Canal du Midi cruise on the Athos hotel barge

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If you love slow travel and are considering a barging holiday, a first class Canal du Midi cruise in the Languedoc region of France is an exceptional way to experience the area’s cuisine, culture and natural beauty.

 

Canal du Midi cruise on the Athos hotel barge

Going through the 17th-century Neuf Ecluses, the Staircase Locks, on the Canal du Midi in the South of France is exciting. I should be standing at the front of the barge watching closely, but I’m having trouble moving out of my chair.

The Languedoc sun is warming my face, the sides of the lock blocking the crisp spring breeze, and I’m temporarily comatose after a three-course meal of Eggplant with feta, honey & mint; Seared tuna with quinoa, olive & tomato salad; and St Maure de Touraine cheese. Accompanied by a local Pierre Cros Partouse rosé, of course.

 

An active cruise

In the name of making this an active vacation, however, I raise my hand and give a queenly wave to the people gathered on shore. Everyone, it seems, is curious about the Athos, the largest (and surely the best) hotel barge on the Canal du Midi.

Full disclosure: I’ve been bribed with too much Reblochon de Savoie cheese, too many pains au chocolate and too many glasses of wine from local vineyards like Chateau Ollieux Romanis and Chateau de la Negly to be remotely objective.

 

What is hotel barging?

The only thing I knew about hotel barging before setting off on this 6-night Canal du Midi cruise on the Athos was that hotel barges are the latest trend in the how-to-be-spoiled-while-floating mode of luxury travel. The relatively small size of a barge offers a way of connecting with a region’s culture, landscape and cuisine more intimately than on a large cruise ship or even a riverboat. The Athos, for example, has a grand total of 5 guest bedrooms  for a maximum of ten passengers per cruise.

 

What do you do on a hotel barge trip?

There were only five passengers on our early spring cruise through the Langudoc region of France and we quickly fell into a happy routine: Breakfast, tour local sites, lunch onboard, sit on the deck, watch the world go by, wave to strangers while thinking about dinner, cycle if you feel like it, drink cocktails, enjoy a four-course fabulous meal. Repeat.

 

Where does a hotel barge cruise on the Canal du Midi go?

The Canal du Midi itself stretches from Toulouse down to the open waters of the Etang de Thau, a string of lagoons near the Mediterranean. Week-long Canal du Midi cruises don’t travel that far, especially as the speed limit on the canal is a whopping 8 km an hour. Our cruise covered about 60 km, though if you judge by experience rather than distance, we crossed great swaths of France.

 

From Argeliers to Marseillan

You can do this Canal du Midi cruise on the Athos hotel barge in either direction, but we went from Argeliers to Marseillan. And if that means nothing to you, don’t worry, it meant nothing to me either. Put it this way, you can either go up the Canal du Midi or down the Canal du Midi.

Whichever route you sign up for you’ll be picked up in the town of Beziers on a Sunday afternoon (I took the train from Marseille), and taken to the barge where you’ll start off the trip with a fine Languedoc brut and canapes.

 

What sights can you visit on a Canal du Midi cruise?

Usually we toured in the morning by van, chauffeured by Matthieu, our ever upbeat resident guide. On our first day of the cruise we toured the walled city of Carcassonne. Here you can see every tourist known to France as well as medieval walls that swallowed up Roman walls whole but never digested them so you can still view the stones.

In Narbonne we stood on the Via Domatia, a 2,000 year-old Roman road, toured an impressive half -finished cathedral and enjoyed a lunch of flying meat at the city’s historic food hall. (Read a blog post about what do in Narbonne.)

 

 

Historic towns

In pretty Minerve we learned about the Cathars in the only crusade that pit Christians against Christians, and in Pezenas (which rhymes with mayonnaise and sounds like it starts with a ‘b’ when Matthieu pronounces it), we visited historic mansions and then I followed the Moliere in Pezenas trail. (Or at least I tried to, I didn’t have the greatest luck. If you’re the least bit interested you can read my blog post about Pezenas.)

 

Gastronomic tours

You may begin to wonder how we had any time on the barge at all, because we also did various gastronomic tours of the Languedoc region. At L’Oulibo, a large olive oil pressoir, we did an olive oil tasting, sampling light nutty Picholine olives and buttery Lucques, known as the ‘green diamonds of Languedoc.’

 

From wine to vermouth

At the family-run Vanho Winery, where all the grapes are picked by hand, we tasted a fresh Armatus, a rustic Gregarius and a vanilla-and-leather-noted Vanellus. During our VIP tour at the Noilly Prat Vermouth Distillery we learned that creating vermouth is an alchemic process involving oak casks, white wine, mistelle and exotic spices such as saffron, cloves and gentian root.

The most exciting thing about a Canal du Midi cruise on the Athos barge, however, are the meals.

 

Best cuisine on a hotel barging trip

Meals take on a grave importance on a hotel barging cruise in France. Every evening after Matthieu gave us a rundown on the next day’s program, either Mariana or Joueja, one of our two onboard hostesses, would talk about the Languedoc wines we’d be having with dinner. As Languedoc is the largest and oldest wine-growing region in France, with the first vineyards being planted by the Romans, there were new and novel choices each night (and day).

Then the Athos’ chef, Emma, would come in to tell us about the meal she’d prepared, her words sprinkled with drool-worthy phrases such as lamb with courgette & mint fritters, honey-spiced duck breast with sweet potato gratin, crème brûlée with lavender sable, and crepes aumoniere.

 

The food highlight

For me, the highlight of this French food odyssey took place on our last evening. We were bobbing on the open waters of Etang de Thau, eating fresh oysters prepared three different ways. The oyster beds were in sight of the barge, the tang of lemon was tart on my tongue and, as I sipped a crisp Beauvignac Picpoul de Pinet, I wondered if there could ever be a better way to experience the flavour of Languedoc and the famous Canal du Midi.