In our trip to France we have seen the Canal du Midi, built between 1667 and 1694, that is 240 km long (360 km with his four lateral canals) and in average 18 m large and goes from the Étang de Thau on the Mediterranean coast to Toulouse, where flows into the Garonne, that goes to the Atlantic: it links the two seas and has 328 structures (locks, lifts, aqueducts, spillways, bridges, tunnels). Its architect Pierre-Paul-Riquet was a tax collector from Béziers and presented his project to the minister Colbert and to the Versailles court: only the king Louis XIV believed in him because he thought that it was the ideal connection between the port of Séte, that was under construction, and the ocean. 12000 men worked here and Riquet became its architect and had to have many capacities. When money didn’t arrive from the court (the project cost 15 million libras) he had to spent his; he died before the canal was finished. He was conscious that he was creating a symbol of the power beyond a functional communication wateway: he ensured the quality of the architecture and the works were designed with monumental dignity and simplicity. He was also very conscious of the impact of the canal to the landscape, so he planted trees and plantations along it. We have seen the beautiful canal at Fonséranes, near Béziers, where are nine lifts that go over 25 m and are 315 m long, a port and a bridge, that makes the canal cross the river Orb.

I liked very much the lifts and the bridge because of the quality of the architecture and their working, that I have admired when a boat passed them. It's worth to be visited if you are in the Midi-Pirénées and justifies the incription also because it's the most interesting canal in the world and the only one inscribed.

Photo: Béziers - Lifts of Fonséranes on the Canal du Midi