The rigole de la montagne () was an important facet of the

Canal du Midi The Canal du Midi (; ) is a long canal in Southern France (). Originally named the ''Canal Royal en Languedoc'' (Royal Canal in Languedoc) and renamed by French revolutionaries to ''Canal du Midi'' in 1789, the canal is considered one of the g ...

, engineered by

Pierre-Paul Riquet Pierre-Paul Riquet, Baron de Bonrepos (; 29 June 1609 (some sources say 1604) – 4 October 1680) was the engineer and canal-builder responsible for the construction of the Canal du Midi. Early life Born as Paul Riquet in Béziers, Hérault, Fran ...

in southern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. The canal itself was built during 1666-1681. A critical aspect of the Canal du Midi was the supply of sufficient water to feed the canal. Each boat traversing its length would require a large quantity of water in the locks in order to climb or descend. The original plan was to take water from the Sor River at Revel via the ''

rigole de la plaine The critical feature of the Canal du Midi was to provide sufficient water to ensure that the lock system continued to function, even through the summer months. The first part of this endeavor was the ''rigole de la plaine'' (). It carried water f ...

'' and transport it to the

Bassin de Naurouze The Bassin de Naurouze is an octagonal holding tank, created during the building of the Canal du Midi as designed and built by Pierre-Paul Riquet. It was abandoned a few years after construction of the canal because of its recurrent silting proble ...

to provide a source of water for the canal. To placate mill owners fearful that they would lose too much water from the Sor, the ''rigole de la montagne'' would supplement the Sor upstream from the

at Conquet. It was to collect water from the Alzau stream, as well as others, and divert them to the River Sor at Conquet. In 1664, Louis Nicolas de Clerville had the idea for a single large dam of the Laudot valley near Saint Ferreol, which became the

Bassin de Saint-Ferréol The Bassin de Saint-Ferréol (Languedocien dialect, Languedocien: ''Lac de Sant Ferriòl'') was created as the result of a large earth dam across the mouth of the valley of Laudot stream at St. Ferréol in the Montagne Noire. It was originally pro ...

. He also had the idea of digging a tunnel through the Cammazes ridge to connect the ''rigole de la montagne'' to the reservoir in the valley without utilizing the Sor river at all. In 1686, the engineer, Marshal Sebastien Vauban, extended the ''rigole de la montagne'' from Conquet to connect it to the Bassin de St. Ferréol. The path included a long, diameter tunnel at the village of

Les Cammazes Les Cammazes (; ) is a commune in the Tarn department and Occitanie region of southern France. Demography See also *Communes of the Tarn department The following is a list of the 314 communes of the Tarn department of France. The com ...

. To reduce leakage in some locations, the trench is lined with bricks. Beautiful walking paths accompany the waters flow. The following is translated from the French Wikipedia article of this same name: :The channel begins at the intake of the Alzau (altitude ) to Arfons in the Black Mountains and empties into the

, which supplies water to the

. The trench collects waters from the southern slope of the Black Mountains. It collects water from different streams, especially Bernassonne, the Alzau, the Lampy, and Rieutord, and the dammed Galaube. It runs south of the reservoir Cammazes (which did not exist at the time of construction of the canal). :A little further south of the village

, the channel changes its slope and passes to the north side. To cross the mountain, it goes through a tunnel masonry arch, the arch of Vauban, also called Breakthrough Cammazes. The tunnel is long and wide. The bridge was designed by the architect Vauban, after the death of Riquet. The front of the exit tunnel was rebuilt in the 18th century. Before the digging of the tunnel, the Rigole Mountain fed the Sor River in Conquet at an altitude of . The Sor was captured by the trickle of the plain near Sorèze at the Bridge Crouzet (altitude ). Leaving the Breakthrough Cammazes, the channel flows into the stream of Laudot, which itself feeds the reservoir

References

{{Reflist

External links

Pictures

CanalduMidi.org

* [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.iiahmn.fr/ressources/la-ressource-montagne-noire&ei=p0DTSqX3MsallAfnzuGoCg&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=10&ct=result&ved=0CDsQ7gEwCQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Drigole%2Bde%2Bla%2Bmontagne%26hl%3Den iiahmn.com]

Gallery

La voute Vauban les Cammazes by CHMProd

Rigole et chemin.

Voûte de VAUBAN.
Image:Rigole montagne.jpg, Fall picture. Canal du Midi