There are always days that just pass by, days where you don’t really remember very much. The 27kms from Beziers to Agde was such a day. The most notable part of the day were the lock at Agde and Ouvrage du Libron.
I do recall that much of the day (ca. 60%) was on tarmac, the rest on dirt and stone paths. There were many cyclists and a few walkers. Thursday is a national holiday here, and Friday a so called “pont” (bridge) between Thursday and the weekend, so a day off. Many take 3 days holiday and have the week off. That could explain the many families that were out on their bikes.
Leaving Beziers, I passed a mobile bridge over the canal that could be moved up and down allowing a train to pass over it, and a plastic sun cell, stuck on the ground and connected to a light. I passed through Villeneuve-les-Beziers, where it was market day, with two stalls.
There weren’t many boats between Beziers and Agde, only a handful. I wonder whether the eight chamber dock just before Bezier, when coming from Toulouse, is the final destination for many. I did however pass a large statue of a bull and two girls on roller-skates passed me.
I passed the lock at Portiragnes and am only 1 meter above sea level. The port at Portiragnes is a mooring point for many boats and also very close to the Mediterranean. From here the canal flows alongside the wetlands where the former saltmarshes were (La Grande Maïre). The whole area is very flat and also a flood storage area for the nearby Hérault and Libron rivers.
The are many spillways along this part of the canal, stone banks with slits at a certain height, so water can run away from the canal in case of flooding. The water runs into troughs and is collected and trenches for it to run away from the canal.
Six kilometers before today’s destination, Agde I arrived at the point where the Libron river meets the Canal du Midi. When water levels were high on the Libron, the sediments brought into the canal by the rising waters of the river sometimes clogged up the canal. The original idea was an aqueduct, but there wasn’t enough slope on the river or canal, being so close to the Mediterranean. Originally a pontoon was placed in the canal when storms and floods were expected and the river flowed over the pontoon, leaving the canal untouched. The problem was, the pontoon blocked the canal, so all sailing was stopped.
This was solved using mobile aqueducts. The mobile aqueducts separate the Libron into two branches. When a boat approaches, the waters of the river are directed to a mobile aqueduct up over the canal on the side furthest away from the boat. The boat can enter through a channel and wait in a chamber at the centre. Another mobile aqueduct is then positioned over the canal behind the boat and the waters of the Libron are then diverted once again. The mobile aqueduct in front of the boat is then moved to the side to allow the boat to pass. The mobile aqueducts are far lower than a fixed aqueduct that a boat would need to pass under.
I continued towards Agde, passing many spillways, not all of them in good shape. At Agde, I passed Hôtel Riquet, the administration building for the lower canal, and a so called round lock, where there were three gates – the entrance from the Canal du Midi and exits to two to canals joining the the Herault river. There was a large boat with tourists in the dock and despite its size, the captain maneuvered it skillfully through the gate.
I arrived in Agde just after 3pm, just as the hotel opened for check-in. After a shower I walked around town. Agde consists of three towns, Agde where I was, Grau Agde and Cap d’Agde, both on the coast 7kms away. The hotel owner, this morning in Beziers, told me to visit Cap d’Agde as it was a nice place. It was however too far away by late afternoon. Agde has an old centre with small streets, and around it a newer part of town. The town is said to be one of the oldest in France, with many houses built from black basalt, from a now extinct volcano nearby.
The old centre would have been a tourist attraction if up a mountain in Provence and the town houses had been looked after. As it is, it is very run down, and didn’t have a lot to offer. I couldn’t even buy supplies to take with me tomorrow, Spar was permanently closed, and Casino has gone into bankruptcy and it was selling out of its last goods.
I ate dinner at the hotel, which was excellent.