Le Canal des 2 Mers à vélo

Past Royan’s port, this stage begins at Royan’s Grande Conche Beach. Head along the seafront on a lovely shaded cycle path. The cycle route then threads between tracks and quiet roads to Meschers-sur-Gironde before reaching Talmont-sur-Gironde, an astonishing look-out post onto the estuary and part of the association of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France. Caillaud Cliff and the square fishing nets suspended above the waters add to the atmosphere. The stage continues via quiet, sometimes steep roads and tracks to Mortagne-sur-Gironde, a port well protected from the temperamental Gironde.

From Mortagne-sur-Gironde to Vitrezay, the scenery is characterized by great expanses of marshes backed by hills covered with vineyards and crops. A number of little marinas along here provide access to the Gironde Estuary and offer places to pause.

Reaching the port of Vitrezay, you leave the département (French county) of Charente-Maritime, continuing on the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route into the département of Gironde. Bypassing the electricity-producing nuclear power station of the Blayais, a beautiful greenway leads to Blaye and its citadel designed by the great 17th-century engineer Vauban. The citadel and other forts along the Gironde remind you of warring times. A small ferry crosses the estuary from Blaye to Lamarque.

From Blaye, cross the Gironde Estuary by ferry to Lamarque, in the midst of the Médoc, a peninsula packed with some of the greatest wine territories (or appellations) in the world. A provisional route takes you along quiet roads through the Médoc’s vines, fields and heaths to the edge of the city of Bordeaux, at Blanquefort. From here, a cycle track leads you gently to the heart of the great wine town. Bordeaux is a splendid, dynamic city, its exceptional architectural heritage listed as a World Heritage Site. Amidst its grand quarters, sample its many lively, trendy cultural and gastronomic offerings.

Leaving Bordeaux, after crossing the St-Jean Bridge, a cycle track that runs in part alongside the Garonne leads to Latresne, where you join the beautiful Roger Lapébie cycle track. It’s named after the winner of the Tour de France in 1937 and is remarkably well laid out along a former railway line, with several dedicated stops in former railway stations. The way heads to Créon. This place, set around its arcaded central square, a remnant of a former bastide fortified town, is well worth a detour.

The route continues along the former railway line, recalled by converted stations and railway-crossing houses. A detour to La Sauve is well worth it to admire the historic Abbey of La Sauve-Majeure. Enter Sauveterre-de-Guyenne via one of its splendid old gateways to make for the arcaded central square, at the heart of the bastide fortified town created in 1281.

In the heart of the Entre-Deux-Mers area – between the two rivers, the Garonne and Dordogne, nicknamed ‘seas’ – you cross an ocean of vines! The terrain is hillier here. You join the Canal de Garonne at La Réole. This town conceals a few treasures behind its ramparts. In its maze of little streets, don’t miss the 13th-century church of St-Pierre, nor the esplanade next to a former Benedictine Abbey which offers a fine view over the Garonne Valley.

The cycle route joins the Canal de Garonne close to the startling Musée de l’Allumette (Match Museum) at Fontet. This place’s port and outdoors recreation centre make it a great spot to stop before starting out on the greenway beside the canal. This stage is calm, but the perched village of Meilhan-sur-Garonne draws you up to it for fabulous views. For a further short detour, visit the town of Marmande, which conceals some surprises.

Le Mas-d’Agenais is the highlight on this stage of the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route. Its church of St-Vincent is an architectural gem, startlingly containing a work by Rembrandt, Christ on the Cross. The wide vista over the Garonne at one end of the village adds to its attractions. At the end of the stage, the cycle track leads to Damazan, a bastide fortified town built from scratch in the 13th century.

The Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route continues along the greenway beside the Canal de Garonne, passing through the very lively port of Buzet-sur-Baïse. You reach Agen itself via one of the longest canal-bridges in France, at 600m. The town is both capital of the département (French county) of Lot-et-Garonne and French capital of prunes… and it conceals many other curiosities, which you can discover in the remarkable monuments in the historic centre.

Leave Agen’s port via a greenway. The way continues close to the Garonne, although the river is rarely visible from beside the canal. After Lamagistère, you enter Valence d’Agen, passing close to former abattoirs superbly converted into an information centre. The town was built as a fortified bastide in the 13th century. Admire its covered market, dovecotes, washhouses and port. Every summer, the show entitled Au Fil de l’Eau une Histoire revives the town’s important past as a port.

From Valence to Moissac, the cycle route sticks to the tranquil canal. The town of Moissac, located on one of the famous pilgrimage routes to Santiago de Compostela, stretches out peacefully beside the Tarn River. Visit Moissac’s splendid medieval Benedictine abbey, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its stunningly carved cloisters and one of the most beautiful Romanesque church entrances in southern France.

The Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route leaves Moissac via the Pont-canal du Cacor, a remarkable canal-bridge. Not long after, you reach a business park at the entrance to Castelsarrasin, an historic fortified town in the County of Toulouse. From its marina, you can head into the old centre that witnessed many turbulent times, but that has preserved many fine public spaces and buildings, including the imposing St-Sauveur Church, built of fine brick.

Leaving Montech, the Canal des 2 Mers à Vélo cycle route leads south along the greenway beside the Canal de Garonne towards the great regional capital of Toulouse. Numerous big villages are dotted along the way, like Grisolles, with its museum, and many ‘Villeneuves’, ‘new towns’ dating from the construction of fortified grid-plan settlements… in the 13th century. A cycling circuit through the nearby vineyards of the Frontonnais allows you to discover them and a grape variety unique to this part of southwest France – négrette.

You can sense the outskirts of the huge regional metropolis of Toulouse long before reaching the centre of ‘the pink city’, as it’s nicknamed. Sticking to the Canal de Garonne, its historic tranquillity contrasts with the rampant urbanisation beyond. You enter Toulouse at the junction of the Canal de Garonne, the Canal de Brienne and the Canal du Midi, at the level of Les Pont-Jumeaux. Then a cycle track beside the Canal du Midi takes you into the city centre.

Leave Toulouse via the greenway beside the Canal du Midi, a path that is very popular with local cyclists avoiding the car-clogged city roads. The canal-side route transports you swiftly into parts shaded by centuries-old plane trees, where old barges lie sleepily in the water. Soon, the village of Montgiscard appears, and you feel you’ve left the big city behind to enter the Lauragais farmlands.

Up to Le Seuil de Naurouze, the Canal du Midi is shadowed by the Autoroute des 2 Mers motorway, but these parallel ways are worlds apart. Centuries-old plane trees continue to provide green shade for cyclists enjoying a journey transporting them back in time to another era. You should thank the canal’s Ancien Régime designer, Pierre-Paul Riquet, the many wondrous architectural designs along the canal attesting to his genius.

Going from lock to lock, the canal’s towpath leads you through the heart of the Lauragais area. Le Seuil de Naurouze, at the watershed dividing the waters flowing to the Atlantic from those flowing to the Mediterranean, is a key point on the Canal du Midi, supplied by the Rigole de la Plaine channel coming down from St-Ferréol Lake. The canal continues to the town of Castelnaudary, capital of famed cassoulet bean and meat stew, but also boasting the largest canal basin on the Canal du Midi.

Leaving Castelnaudary, you pass the imposing St-Roch lock with its four interconnecting chambers. Further on, at the level of Bram’s port and the canal-side restaurant, l’Ile aux Oiseaux, a cycle track allows you to make a short detour into the centre of Bram, a town which stands out for its silhouette and its circular medieval centre, known as a ‘circulade’, a form typical of the Aude.

From Bram to Carcassonne, the route runs alongside the Canal du Midi, which is in no rush, so take your time to linger over this beautiful stage. You come to the port in the lower town of Carcassonne, built originally as a fortified medieval grid-plan bastide. Above, Carcassonne’s mighty medieval citadel atop its hill dominates the surrounding countryside. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997, the citadel encourages many cyclists to make a significant halt on the route here.

Not one, but two bridge-aqueducts were needed to cross the Fresquel and Orbiel Rivers to reach Trèbes, with its lively port, its canal-side cafés-restaurants and its church of St-Etienne, in the heart of the historic village. The Minervois area and its reputed vineyards lie just a short cycle ride away from the Canal du Midi here.

This stage is dotted with admirable technical feats, in particular the astonishing hydraulic overflow facility designed for the Canal du Midi at La Redorte by the great 17th-century engineer Vauban. Homps, an historic wine-exporting port, is very lively, with many shops, and a bit of a shock after the sleepy atmosphere along much of the canal. Here you find yourself in the heart of the Minervois area. Close to Homps, Jouarres Lake offers you the possibility of going bathing.

A string of wine-making villages, Argens-Minervois, Roubia, Paraza and Ventenac-en-Minervois, congregate here beside the Canal du Midi, calling for your attention! Le Somail’s port was where the canal’s designer, Pierre-Paul Riquet, calculated that the post barge should stop for the couchée, or sunset, on the third day of its trip from Toulouse. Now, Le Somail is one of the canal’s most attractive stops, a picture-postcard village with its port, chapel, canal-side accommodation and amazing antiquarian bookshop.

This is a major additional stage that comes highly recommended. It leads you towards the city of Narbonne via a short stretch alongside a linking canal up to Sallèles-d’Aude. Then, given the lack of other options to cross the river, you need to continue via Cuxac-d’Aude along a road shared with motorized traffic to reach the Canal de la Robine at Raonel Lock. From there, a lovely, well-laid-out, signposted greenway leads to Narbonne itself.

This very Mediterranean, very nature-based stage takes you through typical coastal Languedoc landscapes. You follow an extraordinary band of land shared with a railway line that passes between two huge coastal lakes. After passing by the Sainte-Lucie Reserve, you reach Port-la Nouvelle, both a working port and a resort, with a great long beach that cyclists can relax on after their ‘crossing of the desert’!

It’s a wrench leaving enchanting Le Somail. Although the port of Sète is a long way off, this is just a short stage to Capestang, signalled by the bell tower of St-Félix Church, which guides you to this village’s central square, where you can enjoy a rest in the shade of the plane trees.

This stage is packed with surprises. The 17th-century Tunnel de Malpas draws the attention, built as Europe’s first-ever navigable canal tunnel. On the hill above, visit the impressive vestiges of a pre-Roman, Celtic settlement, the Oppidum d’Ensérune. From here, look down on the amazing pattern of the dried-out circular lake of Montady, originally dug by medieval monks. Then admire the extraordinary nine locks of Fonsérannes and the splendid canal-bridge over the Orb River with magnificent views up to historic Béziers.

From the port at Béziers, the Canal du Midi à Vélo cycle route heads east towards the Mediterranean. You might halt briefly at Villeneuve-lès-Béziers or at Portiragnes before arriving at the Pont de Roque Haute. From here, Portiragnes Beach lies very close by and you can reach it easily for a refreshing dip in the Med! Further on, the mobile bridge built to control the River Libron and the round lock at Agde are extraordinary curiosities.

The town of Agde, with its ancient roots and black basalt architecture, is a startling place. Its soaring church tower looks down on the Hérault Estuary. You’re now reaching the very end of the Canal du Midi à Vélo cycle route, which finishes by the massive Etang de Thau coastal lake and Les Onglous Lighthouse at Marseillan-Plage resort. From here, the superb Lido greenway runs alongside the Mediterranean up to the great port of Sète. Stop for a dip at any point!