View on the medielva city of Carcassonne from the green vineyards, France

The medieval splendour of Carcassonne, France

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We are standing a few kilometres south of the fortified city of Carcassonne, with the vineyards rolling down from our feet to the base of the majestic ramparts, and the Black Mountain in the background. In Southern France, Carcassonne is a marvel of the Middle-Ages: an entire city completely fortified with its narrow cobblestoned medieval streets, its imposing castle, and gothic basilica. Carcassonne remains the most complete example of French medieval military architecture, and it took about 25 centuries to shape Carcassonne as it is today…

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Canal du midi unlocked: the locks of Fonseranes, Béziers (2/5)

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Birthplace of Pierre-Paul Riquet, the man who linked the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea in the 17th century by carrying out the largest civil engineering project of the time, the Canal du Midi, Béziers is also where the masterpiece of Riquet can be visited: the 9 locks of Fonseranes.

Having left Sète some 50 kilometres prior, we leave the shade of the centennial plane trees along the Canal du Midi behind to bike over the surreal Pont-Canal de l’Orb. This 1857 aqueduct, both bridge and canal, was built so that boats with their precious wheat cargo would avoid being tumbled over in a violent Keep travelling

The Canal du Midi unlocked: Sète, the cosmopolitan starting point (1/5)

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A smell of fish enters my nose while I kneel to capture a fisherman dressed in the recognizable thick yellow waterproof clothing as he sets out on the lake of Thau. Squeezed between the Mediterranean Sea and the salty étang de Thau, a famous aquaculture basin for oysters and mussels, Sète breaths the atmosphere of a historical fisherman’s town with its very own traditions. Keep travelling