So the Canal du MIDI is done. 240 kilometres of wonderful scenery, charming towns, beautiful trees (yes, there are still lots left) and lots and lots of water. But, does this add up to a good walking holiday? Yes, 100%. Are there several caveats to this? Yes!
Let's start with the reasons to do it. If you are new to walking holidays then this one really couldn't be much simpler. You walk along the canal. Every few miles there is a town or a village where you can buy food, stop for a break and find accommodation. It is also a great route for finding lovely, pretty French towns and villages to visit. I am very philosophical and it made me wonder which caused which? Did they deliberately pick the nicest places when they planned the route for the canal or have the places become nicer thanks to the trade and tourism that the canal has brought them? My guess is the latter but the point is that, almost without fail, the places along the canal are good for a visit.
I also felt myself thinking on many occasions that doing the canal on foot or on bike would actually be better than doing it by boat. The reason for this is that a lot of the canal was built with a bank of land on one or both sides. This means you can't see many of the beautiful views that I was lucky enough to get whilst walking. And I really do think that this is a massive point as, most of the time that I spent walking, I wasn't really focussing on the water; I was looking at the trees, the mountains or the towns. Looking back on it, the canal (apart from the canal architecture) wasn't the focus of the walk at all! It was more of a route that showed me everything else that was going on and which guided me through a beautiful region of France.
Now, I mentioned bikes. This is for two reasons. One, you need to be aware of bikes. I walked it when it was very quiet and even then, when I was in my own world listening to music, every now and then a bike would fly by and take me by surprise. Two, in many ways, I think cycling the canal would be great. It really depends what you are doing it for: I loved the chilled pace of walking and, every now and then just stopping to read a book or write part of this blog. There are however sections where not very much would happen for sometimes up to around ten miles. That is three hours of walking at a decent pace! A bike would be a good way to shorten the time spent on this and it would turn the canal into a highlight reel of nice things to see and do.
Recommendations:
So, onto some of the top tips:
Do it in the right season. I had to do it when I did as, for me, it is part of a much bigger trip. But the scenery was nowhere near as marvellous as it could be (there weren't very many leaves on the trees or flowers blooming or crops growing in the fields) and nothing was open on the canal itself. I was walking past all sorts of little buildings which had cafe areas for the summer but they were all closed for me. This would add so much to the atmosphere as well as for the convenience of getting food and drink.
Do it travelling from West to East. This is the route that I took and it is definitely the way to go. In my opinion, the towns and scenery got prettier and more interesting as I went along and I definitely would have felt it was a bit of an anti-climax walking it the other way around.
If you can't do the whole thing, focus on the stretch from Carcassonne to Béziers. You will miss lots of good bits by doing this but, for the most part it was the part that I enjoyed the most.
If you are walking or cycling, account for the extra miles you will do. I spent a couple of rest days walking and exploring, often stopped to look around towns and villages and also went on some huge excursions to try and find cheaper accommodation as it tended to be far more expensive right next to the canal. This meant that I walked 231 miles to complete a 150 mile journey along the canal. This threw me on occasions as days where I planned a 15 mile stretch along the canal ended up in 20-22 mile walks by the time I had done all the extra bits.
I honestly don't think you can go far wrong by holidaying along the Canal du MIDI, whichever mode of transport you choose. For me the relaxed pace of walking and just taking the time to think and daydream is the way to go. Not exactly a challenge to get your heart rate pumping, but a wonderful, contemplative experience with endless opportunities to sit back and take it all in.
