Les 9 Écluses de Fonseranes

A masterpiece still in operation, these 9 locks that follow one another, you should not hesitate to visit this place. In excellent condition and very well laid out, you can follow the paths along the canal and arrive near the very beautiful and old bridge. From Toulouse, the Canal du Midi reaches Béziers via a 54-kilometer-long reach (a section of canal without locks). Over this distance, the canal remains at an altitude of 31.54 meters. But at Fonseranes, the canal must descend a steep 25-meter drop to reach the Orb, a necessary passage for boats heading to Agde. To establish the connection between the canal and the Orb, an extraordinary lock was built. Thanks to a successful initial experiment in Castelnaudary, Riquet knew that the secret lay in a lock with multiple chambers. Faced with the significant difference in altitude, Riquet and his works director decided to add eight chambers, twice as many as those of the Saint-Roch lock in Castelnaudary ! Work on the Fonseranes lock began in 1667 and was completed in 1680. The structure is impressive! At 315 meters long and with a total drop of 21.18 meters, this lock ladder is the largest ever built in France ...

A wonderful feat of engineering. Lovely and informative video in the information centre ( 3 Euro) Watching the boats pass through the locks, very interesting - especially when one of the gates won't shut. Pleasent walk from Beziers, through the old port area, which is going to be restored and across the old town bridge.

Been here a coupke of times before. Now you can only walk on one side of them but still nice and its actually better for taking photos without a lot of people.

A dream come true passing through the Fonseranes. Absolutely a marvel and one of the best parts of the Canal du Midi. It takes about 45 minutes to pass through with timed entry in the morning and afternoon depending on direction.

Absolutely worth visiting. Buy a ticket for the canal tour. It will take you up the locks which is a nice experience. Beautiful area and go into Beziers after. Visiting the locks is a half day trip. The boat tour is 1 hour and 15 mins.

Worth the walk for this historical spectacle. It's about half an hour for the able bodied, with nice views back across L'Orb and to the Cathedral. For the less mobile, the little train takes you from the Cathedral to the locks and return with interesting facts about the locality en route. Toilets and cafe at the top of the locks, plus option to take a canal boat trip. Best booked in advance in busy periods.

We were in a boat going up stream and had to wait 45-60 minutes for a tourist boat to go through before space opened up for us. This is standard. It took about 45 minutes to go through all of the locks once we got started. This was one of the coolest things I have ever done and highly recommend doing it. We wish we could have gone down stream and then back up again but we had limited time until we had to return our boat. It did require 3 of us…2 in the boat and one on shore.

A rather exceptional engineering feat built in the 17th century to create a navigable route from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. In addition to being a spectacular series of locks in short succession, the canal has a tunnel, several cool bridges including one for the canal to cross above the river. I recommend obtaining details about the history to appreciate it best. Boat tours are long if you take the roundtrip, might be best to join a tour only do the way back down, going towards the Mediterranean.