French Canal Cruising - The Canal du Midi

A practical guide to navigating the canals in south-west France. Ports visited include Lattes, Frontignan, Bouzigues, Beziers, Agde, Argens-Minervois, Carcassonne and Bram. Waterways cruised include the Canal du Rhone á Sète, the Etang du Thau and the Canal du Midi. This video shares our experience and provides some practical advice for new boaters. Check this out if you are thinking of renting a canal boat anywhere in France.

[@kristianjensen753]

It was a very inspiring video. Hoping to do this myself, with my wife. Thank you for sharing.

[@romakayak]

Over the next three years all the single locks on the canal du midi will be automated. I live aboard a 15m cruiser in Colombiers, just west of Beziers . Done about 800 locks through France and Belgium totally alone. Beziers and foncerannes is the slowest part of the entire French canal system to navigate. Good video.

[@helenmcritchie9143]

What a relaxing holiday, thank you so much for sharing your videos 😊😍

[@dontato8675]

Glad you enjoyed the video. Yes, it is relaxing and a great way to just enjoy the French countryside.

[@jamespitchford986]

Thank you for posting your video. My wife and I are considering our first canal boat rental and doing so on the canal du midi.

[@OmarSher]

Very well. really liked your content. Searched for French canals and youtube shwoed me your video. Love from Omar Sher.

[@ZaleAway]

Great video! We cruised the Holland canals on the same boat this summer and absolutely loved it!

[@galeforce8953]

Nice video of one of my favourite parts of the world but, god how I hate having portrait video interspersed. You are filming a landscape - film it in Landscape!

[@paulcunningham2859]

Fun

[@apntv]

Great video, we just did much the same trip on a Penechette 950e, we had a windy trip across the Etang de Thau though. Nice to see the bits beyond Argens. We did an extensive Vlog too if you are interested :-)

[@ozbizbozzle]

I reckon the plane trees dying by fungus is probably something more than a random fungus. Fungus operates to deal with dying things as do viruses and bacteria so something is killing the trees. Let's see how the new ones fare.

[@estebancorral5151]

To replant a monoculture of trees is ridiculous. They will be susceptible to another blight.

[@timshaw8187]

Lovely video did you need a licence

[@dontato8675]

Tim, No you do not need a license. The boat providers provide the necessary briefings. Do the letters PSI mean anything to you ?

[@Sutapa-Ripper]

which route would you suggest we take ( most scenic and just 5 - 6 days) if we were to do just 1 canal boat trip ( bucket list) in our lives? You seem to have done several. Your suggestions please

[@dontato8675]

It is difficult to go wrong in France but we really the like Burgundy region. It is quite central so this route could fit in with your other plans. We have been happy with Locaboat after many trips and find their service quite consistent. Departing from the Locaboat base in Corbigny, located on the Canal du Nivernais, head south towards the Canal Latéral à la Loire and then to Dompierre-sur-Besbre. This route is partially covered in our video Canal Crusing in France - The Burgundy Circuit. You can see the scenery in our earlier video Canal Boating Nivernais 2018.

[@michaelkoch5209]

Version without music would be easy to understand

[@julioasensio]

What was the boat rental company?

[@dontato8675]

Locaboat Holidays. They have offices all over France. We are not sponsored in any way. There are other boat companies that have different configurations.

[@996bach]

Music waaay too loud and spoiled an otherwise great video blog

[@josepeixoto3384]

holly smokes,thanks for the video; place looks sad,sorrow, narrow, no fun,monotone...and just too too long,takes for ever, like a prison; guess you couldn't pay me to go there, how much did it cost altogether, and would you go there for a second run? at least you won't get lost,i think ; and how do you come back from that one way,like a one track train line... lol; well, thanks, another couple of my 68yo age, who lived in France, told me about it,they wanted that all 4 of us went there, and i am looking at videos, and thanks to the videos maybe not.

[@dontato8675]

Glad you found the video informative. Best to decide now that it isn't for you.