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onjour!
This month, we have chosen to dedicate our newsletter to the Canal
of the Two Seas in southwestern France, a remarkable achievement registered with UNESCO as a world
heritage site in 1996. More specifically, we will focus on the beautiful Canal du Midi stretch of
it, which links Toulouse to the Thau Basin, and is now one of the most popular tourist destinations
in France for the beauty of its landscapes, its river barge tours and its history. The political and
strategic goal of connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea dates back to Antiquity.
However, this incredibly ambitious and somewhat fantastic project would only come to life in 1666,
as many financial, material, and human obstacles had to be overcome for it to succeed.
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The Canal Du Midi |
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A Colossal Undertaking
In the 1600s, the idea of building a canal that would cross the French countryside to link together
the ocean and the sea was pure and simple science fiction. Nonetheless, Henri IV became the first
of many kings and ministers to study the feasibility of such a project. The main purpose of this
canal was to make it easier to transport freight by cutting across the land. In fact, the passage
of the Straits of Gibraltar at the southern tip of Spain was particularly dangerous. With a canal,
merchant ships could avoid the hazards of a maritime crossing of more than 1,800 miles. While
shortening distances and avoiding pirate attacks were certainly motive enough, the rivalry between
France and Spain was also a big factor in creating the waterway. The Canal allowed the ships to
avoid paying the steep taxes imposed by Spain when navigating through the Straits. The Kingdom of
Spain could no longer enrich itself off the back of France, which certainly pleased Louis XIV and
Colbert, his famous Finance Minister.
Pierre-Paul Riquet, a Tax Collector
Of course, this enterprise would never have taken off without the backing of the extremely ambitious
Louis XIV, or the intelligence of Colbert, who believed the power of the kingdom rested primarily on
the development of commerce. However, it is without a doubt the boldness and stubbornness of one
single man that enabled this gigantic project to become a reality. Indeed, Pierre-Paul Riquet devoted
the last 14 years of his life to this outlandish undertaking: a 155 mile long canal that would run
from Toulouse to the Thau Basin. And to think that he was not even a civil engineer but just a taxman!
In the process of collecting the infamous “gabelle” tax and acting as paymaster for the king's armies,
he had amassed a real fortune in Languedoc. “La gabelle” was a tax on salt, a large part of which was
set aside for the king. Collecting it was a very well paid job, to compensate for the fact that the tax
collector was held personally accountable with his own assets as collateral. This most unpopular tax
was finally abolished during the Revolution. Pierre-Paul Riquet’s extreme common sense, his talent for
leadership, and the personal fortune that he sunk into a project he held so dear, allowed him to achieve
his dream with only shovels and pick-axes as tools.
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Ensuring the Canal’s Water Supply
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One of the major difficulties of this project was definitely ensuring this future canal’s water
supply. Pierre-Paul Riquet went to every length, even exploring the Black Mountain with a dowse
on the north side of Villefranche-de-Lauragay and Carcassonne, to discover the source that would
serve as the starting point. He found it, a stream on the plateau of Naurouze, which divided itself
naturally into two tributaries: one flowed toward the southeast and the Mediterranean, and the other
toward the west and the Atlantic. He came up with the idea of building a reservoir that would supply
water to these two sides of the future canal. The Saint-Ferréol Basin was built in 1667, and was at
that time the largest artificial reservoir in the world. Because of the government’s reluctance to
underwrite the project, Riquet personally financed the boring of the 21-mile long channel that would
allow him to collect the water and direct it to the basin.
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The First Social Benefits
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It was obvious that the undertaking of such a project would be very difficult. With quasi-nonexistent
technological means, the canal simply had to be dug with shovels and pickaxes. To make up for these
poor working conditions, Pierre-Paul Riquet offered generous salaries to the 12,000 men and women
hired for this adventure. He also gave them paid holidays and Sundays, paid rainy days when they could
not work, paid sick leave, and subsidized housing. These were absolutely revolutionary measures for
the time, and were probably the very first such social benefits ever extended to the working class
in France or anywhere else in the world. The local business owners were anything but pleased with all
of this, as their own laborers started to defect to the canal construction site, or worse yet, called
for the same benefits!
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Financing the Project
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Financing the project was ultimately Pierre-Paul Riquet's most difficult task. Of course, it ended
up costing twice as much as expected, and he had to sink his entire personal fortune into it. In
addition to the boring of the main channel, which would bring water from the Black Mountain to the
artificial basin, he also financed the first phase between Toulouse and Trèbes. To keep the operation
going, he had to invest his own money, which the state was slow in reimbursing. He had to sell his
real estate holdings, and take out loans at exorbitant interest rates just to pay his employees. He
even went so far as to sacrifice his daughters' dowries. Riquet was bankrupt by the time he died only
a few months before the work was complete, and his heirs had to sell half of their shares in the canal
to pay off his debts. Fortunately, they were able to buy them back in 1724, and finally profit from
all his work and dedication that had resulted in such a tremendous economic success.
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The Malpas Tunnel, Against All Odds |
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There were numerous technical difficulties to overcome as the project evolved, and many of Riquet's
detractors waited in the sidelines for the slightest "faux-pas" to have it halted. As it turned out,
14 years were enough to build no less than 63 locks, 126 bridges, 105 aqueducts, 6 dams, and 7
canal-bridges, over a total distance of 150 miles between Toulouse and Sète. Malpas Hill, located 4
miles west of Béziers, figured as one of the many particularly challenging obstacles that could have
ruined the stubborn Riquet. To by-pass this large hill would have meant more wasted time and money
when Pierre-Paul already had his back to the wall, and simply could not afford it. And so he decided
to build a tunnel. However, the particularly unstable soil made the operation dangerous and uncertain.
Informed of these conditions, Colbert shut down the construction site. Undeterred, Riquet gathered
workers from other sites and continued the work in secret. He knew that it was only a matter of time
before his enemies discovered his illegal activity and turned him in. So in only one week, his crew
built the first navigable tunnel in the world, 541 ft long. This tunnel in itself was one of his
greatest triumphs.
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The Trees along the Canal
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Almost immediately, 45,000 plane trees, pines, poplars and fruit trees were planted, with several
clearly defined objectives in mind. The most important one was to limit water evaporation,
particularly during the summer which is so hot in the southern region of France. Then there was
the need to shade the towpaths and the waterway itself all along the canal so that the bargemen and
the towhorses could travel in better conditions. A bonus was the fact that the tree roots actually
reinforced the canal banks. Finally, it was expected that in autumn the leaves would form a layer
at the bottom of the canal and reduce the risks of water infiltration into the soil. Today, the
tourists who meander along the canal banks on barges or bicycles take particular delight in these
wonderful trees.
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Invitation to Travel
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The Canal du Midi was a tremendous economic success for the shipment of merchandise over two centuries.
However, the canal was eventually abandoned because of competition in a world where speed and
profitability go hand in hand. New means of transportation replaced the canal that was no longer used
as a commercial waterway. Nevertheless, for the past 30 years, it has steadily regained its popularity
thanks to the growing interest in river tourism that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
There is no better way to explore this region than to hop aboard a "péniche"or barge, and navigate your
way along the canal at 4 miles an hour. You will discover the diversity of the landscapes, and appreciate
the incredible local cuisine. You can visit cities rich with history such as Toulouse, Castelnaudary,
Carcassonne, Béziers, Sète, just to name the largest. You can discover unusual places like the hamlets
of Somail, Montolieu, and the village of Livre, or you can simply rent a bicycle and ride along the
ancient towpaths that have been flattened and transformed into bike paths, and enjoy the pervasive
peace and quiet along the Canal areas.
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