Canal du Midi in Carcassonne
As I was on the way from Avignon to the city of Toulouse in France, I noticed that the train passed through the town of Carcassonne. This was a major tourist destination and a UNESCO World Heritage site, I wanted to just get off the train and start exploring but common sense got the better of me and I first head straight to Toulouse to drop off my bags at the hotel and take another train going back to Carcassonne. The train ride didn’t take the long but it was still time spent traveling. Carcassonne is in a very rural part of the country and considering that it was one of the most visited places in the country, I thought the town would be much bigger.
Gates at the Canal du Midi in Carcassonne
The town of Carcassonne wasn’t very lively when I arrived. It was New Year’s Day so people probably weren’t in the mood to go out. What I noticed here, near the train station, was the presence of a river. Actually, it wasn’t a river but rather a canal. It seems that this was part of the famed Canal du Midi. The Canal du Midi winds its way around southern France and ends up in the Atlantic. It is a marvelous feat of engineering which make travel by water from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean much easier. After all, ships won’t have to go through the straits of Gibraltar to get to the Mediterranean side of France.
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