It's better still when the travelling is done in the sunny south of France, in the shade of plane trees and with frequent pit stops.

Houseboat on the Canal du Midi. Credit: Alamy It's summertime in southern France and we're cycling the towpath of a canal built more than a century before the bicycle was even invented.

The Canal du Midi is a great place to start cycling in France as the landscape is mainly flat, the scenery is lovely and there are plenty of places to stop along the way to stay and eat.

The Canal du Midi traverses the Occitanie region and gives cyclists of all skill levels access to parts of France that are rich in lore, yet sometimes passed over by visitors.

Sadly, many of the magnificent plane trees that line the banks of the Canal du Midi are diseased. All 42,000 of them are due for the chop so they don't endanger the public.

The year the “Canal du Rhône à Sète” was completed. This 92km waterway is an extension to the Canal du Midi, linking Étang de Thau to the river Rhône, running east from Sète to Beaucaire.

Captain your own vessel on the canals and waterways of Europe this summer. Le Boat tour company offers private boats for rent that couples, families or groups can use to explore at their own pace ...

The Canal du Midi has five elements, namely the main section that connects Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) to Étang de Thau at Marseillan along the Mediterranean coast (Hérault) over a length of 240 km; the ...