These are the famous 9 consecutive locks on the Canal du Midi, designed and built under Louis the 14th, and which still function perfectly. The "Neuf Ecluses" are now a registered UNESCO World Heritage landmark
Believe it or not, the peniche heading through the locks is a bee-keeping barge!
The bees spend 6 months ashore in the Ardeche, but the rest of the time, those hives are floating around the south of France!
Hello. The name "neuf écluses" is not right. Nine is the originally number of GATES, and they separated height chambers. Since 1858 and the opening of the new canal branch passing on the canal-aqueduct, only six chambers really work. The seventh one (counting from the top) is always full, cause it is at the same level than that new branch, and directly comunicating with it. And the eighth one, under the seventh one, is out of order.
In fact, there is now, not nine gates, but ten, with the lateral entrance one of the seventh chamber.
Friendly yours
Charles Berg
My fluvial site : projetbabel.org/fluvial/
