Camera: Hasselblad 500C/M     Lens: Zeiss Sonnar 5.6/250mm     Film: Kodak Ektachrome 64     Date: 01.05.1986

Écluse de Saint-Martin, Canal du Midi, Languedoc, France

Canals were always built to shorten distances and to provide safe passage for ships and goods. Long before the Suez- or Panama-Canal, the construction of the “Canal royal en Languedoc” began in 1667 and by 1680 the first ships travelled from Toulouse on the Atlantic coast to Béziers on the Mediterranean. Renamed Canal du Midi after the French Revolution, the 240km waterway today is mostly used by pleasure boats and river cruises. The main attraction is certainly the staircase of 8 locks at Fonserannes, which allow boats to be raised a height of 21.5 metres.