Saint-Marcel Bridge over the Canal de Midi in Le Somail, Aude (France)

"l have passed through the Canal from it’s entrance into the mediterranean at Cette to this place, and shall be immediately at Toulouse, in the whole 200 American miles, by water; having employed in examining all it’s details nine days, one of which was spent in making a tour of 40 miles on horseback, among the Montagnes noires, to see the manner in which water has been collected to supply the canal"

Thomas Jefferson

about his visit to Canal du Midi

Pont de la Rode over the Canal de Midi near Trébes, Aude (France)

It was a large and difficult project, but very advantageous for my reign, as it would become the center and reference point for European trade.

King Louis XIV

about the Canal de Midi

Pont de la Province over the Canal de Midi in Argeliers, Aude (France)

"Without doubt the most beautiful and most noble construction of its kind ever undertaken. I would have preferred to have created it, than all that I have done and all that I will do …"

Vauban, about the Canal de Midi

Canal Bridge of the Cacor over the Tarn River in Moissac, Tarn-et-Garonne (France)

"...greatest engineering achievements of the Modern Age, providing the model for the flowering of technology that led directly to the Industrial Revolution and the modern technological age. Additionally, it combines with its technological innovation a concern for high aesthetic architectural and landscape design that has few parallels...."

The Canal du Midi 

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Pont de la Province over the Canal du Midi in Argeliers, Aude (France)

Is it not my confidence that pleased you, and that under the rule of the most perfect and greatest King that the world has ever seen, I will create the greatest engineering structure ever to have been designed?

Pierre-Paul Riquet

Bridge over the Canal du Midi in Villedubert, Aude (France)

«Qu'il est loin mon pays, qu'il est loin! Parfois au fond de moi se raniment l'eau verte du canal du Midi et la brique rouge des Minimes...»

Claude Nougaro

Pont Saint Marcel over the Canal du Midi in Ginestas, Aude (France)

"..un grand ouvrage de paix, bien digne de nostre application, et de nous soins, capable de perpetuer aux siecles à venir la memoire de son autheur, et d'y bien marquer la grandeur, l'abondance et la felicité de Notre Regne"

Excerpt from the Royal Edict announcing the construction of the Canal du Midi, 1667