Ultimate Guide to Cruising the Canal du Midi with Le Boat: Everything You Need to Know
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 2 ก.ค. 2024
- Watch this before booking a Canal du Midi Cruise. In this video, we'll show you what you need to know before cruising the Canal du Midi with Le Boat. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is a beautiful way to experience the great outdoors in the South of France.
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If you're thinking of cruising the Canal du Midi, be sure to check out this video! We'll take you on a tour and show you all the amazing sights and attractions this canal has to offer. from beautiful villages to fabulous canals, this video is a great way to get a taste of the canal
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Canal du Midi - What to Expect When Barging the South of France
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Things to See on the Canal du Midi
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Le Boat is a self drive cruise boat that offers great views of the canal and the beautiful countryside around it. Learn about the history of the canal and see all the amazing things that it has to offer on this cruise. If cruising is your thing, then this is the perfect video for you!
We bring you everything you need to know about embarking on a Canal du Midi cruise. If you've ever dreamt of exploring the enchanting waterways of Southern France, this video is a must-watch!
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Watch our other Le Boat Video in Canada on the Rideau Canal th-cam.com/video/o8c9Mne5I9E/w-d-xo.html
Very good video quality.
Thank you!
Nice informative video! Thanks. What about mosquitoes? Was it an issue?
Excellent, informative travel video that deserves more views
Thank you very much. We really appreciate the kind words.
A great introduction to the Canal du Midi. It is a fabulous waterway and Carcassonne in particular is both exceptional and unique.
I sailed the same section of the canal in April 2018, also with Le Boat, and am less enthusiastic about them as a company. For background I own my own boat which I keep on the river Thames near London, although I live in Australia. I had hired an Horizon, the upmarket boat that you reference early in your video, and it may be a good boat on other rivers, but on the Canal du Midi it was a disaster.
Many of the problems were design related and the failings were amplified by very heavy rain. Almost all of the Le Boat fleet have significant damage from hitting the bridges as they are designed to maximise internal volume and so are square in cross section which does not fit well with the arched bridges of the Canal du Midi. Water leaking through the cracked fibreglass caused a number of short circuits. In April the nights are longer than in mid-summer and the boat batteries did not last the night so the heating and ventilation shut down resulting in heavy condensation which dripped onto the pillow of the second cabin. Boats pass port to port (left to left) but both of the Horizon conning positions are are inexplicably on the stbd side which is problematic on narrow sections of the canal (or when going through towns where there are boats moored on both sides of the canal). The inside conning position is virtually unusable in winter due to condensation on the windscreen. An example of the lack of nautical thought that has gone into the design of the Horizon is that it has a 0-60 knot speed gauge. On the Canal du Midi you are operating in the 3-5 knot range meaning that the speed gauge is useless. The slab sides create a lot of windage and particularly when approaching bridges at slow speed the rudder provides insufficient steerage and you need the bow thruster whilst underway. One assumes that the Horizon has been designed by someone with no nautical experience: as a floating tiny house it is beautiful, as a boat it is useless.
I would specifically warn about doing this trip out of season (April was the shoulder period). Many of the cafes and restaurants were closed. The water level was high due to the rain resulting in some sections of the canal also being closed and the clearance under the bridges was even less than normal. I would note that an experienced crew of two can manage the Canal du Midi. The crew member passes the bow line back to the captain and having taken a couple of turns around a bollard holds onto the stern line. French Lock Keepers will not allow the use of a centre line.
Anyone familiar with the UK canals will also be surprised to discover boats travelling in both directions whilst going through staircase locks - this is due to the locks being barrel shaped and boats can pass in the centre of the lock.
Thanks for all of the information. We used the Horizon boats on the Rideau Canal and they were perfect for that. I can definitely understand the concerns here. But from what I could tell, all rentals seemed similar. We find the Horizons really easy to handle with the thrusters, and didn't have a hard time with the two directions in the locks, however, we did see some people struggling. And yes, the boats had limiters on them with a 10 km maximum speed which I think is a good thing
@@ThePlanetD I am hoping to take my own boat to France next year but if that does not work out then I will be looking at Locoboat's Penichette Classiques. They resemble a canal barge, and not a floating apartment, and they don't have the square cross section that is problematic when passing through arched bridges.
@@simonblake5485 I can see where the "square" Horizon or Vision boats might be a problem with the bridges compared to Locaboat's Penichette boats. But from what I can see from their descriptions and photos, in ALL the Locaboats, the showers are not separated from the rest of the bathroom, resulting in a totally wet head (including wet toilet paper rolls). My 30' Searay had that problem, and I hated the inconvenience. Since selling that boat, I have made sure the boats I have owned (54' Azimut, 68' Azimut) or chartered (45' + sailing cats) have a separated shower. It's enough of a pain, that I stopped considering Locaboats, but on the flip side the leaking problems you encountered with your Le Boat would be worse than a wet head, so I will bring up the concern with Le Boat before deciding on a rental company.
Nice video. Good video coverage and is very well presented. Which month did you sail the Canal du Midi from Homps to Castelnaudary and for how many nights? Are the locks tiresome for two 60-year-old couples and how hard are they to master? Also, which were your stops for each night and how difficult is it to moor for the night or just sightseeing? One last question, you said boats flush their toilet water in the canal. Is there a foul smell when moored or driving the boat? Thanks.
We sailed in Mid June and took a 6 nights and 7 days trip. The locks can be hot and getting in and out of the boat takes a little energy but it is doable. They are very easy to master, and most of the time, someone looks after the locks for you. There are only a couple of places where we had to do our own locks near the end. It is easy to find places each night. We stayed
Homps
Puicheric
Trebes
Carcassonne
Prexoria
Castlenaudrey,
We recommend staying two nights in Carcassonne as the castle is worth visiting. Trebes and Castlenaudrey were good as well. Sometimes there was a foul smell, one night in Trebes, we are pretty sure that someone dumped their toilet while docked. For the most part though, people dump while driving. You just don't want to swim in the canal and pack gloves for holding the ropes.
You can read all about our time with more in depth information here: theplanetd.com/canal-du-midi-cruise/ have a great trip!
Better to go downstream than up.
You don’t need to put a person ashore to manage a lock. Two people can easily pass thru the locks. There are plenty of TH-cam videos demonstrating the reasons.
The water in a filling lock is more turbulent, but not really a problem.
Max speed of the boats is about 6 knots. There is about 1-1.5 knots of current in the canal. Net ground speed 7 knots downstream…5 knots upstream. Keep in mind you are paying the fuel bill.
Thanks for all the information and tips! I am not sure how you could pass through the locks without having a person on shore to loop the ropes around for you, but that is awesome that you could do it without. You are correct, sometimes the water was very turbulent. Our rental had a limiter of 10km per hour which is about 5 knots and we found that to be great.
Good tip, didn't think about that. We were thinking about Port Cassafieres to Carcassone, but maybe will reverse that.
How low is the lowest bridge?
Thanks
It;s low. We had to duck many times. The Capstang Bridge is the lowest - A boat a height of no more than 2.4 m (7.9 ft) will make it under the bridge. The boat rentals will meet the requirements. :)
Biked it in 2012. All those trees have a disease and have to be taken down.
Oh no. That is a bummer. That would be an amazing bike ride though.