Naurouze – le partage des eaux
The final stage of the provision of water for the Canal du Midi- Naurouze. Sarah took me out there and we followed the rigole up towards the mountains, turning back in time for lunch. We picnicked near the octagonal space which had once been an octagonal basin holding the waters for the canal. Superseded relatively early on (by 1750) as it actually didn’t handle the floods well enough.
Then the old lock, now just used for measuring volumes, where the water from the rigole de la montagne is about to join the canal du midi. 30 million cubic metres each year. Used for irrigation as well as supplying the canal. This is the highest point of the whole canal and is in between 2 locks which both lead downstream. It is from here that the water gets ‘distributed’ to where it is needed – the Atlantic or Mediterranean part of the canal – through the Ocean Lock or The Mediterranean Lock. This is the watershed, le partage des eaux.
There are a few photos of the octagonal basin with its alley of plane trees leading to the Ocean Lock, and at the end Castelnaudry and the huge basin which serves the water needs of 4 or 5 locks downstream and also as a mooring place. There are other places further downstream which supply more water further down the canal but without this supply at the summit the canal could not function.
1 August
The final stage of the provision of water for the Canal du Midi- Naurouze. Sarah took me out there and we followed the rigole up towards the mountains, turning back in time for lunch. We picnicked near the octagonal space which had once been an octagonal basin holding the waters for the canal. Superseded relatively early on (by 1750) as it actually didn’t handle the floods well enough.
Naurouze is another place full of little details that (mostly) enabled the smooth running of a system designed to supply just the right amount of water – draining excess in the case of a flood and having back-up- supplies if there was a drought. We walked past the large drain, which again takes the water out in smallish jumps onto concrete slipways as in the Saut du Laudot and below the dam at Lake Férreol
Then the old lock, now just used for measuring volumes, where the water from the rigole de la montagne is about to join the canal du midi. 30 million cubic metres each year. Used for irrigation as well as supplying the canal. This is the highest point of the whole canal and is in between 2 locks which both lead downstream. It is from here that the water gets ‘distributed’ to where it is needed – the Atlantic or 
There are a few photos of the octagonal basin with its alley of plane trees leading to the Ocean Lock, and at the end Castelnaudry and the huge basin which serves the water needs of 4 or 5 locks downstream and also as a mooring place. There are other places further downstream which supply more water further down the canal but without this supply at the summit the canal could not function.
So now you have travelled downstream with the waters. I have been amazed at just how much thought and detail went into the whole scheme – not to mention the canal itself, which is where all this started. Riquet’s work was a huge jump at the time in canal technology, which had started in antiquity but not made so much progress until Riquet. The Canal du Midi is the oldest canal in operation in France
Photos at
