A WHS as we like them because, like the Loire Valley, it combines nature, culture and sport!

And since we don't have sea legs, we traveled it by bike in 2023. The pleasure of this means of transport along a canal: it's completely flat, you don't get tired.

Like the other writers on WHS.org, given the length of the site, we had to make a choice and our choice fell on the region of Castelnaudary and Toulouse, firstly in memory of my youth because I had already been there a long time ago to go hiking in the Montagne Noire, then because we had never visited Toulouse before.

The place lived up to our expectations. The canal is magnificent, bucolic, and above all, relaxing. Nothing is more pleasant than sitting on a bench watching the barges in a lock, or reading why and how the canal was built, which I won't dwell on: others have done it very well before me.

One of our excursions from the campsite, where we enjoyed an excellent, family-style cassoulet, originating in Castelnaudary, was to the Saint-Férréol reservoir. The idea was to see the watershed that feeds the canal. There isn't much to see there, as the lawn has replaced the reservoir water, but there is still a nearby memorial column, "La pierre de Riquet" (the canal's engineer-designer), lost in the middle of nowhere, which added to my enjoyment.

The Castelnaudary region is a good base for visiting Toulouse, where there is also St-Sernin, listed on the WHS, The Ways of Saint-Jacques de Compostelle in France, The Aeronautical Heritage on the tentative list, WHS The City of Carcassonne and The City of Carcassonne and the mountain sentinel castles on the tentative list.

In conclusion: by bike, it's not bad either! It's worth a few stars! And to finish, as Jacques Brel sings in the song Les mariniers :

Même en été

Faut voyager

Les yeux fermés.