France
Gliding down the Canal du Midi at a barge’ s pace narrows your world but heightens your senses. From the cathedral of greenery overhead to the Camargue ponies gazing back from the banks, this is a serene barging adventure. The biggest decision faced is whether to go for a bike ride or wine-tasting before the next gourmet dinner onboard. Welcome to barging for beginners in la France profonde. By Lisa Gerard-Sharp
TThe Canal du Midi is the oldest Dutch barge, there is no turning canal in France, with the greatest back. Savour the nautical brass concentration of heritage sites en and panelling, the nightly winetastings, the seafood feasts on the route. As such, it deserves respect. You could choose to bob up and sundeck, the insider trails to moody down in a plastic boat and become chateaux. The European Waterways a public menace on the waterways. barge is fully-crewed but feels like a Or you could do the canal in style, family affair – bar the fact that the on a barging voyage of discovery. family includes a gourmet chef, a After you’ ve stepped onboard sommelier-captain and a guide to the Anjodi, a hand-crafted traditional canal’ s secrets.
On the Canal du Midi, spring signals a return to the water: bobbing boats; steadfast barges; breakfast by crooked stone bridges; communing with dumb ducks; battling with stroppy geese; rope-swinging by cascading staircases; gawping by locks. With a speed limit of eight kilometres per hour, this is life in the Slow Lane. But the canopies of greenery overhanging the Canal make the voyage akin to sailing through an Impressionist painting.
Follow the swallows south and catch some spring sun in the Midi, the poster region for the French `good life’. The Canal du Midi, connecting the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, was pioneered by salt-tax collector Pierre- Paul Riquet in the 1660s. Designed to bring glory to Louis XIV, the Sun King, the canal remains glorious, and deservedly the most popular waterway in France. Now a Unesco World Heritage site, these 150 miles
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