An afternoon on the canal

A summer trip with our Occitan group on the Canal du Midi. Lunch first under the shade of olive and oleander trees, with a delicious main course, a speciality of this region, seiche et gambas a la rouille (cuttlefish and large prawns cooked in a tomato sauce with rouille, which is made like mayonnaise with the addition of saffron and garlic. Then a trip on a canal boat across the canal bridge towards Béziers (the canal goes over a bridge across the river Orb) and back to the nine locks at Fonsérannes - a series of nine consecutive locks built in 1681.

The Canal du Midi was the brainchild of Paul Riquet, who was born in Béziers. Before the days of the railway it made it possible to transport goods from the Atlantic at Bordeaux to the Mediterranean at Sète.