This long stage crosses the heart of the Minervois and Corbières vineyards, with typical canal villages like Homps and Le Somail, a former trading port now a picturesque pleasure-boat stop, its old houses lining the canal directly.
The scenery gradually turns Mediterranean, between terraced vineyards and scrubland, as the canal approaches the Béziers basin, passing several remarkable structures dating back to the canal’s original 17th-century construction.
Arriving in Béziers offers one of the great technical spectacles of the whole route: the nine Fonserannes locks, an iconic Canal du Midi structure that overcomes a 25-metre drop in a single sequence, now open to visitors and one of the most photographed sites on the canal.
Indicative distance for this stretch.