Catching Up.........

Well,here we are again. It is early October and we haven't had an opportunity to add to our site for quite a while. A lot has happened since we left the Bourgogne Canal, and we will try to bring you up to date in easy bite sized chunks. We touched base when we were at Montereau with the fire works display for Bastille Day but we will go back to Migennes and continue from there.

The rivers

Leaving the Bourgogne Canal at Migennes we entered the Yonne River and the difference between canal and river cruising rapidly became obvious. Matilda showed that she had a good turn of speed on open water and the big motor, still loafing at 1300 RPM would get her up to a good 16-18 km/h (8 or 9 knots) – The same in a canal would be lucky to get 10 km/h. This shows the dramatic difference in the hydraulic forces acting on the boat in the confines of a canal as opposed to open water. The canals have retrictions on speed and we can only do 8 km/h as a maximum.

Other differences were the size of the other vessels using the river with us and the size and types of locks when we changed levels. There are large sand quarries along the banks of the rivers supplying various grades of sand and gravel for all uses. These are moved in barges that would have been three or four times Matilda’s length, sometimes secured together fore and aft to make even longer vessels – “Canal train” style. The locks are correspondingly larger too with Matilda looking very small alongside these vessels. Some of these locks had sloping sides and we had to fend Matilda off the walls while going down for fear of being caught up as the water receded. We handled the changed environment well to the point that one fully laden commercial barge’s captain offered us first entry to the locks.He accepted that we would efficiently clear the lock in front of him giving him space to manoeuvre out. We took it as a compliment.  

The Yonne River flows into the Seine at Montereau. The Yonne is actually the bigger river and people say that the river from here on should be called the Yonne. David and Janet met us here, they caught a train from Paris and we met them at the station and walked to Matilda. Next day we were off and into the Seine for about 13 kilometres. Then into the Canal du Loing at St Mammes. 

While we were in Montereau we heard from another couple on their boat that one of the canals we were planning to use on our trip was to be closed. Because of low rainfall in the area the supply lakes for the Canal du Centre were very low and the VNF – controlling body for the French inland waterways – were going to shut it about August 14^th. We had this story confirmed so were quite worried. We were about half way around our trip and the Canal du Centre would take us back to the Saone River then back to our home port. If we did not make it through we could get caught and be stuck till it rained and filled the lakes or we would have to re-trace our steps and go back down the Bourgogne Canal – the way we came. We decided to press on with all haste to get through the Centre before the 14^th. As luck would have it, there has been a lot of rain since then and the VNF confirmed a week or so later that the Canal du Centre would not close.

We, of course have rushed through some beautiful country and missed out on some great scenery. Marg and I will come this way again and do the scenery and history of this area justice.

In the meantime Dave and Louise joined us at Montargis and we entered the Canal de Briare with six of us on Matilda. Montargis, known as the Venice of France has a number of canals criss-crossing the town which, in early days supplied water to the mills and other industries that made the town famous.

The Canal du Briare travels through some beautiful country. We have seen fields of grain and other crops already on our trip but the rolling hills of pasture, corn and other crops interspersed with heavy forest and small villages were very attractive and in our rush we did not do the trip justice.

David and Janet left us at Chatillon – Coligny catching a taxi to the local station then train to Paris. We continued on with Dave and Louise on board and soon arrived in Briare where the canal used to terminate at the Loire River giving a quick route for produce from the Loire Valley to Paris

The Canal lateral a la Loire opened in 1838 and follows the course of the Loire river from Briare to Digoin, a distance of about 196 kilometres. The canal has three amazing engineering features – three water bridges built in the years shortly after its opening. The largest is at Briare where this aqueduct takes the canal 15 metres up, over the Loire River for a distance of over 660 metres. Some 20 kilometres up the canal we stopped at a mooring near a village called Sury-pres-Lere where Dave and Louise left us, taxi to the railway station then back to Paris by train.

We continue on, down the Lateral a la Loire but more of that later.

Till then

Keep in touch.