The best walks and hikes around Lespignan

Clinging to the banks of the Canal du Midi, the village of Poilhes (pronounced Poïlle) immediately seduces with its tranquil charm and authenticity. Here, the canal is not just a backdrop: it shapes the soul of the village and makes it an essential stopover for both boaters and travelers curious about history and heritage.

The Canal du Midi, formerly the Royal Canal, is a 17th-century technical feat designed by Pierre-Paul Riquet to connect the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Today, it is above all a place for relaxation and discovery, where heritage, nature, and conviviality meet.

At the place called « Le Malpas » (bad passage in Occitan), the Canal du Midi crosses a hill separating the valleys of the Aude and the Orb. The importance of the relief led Pierre-Paul Riquet to dig a 160 m long tunnel for the canal to pass through. It is the oldest navigation tunnel in Europe. Carried out in 1679-1680, this construction site is one of the most emblematic of Riquet's undertaking.

At the place called « Le Malpas » (bad passage in Occitan), the Canal du Midi crosses a hill that separates the valleys of the Aude and the Orb. The importance of the relief led Pierre-Paul Riquet to have a 160 m long tunnel dug for the passage of the canal. It is the oldest navigation tunnel in Europe. Carried out in 1679-1680, this construction site is one of the most emblematic of Riquet's undertaking.

The Canal du Midi, formerly the Royal Canal, is a 17th-century technical feat designed by Pierre-Paul Riquet to connect the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. Today, it is above all a place for relaxation and discovery, where heritage, nature, and conviviality meet.

The étang de Montady, now dried up, is one of France's most famous landscapes. This natural basin of 400 ha was dug by the winds, like many others in the Biterrois. The reliefs that surround it, occupied by the oppidum of Ensérune and the old village of Montady, correspond to two valleys from the tertiary era dug by erosion and then filled with hard materials at the end of the Miocene (- 5 million years ago).

In the heart of the Grand site d'Occitanie, Colombiers invites you for a peaceful stop along the Canal du Midi, at its charming bucolic little river port.

The Montady pond is a former pond, drained during the Middle Ages, located in the western part of the French department of Hérault, between Béziers and Narbonne. Thanks to drainage canals, the water is channeled towards a central collector, which explains the star-shaped layout of the fields and vineyards. This canal system dates back to the 13th century. Sixty drainage ditches converge at the circular ditch, called the Redondel, in the center of the former pond. The water is then carried away by a counter-sloping ditch towards the Capestang pond and through a tunnel under the Ensérune hill and the Malpas tunnel. The tunnel is located at a depth of 29.5 meters below the Malpas pass and 16 meters below the Canal du Midi tunnel. The pond is visible from the Montady tower, a remnant of the former 12th-century castle, and from the top of the hill, the Ensérune oppidum. Heavy rainfall, like that at the end of October 2019, can cause it to reappear. (Wikipedia)