We arrived here one afternoon and were entertained by the dramatic emptying of all the locks that are lined up like a giant staircase.
Here is an interesting excerpt from Wikipedia:
Though Pierre-Paul Riquet rightly receives so much credit and acknowledgement for the creation of the Canal du Midi, we may forget that many individual parts of the canal were built by subcontractors other than Riquet. The subcontractors for these locks were two illiterate brothers, Michel and Pierre Medailhes. Many of the workers were women. (^ Mukerji, Chandra (2009). Impossible Engineering. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14032-2.)
canal-du-midi
This was a very interesting area. I wrote about the Etang de Montady when we were there! This is a short movie of the tunnel. The boater’s guide book said it was easy, and it was, you just needed a loud horn on the boat. I was very pleased that we were able to follow a boat through that wasn’t shy about using it. I’ve deliberately lowered the volume on this movie because our chatter is not all that interesting. Better to play your own music!
- Staircase of locks at Fonsérannes
This series of locks is a world heritage listed bit of engineering. It really was great to actually go down them all. We had a strike day to hang around here and have a good look. It was the first time we encounted unkept and messy surrounds. Really was quite disgusting. It seems they would get away with it because visitors obviously focus on these.
There was only one other lock that had really awful surrounds and that was the last one we used at Lattes.
Canal-du-midi
Sunday 10th October
This is part of a canal that actually cuts France in half.
This was our first day on this canal. It is wider and more landscaped than the Baise. We can stop anywhere along it. On the boat is a mallet with 3 steel pegs so that we can moor anywhere.
It rained most of this day, and we got drenched holding onto ropes in locks.
Sample of our work
Garonne Valley and canal.
Yellow Mountain
Canal-du-Midi
Shirley Peters, Putney artist, flower shop show
Day 2 - London
our birthday party
My fridge door photo competition entry
a southerly buster in Barraba!
Tuesday 19th - le greve
just for fun
butterfly
Post with no name, or maybe dumb spider!
Quipolly Dam & Bird Hide
black bamboo grove