Fonseranes Locks, Béziers

Just west of Béziers, the Canal du Midi arrives at the edge of a ridge and has to drop down towards the river Orb. Pierre-Paul Riquet's answer, built between 1678 and 1680, was a staircase of lock basins set one directly after another, so that the upper gate of each is the lower gate of the next: nine gates and eight basins which together carry boats through a height of 21.5 metres over a distance of a little more than 300 metres. Riquet died in October 1680, months before his canal was inaugurated in May 1681; the Fonseranes staircase, known locally as the nine locks, is among the most memorable pieces of his work.

What makes the flight beautiful is its shape. The basins are oval, their walls bowed outwards like the hull of a boat, a form Riquet used for locks along the canal. Seen from the top, the chain of pale stone chambers steps down the slope in a single line, with the water level falling from basin to basin and the plane trees of the towpath on either side. From the upper basin the view runs down over the valley to Béziers, whose Gothic cathedral of Saint-Nazaire stands high above the Orb on the far side.

The staircase has been reshaped by the canal's later history. Boats originally crossed the Orb on the river itself, which made navigation hostage to floods; in the 1850s an aqueduct was built to carry the canal over the river, and the lowest part of the flight was modified so that today six locks are worked. In the 1980s engineers added a water slope beside the staircase, an inclined channel in which a wedge of water and the boat floating in it were pushed uphill by a motor unit; it proved more costly to run than expected and was later abandoned, though its structure still stands beside the locks. Commercial freight ended on this part of the canal around 1990, and the flight now belongs to hire boats and cruisers.

Watching a boat make the passage is the reason to come: the gates swing, the water boils up or drains away, and the crew walks alongside as the boat is raised or lowered through basin after basin. The locks were listed as a historic monument in 1996, the same year the Canal du Midi became a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and they are now one of the most visited sights in the region.

Getting there

The locks lie about 2 km from the centre of Béziers; the towpath along the canal is a pleasant walk or bike ride from town, and the Orb canal bridge is a short way downstream. The nearest airport is Béziers Cap d'Agde (BZR) at Vias, about 13 km away. Béziers has a mainline railway station, and a tourist bus links the town centre with the locks.