WATER WAY TO TRAVEL

Sally Hedgecoe finds the Canal du Midi to be wonderful touring country with great art and architecture, delicious cassoulet, wild horses and flamingos along the way

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The Canal du Midi conjures up slow travel through the beautiful French countryside enjoying the bucolic, stress-free lifestyle to the sound of lapping water.

As part of a trip we wanted to take a journey that would include following the canal in our Hymer motorhome. She is quite old but comfortably takes us on our exploring trips.

We don’t often go off-grid in the Hymer (although we could), but try to find small sites and aires close to the towns we want to visit or near to public transport.

We began this trip from Le Shuttle in Calais, then down to the Mediterranean to find the mouth of the Canal du Midi, before making our way back up through the country.

We wanted to take the opportunity of visiting some large towns on our way down to explore more of urban France.

Cathedrals and Chagall

First stop was St Quentin, where we parked by a canal just outside the town, with a five-minute walk into the centre. At the top of a very steep hill was The Basilica, a fabulous building undergoing renovation. The town centre has some impressive buildings with many shops.

We had lunch by the canal and drove an hour and a half to a campsite by the River l’Aisne at Guignecourt, a pretty little town close to the A26.

As our next stop would be Reims it was an ideal location, because the local station had trains both to Laon and Reims. Perfect for us - the Reims Clean Air Zone meant we couldn't drive into town.