Our starting base was at Port Cassafières, easily found by car by taking the Beziers East exit from the motorway. (I also came back to Beziers by train for my car at the end of the trip and a taxi from the station to the base took about 15 minutes and cost 20 euros exactly.)

Our trip ended in Castelnaudary, Crown Blue Line’s headquarters, where there is a railway station only 600 meters from the base.

The scenery

The whole cruise was magnificent. There are things to see up close, in the middle distance, and in the far distance.

Typically the canal is lined with plain trees (45 000 of them) and the banks filled with wild flowers, birds and ducks. In general the towpath is good for walking and cycling throughout. Cars have now been banned from much of the towpath. Remember that this canal, built under Louis the Fourteenth, has been classified by UNESCO as part of our World Heritage.

Even though you may be renting an apparently small boat compared to the larger barges, beware of the bridges as their shape can still damage the boat in the upper, outer corners. Moreover be especially careful of stacked chairs, bicycles, umbrellas etc stored on the upper deck. The scars on the bridge testify to over 300 years of barge skippers slightly underestimating their importance.

The canal itself also now crosses many rivers via aqueducts. Try and get the time to stop and examine these incredible works from below. The most spectacular is at Beziers, although there are dozens of smaller versions. The Beziers aquedust is a 19th century addition. For a 17th century original try the Répudre near to Paraza in the long pound.

The challenge when building this canal was to feed it with water, and then make the water flow downhill through the locks. This means that the canal cannot go up and down hills, only down as you go east. One of the consequences of this is that the canal has to follow the contours in places, especially in the very long pound of 54 km between Beziers and Bram. 

The middle distance is dominated by vineyards which surround the canal from Beziers until well past Carcassonne. These are the plentiful but nonetheless respected vineyards of Corbières and the Minervois. The buildings and farmhouses are often of stone. 
East of Beziers the atmosphere is quite different and the feeling is already of being in the Camargue. We saw flamingos amongst dozens of other birds feeding in the salt marshes to the south of the canal. This area forms part of a large bird sanctuary. There are also horses and horse riding stable offering tours down towards the sea which is only a few kilometres away.

In the distance on both sides are the hills. To the north you can see the Causses and the Parc du Haut Languedoc. In the south are the Corbières.

On this trip are some major towns such as Beziers and Carcassonne, but frankly there is so much to see on the canal that these seem like such ugly and noisy places. This dismissal of the bigger town does not include the walled City of Carcassonne which is a taxi ride away from the canal and is magnificent. You must find the time to visit if its the only trip that you make away from the canal. 

Otherwise the canal winds its way close to and indeed through many smaller and very pleasant towns which are an attractive bonus when ashore for shopping or eating out. Very briefly and with apologies to the locals if I have missed or maligned their town.

Firstly note that the lock opening hours have been reduced from this year and are apparently as follows.

March, April, October – 9am to 6pm
May, September – 9am to 6.30pm
June, July, August – 9am to 7pm

They will also always close between 12.30 and 1.30pm for lunch.
Remember that these hours imply that you should be through the lock before closing time. It is therefore not unusual to refuse entry up to 20 minutes before, or maybe even longer in a multiple chamber lock.

The hours are as follows

Downstream from opening until 9.30, and then from 1.30 to 3.30pm
Upstream from 10am until 11.45am and then from 4pm until 45 minutes before closing.
Going up or down there is a lock ready about every 20/25 minutes.

All of the locks are mechanised, that is to say the doors and gates are operated electrically by the lock keeper, except for the 10 single locks between Castelnaudary and Carcassonne. All of the multiple locks are mechanised.

In each lock you must have 2 lines. One should stop you going forward, one should stop you going backwards. Ideally one line should go forward away from the boat and the other go backwards away from the boat. If you cannot do this bring both line to a bollard on shore near the center of the boat. Both lines can go around the same bollard if necessary. 

Remember that you will probably be going through the lock with other boats, so always move forward if you are the first one in. 

Your speed in the water will be about 8 kilometers an hour.

To pass through a lock will take about 10 minutes, through a multiple lock about 6/8 minutes per chamber. 

However, you may have to wait for the lock to be ready (this can be a long time in the multiple locks), and you also have to travel at the speed of the slowest boat in your ‘convoy’. Boats will temporarily group together and pass each lock as a team. You’ll see.

Above all, try and take your time, let others take their time. Be prepared to have to change your plans if there is an unexpected queue, or maybe stop as you fancy takes you…Enjoy it, relax, slow down for other boats, have fun, this is the Midi.................