Yesterday afternoon we drove to Homps and visited Lake Jouarres ,a man made lake which is very popular with the locals.
It is not picturesque and it is obviously subject to high winds .It is very close to Homps and the Canal du Midi.
It has its own sailing club but we found most of the boats were dust strewn covered in cobwebs and sitting in beds of weeds.
One would have to say that this is not one of the picturesque lakes one has experienced.
It was warm and windy and we chose to walk around the perimeter and we were distracted by the closeness of The Canal du Midi.
We digressed to check it out.Unfortunately we missed a couple of barges passing.
We walked back and returned to Olonzac to meet our friends.We had arranged to join the village at a music event in the park .It was chilly and because of this the attendance was sparce,so we had a warming beverage and returned home late!
Today we soaked in the Mediterranean sun then headed to Homps ,once again ,
to experience a barge trip for a couple of hours on The Canal du Midi.
Homps is a picturesque French Village set on the Canal du Midi and adjacent to the Lac Du Jouarres.
Homps became established as the port for Olonzac after the completion of The Canal du Midi 350 years ago .
Today the canal barges have been replaced by pleasure boats and we saw several examples today.
The idea of a waterway connecting up the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean dates back to the Roman Empire.
Augustus dreamt of a (water route),that would be quicker than the land routes and the dangerous Iberian Peninsular sea route.
Pierre- John Riquet,devoted his life to the Canal of the Two Seas project and single- handedly found solutions to all the problems that had stumped the best engineers for almost twenty centuries.
At the age of 57 ,Pierre -Paul Riquet threw himself into the more than challenging canal project,risking and eventually losing his considerable fortune.
Riquet never lived to see the completion of his masterpiece as 2.5 miles were still to be dug when he died in 1660.
His fortune was in tatters and his children inherited his debts but his genius was ,by this time acknowledged throughout Europe and his name was to go down in history.
Despite being beset by financial problems and pressed for time, Riquet strove to create something that would be enjoyed by future generations .Even when money was at its most scarce he insisted on using quality,hard wearing materials and paid particular attention to detail.
This is why the canal is in such remarkable condition more than three centuries later.It is also why this purely technical structure ranks among the purely architectural masterpieces of the 17th century.
Leonardo da Vinci is generally considered to have invented the lock at the end of the 15th century,when canals were built in Northern Italy.
Riquet designed oval lock basins that were more resistant to pressure.They were all built using carefully matched stone but unfortunately many were altered thirty years or so ago when the canal was modernised to meet European standards.However , it is still easy to spot those which date back to Riquet's time due to their bulbous shape and elegance.
In 1989 the last Canal du Midi freight barge came to the end of its final journey.The Two Seas canal network was threatened with neglect.The network was however saved by the growing popularity of river tourism,which began in the late1960's and has become so
successful that at certain times of the year there are actually traffic jams at the lock gates.In 1996, the Canal du Midi became a world Heritage site,thus recognising Riquet's genius and undoubtedly guaranteeing that his now protected and financially viable masterpiece will remain for generations to come.We had a wonderful afternoon and were very dismayed to find out that the Plane trees bordering the canal have a fungus disease and are to be replaced by European Poplars,not nearly as stately as the Plane Trees.
The ambiance is unique and to be absolutely savoured.
This is an experience I would like to repeat ,with my family in the future.
Tomorrow we head to Carcassonne .