Cruise Routes
cruise Routes
Clair de Lune navigates anywhere between Bordeaux through to Avignon, an adventure that requires four weeks barging. Most of the season Clair de Lune spends on the Canal du Midi with its MIDI CLASSIC cruises between Beziers and Carcassonne.
Clair de Lune provides the longest cruise as the “Classic Midi” cruise involves approximately 100 km of barging with the passage of 32 locks including the flight of 7 locks of Fonçerannes in Béziers and the triple lock in Trebes.
A cruise on ‘Clair’ unfolds around you with a million soothing landscapes, sumptuous food, delicious wines and pleasant daily adventures while you gently float along this magnificent tree-lined canal. Your day usually consists of a daily excursion, often in the morning, followed by lunch onboard then barging during the afternoon. ‘Clair de Lune’ has its favorite excursions that work well with the barging schedule and that provide the guest with a well-rounded variety of sight-seeing and activities. These excursions highlight the hidden “jewels” of historical or natural interest along with colorful open-air markets, wine-tasting, shopping, or cultural fairs and festivals.
1 Beziers Carcassonne
Open for Individual bookings or Charter
By far the most popular cruise route, Clair de Lune offers its guests a wonderful week of barging between Villeneuve-les-Béziers, which is close to the seashore east of Béziers up to the village of Trèbes, just outside of Carcassonne. The beauty of the canal is extraordinary as it winds its way across the countryside while the visits cover a diversity of historical periods (Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance) and cultural activities like open-air markets, museums and festivals. Being in the heart of wine country it will be our pleasure to share a wine tasting or two at country wine chateaux.
2 Carcassonne to Summit level (Toulouse): Normally Charter Only
Being less travelled is the highlight of this section of canal which is just as beautiful as Béziers to Carcassonne, if not more so with long sections shaded by huge sycamore trees. In the summer when the fields of sunflowers, cover the slopes while old stone ruins of windmills crown the tops of villages. This is the gentle rolling landscape of the Lauragais region, historically known for wheat and production of a blue pastel dye. As the barge leaves Trebes and passes through Carcassonne, she climbs northwest toward the Atlantic leaving the Languedoc wine country behind. We pass through the town of Castelnaudary, known for the regional dish of Cassoulet. We arrive at the summit level (600 ft) where the water divides, from the rivers of the Montagne Noire, when entering the Canal du Midi. Beyond the medieval walled city of Carcassonne, visits tend to be more rural and historical including visiting the vast dam in Revel that Riquet built to store the water to supply the canal. Other visits can include farmers markets, the Niaux cave (11,000 year old cave paintings), hiking to eagle nest Cathar castles and wine tasting of course.
This cruise route involves approximately 42 locks, including the flight of 4 locks at Castelnaudary, as we climb to the top of the hills between Carcassonne and Toulouse. The distance covered is somewhat shorter, being approximately 68 kms.
See cruise options for sample day to day itinerary.3 Béziers - Avignon - Provence (Canal du Midi, Etang de Thau, Canal Rhône-à-Sète): Normally Charter Only
Beginning in Villeneuve-les-Béziers, we descend the Canal du Midi and pass through the round lock at the Greek town of Agde and then onto the inland salt lake of the Etang de Thau. Here, see the fishermen tending their racks of oysters and clamming for mussels as this lake is home to shellfish farming. Passing the fishing towns of Marseillan, Mèze and Bouzigues we cross the lake to the large Mediterranean fishing port of Sète where we can enjoy mouth-watering seafood fresh off the trawlers. From here we enter the Canal du Rhône-à-Sète and navigate the coastal lagoons to the walled town of Aigues Mortes, built by King Louis in the 13th century for the staging of the 7th crusade to the Holy land. This is the Camargue country, France’s largest wildlife reserve where flamingos, white horses and black Camargue bulls abide. Through this land where the Course Camarguaise, which is a contest of removing tassels from the bull’s horns, is King we cruise to Beaucaire and the Rhone River. This Provence route includes possible visits such places as the Pont du Gard, Avignon, St. Remy, Les Baux de Provence, Arles, Aigues Mortes, Sete, St. Guilhelm le Desert, and Pezenas but can also include open-air markets and wine tasting.
This cruise route is interesting in that it involves barging on different waterways including the tree-lined Canal du Midi, the Hérault River, the large Thau lagoon and the Canal Rhône-à-Sète. This is a much longer cruise being approximately 144 kms in length. This is because there are only 4 locks involved as the waterways remain close to sea level.
4 Summit level towards Bordeaux (Canal du Midi, Canal Lateral de la Garonne): Normally Charter Only
The barge descends westward for 52 kilometres along the Canal du Midi until we arrive in Toulouse where it joins with the 211 kilometre long Garronne Lateral Canal. The Garronne canal was dug in the mid-19th century, from 1836 to 1856, to avoid the hazardous navigation conditions on the Garronne River. Cruise highlights include the water slide in Montech, built in the 1970’s, which bypasses a flight of 5 locks; cruising on the Tarn River in Moissac; and the longest aqueduct in France in Agen (1885 feet with 23 arches). Visits can include Toulouse (museums, Romanesque Cathedral, shopping, or even the Airbus industries), Albi (Toulouse-Lautrec museum and largest brick building in the World – Ste. Cecile Cathedral), Montauban, Moissac with 7th century abbey, Armagnac country, wine tasting in Buzet and Bordeaux (St. Emilion), among many other possibilities. This cruise route is recommended for those who have already experienced barging along the Canal du Midi (Beziers – Carcassonne) and Provence. The summit level to Bordeaux (Castets-en-Dorthe) requires two weeks of navigation.
Canal du Midi
Paul Riquet set out to defy the laws of nature and create a waterborne link between the two great seas; the Atlantic Ocean at Bordeaux and the Mediterranean at Sète. The project took 14 years to build (1667-1681), with a labour force of up to 12,000 men and women.
The completion of this ambitious task allowed ships at the time to avoid the perilous navigation around Spain. Nowadays, the canal is mainly used for pleasurable recreation, and was recognised by UNESCO as a 'World Monument' in 1996.
Riquet's motto, 'Il faut finir l'ouvrage ou mourir à la peine' ('We must finish the work or die at the task') is evident from the incredible feats of engineering along the canal. True to his word, he did die before he saw the canal in operation. We, however, can still marvel at his accomplishments. The water-staircase of eight consecutive locks at Fonsérannes defied critics at the time and still remains.
Lined by plane trees, in spring the banks burst into bloom. On the 'Clair de Lune', you will be charmed by the spectacular and amazingly varied countryside - from fertile plains to mountain ranges rising in the distance - as you gently glide along the canal at a pace forgotten in the turmoil of our modern lives.
The canals and rivers of southern France cover Bordeaux on the river Garonne
to the "Pont d'Avignon on the river Rhone . It includes the navigable rivers Lotte and Baise north-west of Toulouse, the canal de la Robine near Narbonne, the canal Rhone a Sete and the canal "Lateral a la Garonne". from Toulouse to Boardeaux and the lake "Etang the Thau" known for the oistersbeds and "Moules Frite" .Barging all these rivers ,canals and lakes will last four, five weeks of unsurpassed barging.
photo's summer season 2002 2003 2004
