Écluse Ronde d'Agde — Attraction in Béziers

The ecluse rond in Agde is a rare thing in boating circles, its called the round lock because of its shape and it was built that way to allow boats to turn in it through 90'. This lock is situated on the canal du Midi in the South of France and when the canal was built it had to cross a river. Because of the delays to commercial barges caused by fluctuating water levels due to either flooding or drought some lateral thinking was called for. The engineers came up with the idea of putting a weir/barrage across the river to ensure constant water depth, in turn this meant that boats had to take 'A step up' via a lock from the canal du Midi to cross the river and to continue they had to take 'A step down' again via another lock to get back on the canal du Midi. For vessels to access the river below the barrage a further set of lock gates were installed in the round lock to take vessels down to the lower river level and from there they could access the...

Lazy male lock keeper that would rather sit in his office with the door shut and his Aircon on than do his job tells boaters they shouldn't go through the lock with only one person then goes berserk after I went down the river and couldn't find any moorings and had to come back 3 hrs later shouting that I'm wasting water and to prove his point of not allowing to go through lock with one person he opens the lock as full open as he can even superman couldn't hold the ropes with that amount of water gushing through you obviously don't want to be there so leave and get another job don't ruin the waters ways...

The last lock on the Canal du Midi before it reaches the Herault and thus the sea (though there is another stretch toward Sete from the Herault), this is unique on the canal in being a three-way lock with room for boats to turn round. Originally built fully circular, then later extended to allow larger craft to navigate it, boats entering from the west have a choice of two exits to the Herault. The lock-keepers are quite animated, and it's fun to watch boats getting through. It's very close to the railway station, and an easy walk or cycle...