The Canal du Midi is the French canal completed in 1681 to connect the Garonne River with the Mediterranean.
The canal runs about 240 kilometres from Toulouse to the Étang de Thau near the Mediterranean coast. Together with the later Canal de Garonne, it forms part of the Canal des Deux Mers, a waterway route linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean across southern France.
Construction began in 1666 after Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s minister, authorised the project. Engineer Pierre-Paul Riquet designed and supervised the work, solving the crucial problem of supplying water to the canal by drawing it from the Montagne Noire. Riquet died in 1680, before the canal officially opened on 15 May 1681.
The canal was originally called the Canal Royal en Languedoc and received its present name during the French Revolution in 1789. It is famous for its locks, aqueducts, tree-lined banks and the Malpas Tunnel, and UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1996.