A cross-France canal had been dreamt of since the reign of Emperor Augustus, and was talked of by Charlemagne, Frances I, and Henri IV. The Spanish charged heavy tolls at Gibraltar, and pirates raided the coasts; a canal would end the need to sail around the Iberian peninsula, saving time, money, and lives. Until Riquet, however, no one could solve the problem of how to bring water to the proposed channel. The Saint Ferreol reservoir—which would be the largest in the world—was Riquet’s solution. Placed at the summit of the route, it still supplies water for the 300-year-old canal. The 146-mile-long canal was completed in 1692. Twenty-six locks lift boats from the Garonne River in the west to the summit, and 74 carry them down to the Mediterranean Sea. Along the way the canal, lined with trees and edged with a tow-path, occasionally crosses over waterways and tunnels under obstacles. In 1996 the Canal de Midi was classified by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. It is owned and maintained by the state, and while commercial traffic no longer carries products from port to port, it is heavily used by pleasure-craft. It’s estimated that 50,000 tourists and 1,000 ocean-going craft make a trip on the Canal du Midi each year. —KG