by David Edwards-May | Feb 27, 2013 | Policy
The subject is not totally taboo, but in 40 years of activity on the inland waterways, a ‘world of its own’, I have found that people prefer to avoid it. ‘The less said the better’, seems to be the motto ! Confronted with two conflicting ‘politically correct’...
by David Edwards-May | Jan 27, 2013 | Cultural & industrial heritage, Policy, Waterway funding, Waterway restoration
VNF’s summary report on its activities in 2012 devotes one of its 10 chapters to the tree-replanting programme and corporate patronage approach to funding the €200 million restoration of the Canal du Midi’s characteristic landscape. VNF reports (in its New Year...
by David Edwards-May | Dec 5, 2012 | Cultural & industrial heritage, Waterway personalities
The Google Streetview automatic scrambler of peoples’ faces has indiscriminately defaced the creator of the Canal du Midi on a banner outside the canal museum at Saint-Ferréol. This delightful quirk of automation of image processing suggests a new form of...
by David Edwards-May | Jun 24, 2012 | Cultural & industrial heritage, Waterway funding, Waterway restoration
A report commissioned by former prime minister François Fillon has delivered its verdict on the scale of works required to restore the Canal du Midi’s priceless tree canopy. The 42,000 plane trees (82% of the trees lining the banks) are being decimated by canker...