Hi this is Chris and this is going to be a repeat episode I'm off traveling and so can't get an episode this week

But I think you'll enjoy this this is an episode he did two years ago about Canal cruising in southern France. Ready to go looking real good in my passport photo

amateur traveler episode 655.

Today the amateur traveler talks about olives and wine

and walled cities and Cathars and canals and luxury hotel barges as we go

barging on the Canal de Medi in southern France.

Welcome to the amateur traveler. I'm your host Chris Christensen.

Let's talk about luxury hotel barges and the Canal de Medi.

Hi this is Chris and I'm coming to you from the back deck of the

enchante which is a luxury hotel barge sitting on the Canal de

de Medi in Long Dock region in southern France. And if you haven't heard of the Canal de Midi it is a UNESCO World Heritage

site.

It was a canal that was considered to be one of the greatest industrial accomplishments of the 1600s.

The creator Pierre Polo Oriche

built this long canal. It's a canal that connects the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

It's 360 kilometers long and it has a number of different structures that is

328 different locks aqueducts bridges tunnels that allowed these barges to move

originally with freight and now with tourists in between those two areas and the

King supported the construction of it because he thought it would cut off trade from

Spain or would take some of the tax revenue away from what they were

getting and get it to himself and it was not as economically successful as

they thought I guess the family that built it, it took them about a hundred years

...