# The Canal du Midi by Bicycle — The South of France
> From Béziers to Carcassonne along the plane-shaded towpath. Locks, villages and the long water of the Canal du Midi, taken slowly and on two wheels.

*Source : https://the-south-of-france.com/en/languedoc/canal-du-midi-velo/*

---

By **The Editors** — _Béziers to Carcassonne_

Spring 20268 min read Share LinkMail

The Canal du Midi was built in the seventeenth century to carry grain; today it carries cyclists, slowly, under a roof of plane trees. The towpath from Béziers to Carcassonne is flat, shaded and unhurried — three days of locks, villages and still green water, with the Pyrenees a blue line to the south.

## I. Béziers and the Fonseranes locks

Begin below the cathedral at **Béziers**, at the staircase of **nine locks at Fonseranes** — Riquet’s great feat of engineering. The path runs west under the planes through **Capestang** and the hamlet of **Le Somail**, with its old bookshop barge and a bridge worth the stop.

“The canal does not hurry, and neither should you — the towpath rewards the slow.”

From the notebook

![A lock on the Canal du Midi](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1604851146774-d43a41372d71?fm=jpg&q=74&w=1400&auto=format&fit=crop)

A lock-keeper’s house on the canal — the water rises a few metres, and you wait in the shade.

## II. Homps, Trèbes and Carcassonne

The middle day passes the wine villages of **Homps** and the round lock of **Trèbes**, where the planes lean low over the water. The last stretch climbs gently to **Carcassonne** and its walled cité — a fittingly medieval end to a seventeenth-century road of water.

The Practical Carnet · Carnet pratique

### Plan the _ride_

When to go

May–June and September. The plane shade matters in high summer; spring is greenest.

The route

Béziers to Carcassonne, about 90 km over three days; flat, mostly unpaved towpath.

Getting back

The train runs Carcassonne–Béziers along the line; bikes carried with a reservation.

Read next

[The Languedoc, from Carcassonne to the sea](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/languedoc/languedoc-guide/)

E

About the Author · L’auteur

#### Élise Marchand

Travel Editor — based in Marseille

Élise has been driving the back roads of the Midi for the journal since its first issue. She pays for her own rooms and her own lunches — and only writes about the places she would return to.

[More by Élise Marchand — voir ses articles](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/journal/)

Continue reading · À lire ensuite

### More from the _South_

[

![A village on the Canal du Midi](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1580513860129-dee8825dfe44?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

Languedoc

#### The Languedoc, from Carcassonne to the sea

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/languedoc/)[

![A Languedoc table](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1526822162485-79f02ba82a9d?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

The Table

#### The Languedoc table, simple and sun-fed

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/the-table/)[

![A hotel near the canal](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1568291569071-6ca1b2b11672?fm=jpg&q=74&w=900&auto=format&fit=crop)

Stays

#### Where to stay in the Languedoc

](https://the-south-of-france.com/en/stays/)