pierre Paul Riquet. It was dug by some 12,000 workers using only raw manpower. (Backhoes and front loaders didn’t exist in those days.) It was conceived to enable the transportation of goods between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as a shortcut to a lengthy voyage around Spain and Portugal through the Strait of Gibraltar.

The southeastern part of the waterway, 130 miles between Toulouse and Marseillan (near Sète), used to be called the Canal Royal du Languedoc. The northwestern section, about the same length between Toulouse and Castets (near Bordeaux), was formerly known as the Canal Lateral à la Garonne because it runs parallel to the Garonne River. The full length, once completed, was first named the Canal des Deux Mers (the Canal of the Two Seas), but the entire system is now commonly known as the Canal du Midi.

Today there is virtually no transportation of goods on the canal. Instead, it is used almost exclusively by self-driven pleasure boats and luxury barge-hotels. As I said, it is an amazing piece of engineering, and as it lazily winds its way through vast areas of vineyards and olive groves, it is one of the loveliest and most peaceful waterways in France.

The most striking feature of the canal, in my opinion, is what I would call its “signature look” - tall rows of enormous plane trees lining both banks, arching high above the waterway and shading its entire path all the way down to the deep blue Mediterranean. Imagine floating gently down the nave of a leafy Gothic cathedral for miles on end! Also notable is the ubiquitous tow path where horses once pulled the freight barges and where one can now take leisurely walks, jogs or bicycle rides.

During this one-week trip, I only covered the southeastern section of the canal. I traveled up and down between Carcassonne and Marseillan on the Bassin de Thau. I visited a dozen places, met quite a few people and took a lot of pictures. You can get more details on my visits from the full article I posted on our website.

One fairly rare but interesting feature of canal cruising in France is crossing over a river on a “pont-canal” (literally “bridge-canal” but sometimes translated as “navigable aqueduct”). A pont-canal is like a regular bridge except that it carries water instead of a road. As your barge floats across the bridge, you can look down at the river below - quite a sensation!

In Burgundy, I took some pictures of the Pont-Canal de Briare, a beautiful bridge across the Loire River. This structure is 20 feet wide and nearly a half mile long. The water is 7 feet deep. The bridge was completed in 1896 by Gustave Eiffel, whose famous Eiffel Tower in Paris was built in 1889. The nearby Canal de Briare was built much earlier (between 1604 and 1642) as part of a massive network of waterways connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.

There is another pont-canal in the south of France near Beziers, where the Canal du Midi crosses the river Orb. In that location, the Orb riverbed is at the bottom of a deep gorge, and its waters flow fast and furious on their way to the Mediterranean. Originally, a series of 9 staircase locks were built to bring boats down to the level of the river. This did the job for a while, but the lower two locks kept being flooded by the river. So, a “navigable aqueduct” was built to bypass these two locks. (The seven others are still in use today and are known as the Fonséranes locks.)

A trip to Burgundy without a wine experience wouldn’t be complete, of course. So, while I was visiting barges on the Canal de Bourgogne, I went to one of the most famous vineyards in Burgundy (and in France, for that matter)–the Clos de Vougeot. This 12th-century winery/chateau was built by Cistercian monks for their wine production. They owned the property for 700 years and life was good for a long time. But the French Revolution took everything away from them. Today, it is the headquarters of the “Confrérie des Chevaliers de Tastevin,” an elite fraternity of wine connoisseurs known for, among other things, its annual event, the “Trois Glorieuses” (the three glorious days). This extravagant event takes place on the third weekend of November. First, a meeting of the Confrérie on Saturday, then a famous charity wine auction at the Hospice de Beaune on Sunday and finally the “Paulée de Meursault” and the award of its literary prize on Monday. All of these happenings are carried out with ample celebration and pageantry, of course. At the chateau, I was particularly impressed by the four mammoth, medieval wood presses on display in the cellars. They are really enormous!

As for the vineyard, well… it is clustered all around the chateau and it is a very unique and unusual growing arrangement. The stone-wall enclosed area of 125 acres is now owned by 80 different owners. Some of them only own a few rows or even less. So, although it is the largest Grand Cru area in Burgundy, the average production per owner is just over 1,000 bottles. The grape grown is Pinot Noir which produces a delicious full-bodied red wine. Taste it–you will not be disappointed. Clos de Vougeot is classified as a national monument and is well worth the visit. Being there on the Trois Glorieuses weekend would be so much fun!

These are a few pictures I took on a trip to  Burgundy. In my opinion, this region  is one of the most picturesque in France: softly rolling hills covered with vineyards and lush, verdant countryside dotted with hundreds of “happy cows.” During my visit, I toured the Canal de Bourgogne just outside Dijon (among other places). The stretch of canal I explored, along the river Ouche, has to be one of the most peaceful places on earth. Except for the occasional luxury barge-hotel  gliding lazily up and down the slow moving waterway, the area belongs to the locals. Going through small and quaint villages such as Veuvey, La Bussière and Gissey-sur-Ouche, you feel like you own the place. No crowds there and no rush hour either. To this rural serenity, add the picture-perfect pastoral scenery and you’ll get the idea… a great place to get away from crowded cities and busy highways! I took the first four pictures near a lock at Gissey-sur-Ouche, the fifth one in the Nuits-St-Georges area and the last in Auxerre, in the Chablis wine region.

Welcome! This travel blog is about river and canal cruise vacations on luxury barge-hotels and riverboats in France. With its extensive network of rivers and canals, France offers dozens of cruising possibilities from Alsace to Normandy and the Loire valley, down to Burgundy, Provence and the Languedoc. The boats navigating French waterways can be as small as upscale barges for 4 guests on the Canal du Midi or as large as 150-passenger river cruisers on the river Seine through Paris. Cruising around the French countryside is a great way to spend a vacation. Exploring out-of-the-way places, seeing the locals up close and sampling the many regional dishes and wines is a lot of fun. So, we hope you enjoy your trip (or enjoyed, if you’ve already been there) and we look forward to chatting with you.

From our “About” page you will see that we are travel professionals who specialize in tours and cruises in France, Spain and Portugal. You might want to take a look at our website.