A walk along the Canal du Midi from Beziers to L'Etang de Montady February 10, 2010, originally uploaded by Campobello Island.
A cool day but no rain so I decided today was a good time to walk along the Canal du Midi from Beziers to L'Etang de Montady which is about 12 KM out of Beziers. I made it there and back in around seven hours, without a back pack and I am one hurting unit tonight. Obviously I need to do more walking to get ready for Le voie du Puy the first of march.
As I said it was cool but for walking it was quite comfortable and there was lots of things to look at along the Canal . I will have to remember to take bread for the ducks next time. Quack a few times and these little fellows come racing across the water to see if you have something for them.
When I started the walk this morning I walked past the nine locks just east of Beziers. I guess it must be too early in the season I didn't get to see a boat going through the locks, as a matter of fact I didn't see a single boat moving on the canal all day.
My destination was the L'Etang de Montady which is an incredible piece of medieval engineering which still works today. In the middle ages a bishop designed a method of draining the Etang (Swamp, marsh or pond) by digging drainage ditches which drained the water to the center where an underground tunnel carried the water away. Thus the pie shaped land so all of the ditches could drain to the center. These are a couple of videos that I took from two different locations above the L'Etang: (Hope you don't get sea sick these were taken with my flip camcorder and I don't have the steadiest hand)
This is a short clip that I took along the Canal Du Midi nears Colombiers:
And last but not least this is a view looking back at Beziers from the banks of the Canal du Midi
