Boating on the Canal du Midi
French Inland Waterways
The Orb Aqueduct gives an excellent view of Béziers with its 13th Century St.Nazaire Cathedral. Béziers is the wine capital of the region, and canal designer Riquet’s birthplace. It was a Cathar stronghold, and was besieged in 1209 before the city was captured by the Crusaders, then sacked and the population massacred. Beziers has a large port and good range of facilities for boats of all sizes, but these are some way from the centre – probably easier to moor a little further east at Villeneuve-les-Béziers, as described below.
For cyclists, after leaving the Malpas Tunnel you need to follow the left bank until you reach the Fonsérannes Locks, when half-way down the flight there is a passage to the right bank and a path, also on the right, over a footbridge to rejoin the path on the right-hand-side over the Orb Aqueduct – you can follow this track right through to Portiragnes, and on to Agde where it leaves the canal close to the railway station. (At this point the cycle route is complete, although it’s possible to cycle along the road towards Marseillan to connect with a path along the right bank of the Canal as far as the Etang du Thau at Onglous Lighthouse)
Some four kms east of Béziers itself, and just five kms from the seaside, Villeneuve-les-Béziers is a medieval village which retains much of its charm, and is often quite busy – it has good mooring facilities, and a range of restaurants etc.
Continuing now towards Agde the Canal follows the coast passing Valras Plage (10 kms) and Serignan Plage (8kms) through the village of Cers where there are mooring facilities which may be useful for those wanting to visit the beaches (including a large naturist beach between Serignan and Valras). The next port is Portiragnes, a small typically Languedocian village dating back to the 12th Century, and convenient for the beach at Portiragnes-Plage about 2km away, where there is a range of seaside-style facilities including cafés, bars and restaurants.
Before reaching Agde the Canal crosses, or is crossed by, the River Libron – this river actually flows across the canal, at a point called the Ouvrages de Libron – it’s an unusual, possibly unique, engineering arrangement whereby a series of chambers is fitted with guillotine-type gates which allows the river to flow across the canal ahead of a boat, and then as the boat enters the subsequent chamber the river flows astern of it.
As one approaches Agde along the canal the number of craft moored beside the banks increases until you reach the world-famous “Round Lock” with its three sets of gates – one accessing the Canal in the direction of Béziers, one accessing the canal in the direction of the Etang de Thau and the third one giving access to the River Hérault, the quays of Agde itself and Grau d’Agde and the sea. (hire cruisers are not permitted to enter seawards into the River Hérault, but it’s possible to walk the 5km alongside the river to the beaches at Tamarissière and Grau d’Agde)
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