The Strategic Importance of France’s Canals by Ruth Paget
I was looking through a French canal boat tour guide from2002 for the Loire Nivernais (Nevers Region) and began researching how the major canals of France connect the country to its surrounding oceans.
These canals are famous with sightseers today and still retain commercial and defensive significance.
For instance, the Canal de Bourgogne and the Canal de Briaire connect the Seine River and the Rhône River basins via the Saône River creating a continuous North-South waterway across France that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the English Channel.
(The Canal de Bourgogne also connects to the Yonne River, a tributary of the Seine River at Migennes, which leads to the Saône River at Saint-Jean-de-Cosne and eventually the Rhône River.)
The Canal de Briaire and the Canal de Loing (built in 1604) connect the Loire River to the Saône River at Saint-Mammès. Once you are on the Saône River, it is easy to navigate to the Rhône River and then go north to the English Channel or south to the Mediterranean Sea.
In the southwest, the Garonne River flows by Bordeaux and Toulouse. At Toulouse, boats can take the Canal du Midi, also called the Canal de Deux Mers, which ends at the Etang de Thau, a saltwater lagoon next to the Mediterranean port city of Sète.
The Canal du Midi links the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea without having to go around Spain. (You can also use canals to follow the Garonne River to the Rhône River.)
Finally, there is 600 miles of networked canals in Brittany in northwest France that link Brittany to the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel.
These French canals can move produce, wine, and other merchandise throughout France to keep even small village markets like the two I went to with my mother-in-law in St.-Etienne-de-Montluc outside Nantes and Montlouis-sur-Loire outside Tours well-stocked in all seasons. For this reason alone, the canals of France greatly contribute to the comfortable lifestyle of France.
For tourists, there is the thrill of going through locks and learning about all the little towns along the way.
Happy vacation planning!
Note: Chicago could offer canal cruises as well. The Chicago River flows by canal to the Des Plaines River, which flows into the Illinois River and eventually the Mississippi River by Peoria, Illinois.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France and developer of the Novgorod and Bento War Games
