The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-04-11

prepared by the National Geographic
Society. Washington. d. Co.
A CROSS southern France, where
~ floods recently devastated a
I large area, lie the Lateral and
Midi canals, connecting the At
lantic and the Mediterranean. A
unique sightseeing trip through this
delightful country can be made along
these waterways in canoe.
The start is made at Bordeaux.
| With it's almost six miles OF wharfage,
it is among the few big ports which
have troubled to beautify their water
fronts. Its broad, -paralleling
| thoroughfare with here a tree-shaded
promenade, there a public park, and
yonder towering pair of columns
dedicated to Commerce and Naviga-
ton, illustrates for the benefit of many
another SUNNY water front how sea-
freighting may bring beauty out of
| business.
From Bordeaux for % miles the
Garonne river forms the waterway.
| The Lateral canal starts at Castets,
and parallels the river to Toulouse.
Though navigation hasn't usually
much to do with hills and dales, that
landsmans phrase aptly describes
canal trip. The 26O-mile waterway
which stretches from near Bordeaux
to the Mediterranean-tha is, the con-
| Joined routes Of the Lateral and the
Midi canals-is regulated by 11S locks.
| These give a 620-foot drop on either
side of CasteInaudary, the highest in
termediate point.
Thus, the canoe voyager goes sup
hill" to Castelnaudary, then "down
| dale" to the Mediterranean, averag-
| ing 1917 feet of ascent or descent each
| time he passes a lock.
Beautiful Country.
The Lateral canal leads through
smiling countryside of gently ripping
| hills and of close cultivation, with to-
bacco plantations and vineyards alter
mating. Regiments of staked vines
align themselves across the fields at
/ the queerest of angles, planting sys-
TEN aimed at securing the maximum
cApOSuIS VI sunlight.
Here and there some picturesque
village, its Fifteenth-century houses
dominated by ruined donjon, mir
rors itself in the Garonne.
The canal and its river feeder paral-
lei each other for 120 miles, and it
is but short stroll whenever one
wants a glimpse of the latter. Their
courses intersect at Agen. One sud-
| denly finds himself cruising between
two seemingly endless walls of ma
sonry, and the scenery begins to drop
out of sight. First the trees, then the
into neither space. 1t is the canal-car-
rying aqueduct, which floats barge
traffic high in air across the wide val
ley of the Garonne.
Prehistoric Neighborhood.
From Agen an interesting pilgrim
age can be made to Les Eyzies' grot-
toes where can be seen the habitations
Of PleistOcene man. 1t was in the
early sixties that Les EyZies' grottoeS
yielded finds of flint and horn imple-
ments, human skeletons, and bones of
extinct animals. Subsequently these
formed basis for calculating the
chronology Of the Stone age
Between the rude representations of
animals, scratched by primitive man
on his caves walls, and the art which
caused Moissacs cloister columns to
bloom with flowerlike beauty, lies all
the mystery of the timeless miracle
of mental evolution.
Long before one enters the Canal du
Midi at Toulouse one realizes how
well named is Frances midi" This
is the French word for midday. In
summer and autumn it is a country of
whitening heat, suffered houses, white
roads, and dust-covered foliage, under
brilliant, cloudless sky.
Toulouse-alas for the betraying
charm of it's name !-sprawls common
place and MISUNDERSTANDING, as if
depleted by centuries of sunstroke. OF
the medieval city that was the seat
of aapowerful countship and the scene
of religious wars, little remains but
st. Sernin's Romanesque pile, named
for ST. Saturninus, who was dragged
behind the bull he had refused to sac
rifice on Jupiter's altar, to recall Tou-
louse's architectural past.
Old Custom Retained.
With one other exception what the
visitor would expect of that high
sounding name is discoverable only in
histories.
This exception is the curious spec
tacle of forty citizen patrons receiving
nine gold and silver flowers from La
Daurades high altar, then defiling
through Toulouse to award these arti-
feed amaranths, marigolds, and other
blossoms in poetry contest, and final
ly hymning a eulogy on the festivals
reputed founder, Dame Clemence
ISaure.
Such is the May day fete Of the an
cient Academic des Jeux-Floraux
While floral festivals of varying kinds
are held at Nice. Cahors, Lyons, Cette,
and in Normandy, Catalonia, and Rhen-
ish Prussia, it is only the Toulousian
event which represents an unbroken
tradition of six centuries span.
AT Toulouse travellers by canal leave
the Lateral canal and erter the much
older Canal du Midi. Constructed in
1666-l6S1. this ''canaI of two seas rep
resents the earliest step toward the
present AtIantic-tO-the-R hone line. Be