The Canal du Midi has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1996. Just like the 9 locks of Fonseranes in Béziers, a major work of art on the Canal du Midi, also classified as a Historic Monument in 1996. So many distinctions have many reasons for being. The first is aesthetic: the Canal du Midi is beautiful, its surroundings majestic. And then, it constituted an engineering tour de force, created by the brain of Biterrois Pierre-Paul Riquet, and the arms of some 12,000 workers. Finally, the Canal du Midi remains a major component of local identity, as much as it was a tool for economic development (agriculture, viticulture, freight transport, etc.). The communes of the agglomeration he crosses (Béziers, Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, Cers) show him an unwavering attachment every day: on the canal or on its banks we walk, we sail... we live.