The High Ground

Things you need to know.

A little bit of technical detail is needed here so please pay attention! Visitors to Matilda will be examined on their knowledge of this.

The Romans, Egyptians and Greeks all realised that there must be a better and faster way of moving goods on land than by horse and cart. They all used boats at sea and in rivers and the idea of canals was born then. The French canals started to come into being some 600 years ago. The concept is very simple and for the time the design and build was absolutely state of the art. The hydraulic engineering involved is brilliant.

There are broadly two types of canal.

1.      Canals that follow rivers. They are designed so boats can get around rapids and shallow bits. They level out the flow so that the water is a series of level pounds between ecluses (locks) that make up for the continuing run of the river down to the sea. These often use the original watercourse holding the river level with dams and weirs where an ecluse is installed to take boats down to the next level (or pound).

2.      Canals that join river to river. These follow a man-made course climbing up often over quite high hills to get down to the next valley and river. The idea was to make a short cut to bring, for example - coal from that mine to the furnaces of this town to make iron with the ore from another town - as directly as possible.

The Canal de Bourgogne is amongst the second group. It joins the Saone River to the Yonne River giving a route for freight from Marseille on the Mediterrean Sea to Paris. It crosses the hills between the rivers at a town called Pouilly-en-Auxois. The canal was completed about 1830.

Technical details:

From the Saone to the Pouilly watershed pound:

The Saone – 181 meters ASL

Rise of 197m in 81km

76 ecluses (about 2.6m rise per ecluse)

The Pouilly pound, 6km long with a  3.333 km tunnel in the middle. 378m ASL

To the Yonne river:

The Yonne – 80 meters

Fall of 298m in 155km

112 ecluses

The ecluses: On some canals they are remotely controlled with an electronic zapper, some by eclusiers working at each lock. Some are manual that you have to work yourselves. On the Bourgogne we are accompanied by an eclusier that follows us on a motor scooter setting the ecluses for us. Unfortunately the canal sees little use and this is the cheapest option. We have been stationary for the past 24 hours and only one boat has passed us. It is a shame because it passes some beautiful countryside and there is plenty to see.  

Today we visited Chateauneuf, a medieval village and chateau at one time a residence of Louis IV. Built on a ridge above the valley it commands magnificent views of the surrounding countryside, a strategic vantage point. It can be seen from huge distances and looks most impressive from where we are moored.  We cycled the two kilometres there but had to give up and push our bikes the last km to the village. The return was quite quick.

Tomorrow we move again and in two days we will be in the Pouilly pound. Only then will we know if we fit in the tunnel.

We keep our fingers crossed.

Keep in touch.