About the Canal du Midi

On the Canal some lockhouses continue to be residences for the lockkeepers. And those can be highly individualized. My favorite was at L'Ecluse d'Aiguille (a double lock) to the right and below.

The buildings and locks are surrounded by sculptures made of wood or scrap metal - cans, rebar, bicycle wheels and chains, pipes, all manner of wonderful things.  In a tree I discovered an owl and a cat.   The controls for the double lock were in the "head" of a stick-figure man.  There were other stick-figures across the lock from the house.  See the 3 photographs below.

In the photo on the right, Barbara has wrapped a line around a bollard and slowly lets it out as water level lowers and the boat descends in the lock.

This photo above shows the lock at the Carcassonne boat basin shortly after sunrise, when the sky was tinted pink. The upper lock gates are closed and the lower lock gates are open.  That's how the lock spends the night.  No boat headed upstream is in the lock.  In the one following, gates are opening and the boat is drifting toward them.  I've fallen in love with those oval locks - - they're just beautiful.

The canal connects the Mediterranean Sea with France's Atlantic port cities. It was initially a commercial success. But as in other countries, rail transport gradually starved out business. Now owned and operated by the government, small pleasure boats abound. The canal was constructed in the late 1600s, but all of the locks are now electric and are operated by lockkeepers. The set schedule for lock opening and closing is rigid, so in September there is no passage before 9:00, or from 12:30 to 13:30, or after 19:00. We decided to travel downstream because it seemed easier than the reverse.