The Canal they could now close.

The canals of France were constructed to provide inexpensive, simple and reliable transport for materials and commodities throughout the country. The extensive use of the canal system is graphically illustrated in the history of the mining area known as Montceau-les-Mines. Coal was mined there in the 18^th and 19^th century and the canals were the transport system used to take it to where it was wanted. In the system's heyday there was a company here that owned over 600 barges. That is a lot of transport! Given that a barge would spend 1/3 of its time with a load (about 250 tonnes), 1/3 stationary and 1/3 returning empty, this company would have had 50,000 tonnes of freight on the move at any time. This is impressive even by modern standards. The city is now a modern centre and parts of this history have now been modernised but the canal still has features that remain from these times. Three wonderfully different bridges span the canal within 100 metres. There is a lifting bridge, a swing bridge and a hydraulic lift pedestrian bridge. All classics of the era in which they were installed.

Unfortunately the person in charge of the camera was so enthralled by the mechanics of these two bridges or their dramatic colour schemes - or the good looking French lady on the towpath or something - that the hydraulic elevation bridge was completely missed. It can just be seen lowered further up the canal in the middle picture.

The harbour has been mostly reclaimed these days (for a car park) and there were only about eight large vessels there and the harbour was full. We “rafted up” with an old Freycinet freighter that was owned by an American who used it as his French hangout. It was painted yellow and looked like a forlorn party barge. He was somewhere else.

The town was fairly modern and nondescript and although historically important, we did not spend too much time there. One thing we found that was important was a big supermarket complex with a fuel service station that backed onto the canal. We tied Matilda to the fence on the edge of the canal and while Ali and Marg purchased essentials, John and Peter ferried about 500 litres of diesel into Matilda's tanks.

We continued on down the Centre and a few kilometres from it's end were met at one lock by a Dutch lady who had just taken a picture of Matilda and wanted to talk to us. John of course was our spokesman and they chatted away in her native tongue for some time. We gave her a card and she emailed us a copy of the picture that she had taken.

We were now approaching the end of the canal and would soon be in the Saone River. The canal joins the river just upstream from Chalon sur Saone, a bustling city full of history.

Then through the last lock – Ecluse 34Bis with a 10.75 metre drop into the Saone river.

In this picture we are still going down. When the doors opened only the four metres above the water raised to allow us out to the river.

The wall behind us shows just how high the entry gates are.

And out on to the Saone.

More later so keep in touch.

Entering the Centre

After leaving Dave and Louise at Lere we continued up the Canal lateral a la Loire. This canal travels through a variety of country types, generally open farming country but sometimes winding through forest. The trees closing in and making the passage quite small. The authorities continue to clear the banks but sometimes areas seem to be missed.

The Sancerre area is wine country and the hills were regularly covered with vines. The old stone and steel girder railway viaduct here carries a main line high over the vines.

After passing the village of le Guetin we find the second of the great Pont Canals (aqueducts) that make this canal famous. This one crosses the Aller River where it joins the Loire. A point of difference to the Briare Pont is that the downstream side is almost at river level and to get on to the Pont the engineers built a “staircase” of three locks to raise the canal above the river. Modernisation has removed one lock and the second is now a seven metre lift. We found to our dismay that it can get quite wet on board as the lock fills.

The third of these Ponts is at the entry to Digoin at the end of the lateral a la Loire canal. We were joined in Digoin by Ali and John who were to stay with us for about three weeks on their way to Ethiopia. They arrived on a railway bus after a few days in Paris. We met them and walked with them to Matilda which we had moored on the canal, slightly out of town. We have found that the more modern facilities for tourist boats on the canals don't cater well for vessels of Matilda's size.

We entered the Canal du Centre at Digoin and on our first morning out with Ali and John, the first lock we entered failed to close and we had to ring the VNF. Marg rang and advised that we were in "number 26 ecluse en panne” (in pain). The call was answered by a mechanic quickly and we logged the problem as another experience.

Incidently, none of the eclusiers (lock keepers) were aware of the possibility of the canal being closed. We continued on.

We stopped for lunch and cycled two kilometres over the hill to view this magnificent chateau. It is today the centre of the local farming community and we saw the preparations for what appeared to be a livestock display outside the grounds at the main gate.

The next big town is Montceau-les-Mines, we will take up the story when we arrive there.

Till then, keep in touch.

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.