Talk:Canal du Midi
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This article is correct in most respects, but confused. The Canal du Midi is not the Canal des Deux Mers. It is one half of the 'Deux Mers'. The other half is the Canal Lateral a la Garonne, which goes from Toulouse through Moissac and Agen to the River Garonne, east of Bordeaux. The two canals are joined but otherwise quite separate pieces of civil engineering. The Midi - the work of Paul Riquet, who is justly honoured throughout Languedoc - is 17th century. The Lateral a la Garonne is 19th century. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.5.162.56 (talk) 08:47, 6 November 2007 (UTC)
Not a bad article, but it wallows in a passive voice, particularly in the History Section. For example:
This was the problem that Pierre-Paul Riquet, a rich tax-farmer in the Languedoc region, and who thus knew the region intimately, believed in 1662 that he could solve. He first had to persuade Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister of Louis XIV which he did through his friendship with the Archbishop of Toulouse.
would read better like this:
Pierre-Paul Riquet persuaded Louis XIV's finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to finance his proposal to supply the canal with water with the construction of a a huge dam at Saint Ferréol.
ok, even that is rough. But starting paragraphs with oblique "This was the problem..." or "So at the age of 63..." phrases is awkward. And biographical details of Riquet's life might be more appropriate in a separate article about him. And I am not sure if Riquet's contribution was financing, engineering, or both. This article is about the canal, not 17th century politics. Maybe in book format that would work, but this is an encylcopedia.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Canal_du_Midi/Comments" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 205.167.199.125 (talk) 22:42, 19 May 2008 (UTC)
