What more idyllic escape from city-centre Toulouse than to potter up the Canal du Midi on foot, by bike or – best of all – in a boat? Hear how ‘Europe’s biggest public works project since the fall of the Roman Empire’ came to be opened in 1681, and find out what there is to see along its banks, just day-out distance from Toulouse. Enjoy the reminiscences of writers who describe sailing down it as ‘motoring though an impressionist painting’ or drifting lazily through ‘a land of sunflowers, wheat fields, vineyards, ancient cities with red-tiled rooves, crumbling ruins wrapped in mystery.’

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