Talk:Canal du Midi/Comments

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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.