The Canal du Centre Part 5: Goodbye to the canals, hello to the river
Sunday 4th June 2023
Sunday morning was another hot one. We set off around 9.00am, promising ourselves that we would take it easy today. We were aiming for the town of Chagny, 4 locks and less than 14 km away. Our first lock of the day, 20 St Leger was less than a km from us and as we approached the traffic lights were showing red and green. This means they know you're there but you have to wait. We found out that there was another boat, a hire boat, on its way to this lock.
Water levels in the whole canal system are low and every time a lock is operated it uses water. If you're moored by a lock and the gates start their operation you can feel the current and see the water levels dropping. VNF minimises the loss of water by putting two boats at a time through whenever possible. As the season progresses they may insist on it, which might cause extended waits.
The hire boat, St Jean de Losnes, was operated by an older couple. By 'older' I mean white hair and frailty, definitely older than me. The lady could barely lasso the bollard. The man clambered out of his boat to operate the handle but didn't look comfortable doing so. There was a lock keeper there who could easily have helped him out but he was asking us where we were going at that time. Very important question, right?
The next three locks, 21 Moulin Joli, 22 Dennevy and 23 St Gilles, were close together, very similar and nothing much to write home about. We were through them all just after 10 am, giving us about 6km to potter along uninterrupted before we got to Chagny.
The hire boat was behind us was still struggling a bit. We, as private owners of a boat using the canals, have to have documentary proof that at least one of us (Igor) knows what they're doing, but you don't need any qualifications at all to hire a boat. It's their big selling point. Most people are pretty competent despite this but from time to time you see someone who just hasn't quite worked it out yet. The crew of St Jean de Losnes bumped into the sides of the narrow bridge at Remigny so seemed to be in that second category.
The stretch from 23 St Gilles to Chagny was wonderful. It was very pretty, high above the rolling French countryside. We had views all the way across the valleys to the hills beyond. The scent of flowers was on the warm summer air. The canal had a decent depth of water and no weed. It doesn't get much better...but it did.
Chagny is approached via an aqueduct over the railway, which made a change from crossing rivers and was equally impressive if not as scenic as the Loire.
There is a very modern small marina with good pontoons and free electricity. We were hoping for a shower but there didn't seem to be any amenities, though there was a VNF building which looked like it might have housed them right next to where we were moored. The upside was that nobody asked us to pay anything.
It was past midday once we moored so we decided to walk into town. Our expectations were low, as you may have noticed everywhere we go seems to be closed. We walked in the general direction and to our huge surprise were confronted by a town square surrounded by restaurants, every table busy with people eating and drinking in the sunshine. A market stretched down the road as far as the eye could see, selling all sorts of things - clothes, fruit and veg, artisan bread, cheeses and sausages, even laying hens. We wandered about in a sort of a daze, so overwhelmed by the choice that we were incapable of buying anything.
We tried to get a table at a restaurant but it was fully booked (we later found out that today was Mother's Day in France). We tried a second place and were lucky. The service was very slow and the food wouldn't have been out of place in Weatherspoons but the wine was cold and crisp, the sun was warm, the atmosphere was lively and...WE WERE FINALLY HAVING LUNCH AT A CAFE IN A VILLAGE SQUARE!!
Finally, after all these weeks, living this dream!! We plodded back to the boat afterwards for a well deserved nap. It felt like we were on holiday.
Monday 5th June 2023
We left Chagny shortly after 9am. Leaving the town, the canal was quite narrow with lots of long term barges moored to our port side. After this we entered another very pretty stretch, lots of trees, very tranquil.
The lock, 24 Tranchee, wasn't ready when we arrived, no lights at all showing. After waiting a couple of minutes we were about to call VNF when a red light illuminated. We realised that the lock had to fill before we could enter. You don't mind waiting when you know that things are happening.
At Lock 25 Pepiniere Igor got off the boat as usual to pull the handle and we spotted a cherry tree next to it. He was able to pick a few ripe ones before the boat descended. It kind of made me wish we were doing this journey a week or so later.
I should say that the way it works with these descending locks is that Igor gets off the boat and pulls the handle, then wanders around having a look and taking photos until the boat starts its descent. Sometimes I think he delays getting back on just to wind me up but I'm glad to say there were no mishaps with this. I really didn't fancy motoring out of a lock and collecting him from the bank on my own. He was probably far more aware than me of the potential for disaster if he didn't jump quick enough.
The surroundings were a bit scruffy, concrete huts, but nature makes up for it. Everywhere you look there are dragonflies and wild flowers. What more do you need?
Lock 26 Rully was very pretty. The old cottage was now a tourist office with an impressive garden. I took a photo but the sun was ahead of me so it really doesn't do it justice.
The bridge across the canal ahead of us had boxes with flowers growing in them, and as we waited a young man in a hi vis jacket was watering them. As we left the lock we nearly hit a log in the water by the exit, then as we carried on the man called a warning to us. One of his flower boxes was floating in the water next to us. Thank goodness it didn't fall on our boat!
We had to wait at the next lock, 27 Justices, as there was a red light showing. A big white hire boat was rising up in the lock chamber. This one knew what he was doing and neither they nor us had any trouble avoiding each other.
At 28 Pont de Breuil there were two VNF people, a man and a woman. The handle was awkwardly placed but the woman pulled it for us. It seemed to take ages for the lock to work. I gazed aimlessly at the fields, pulling on my rope, when a man on what I can only describe as a racing penny farthing speeded past us along the towpath. It was a magnificent machine, a blur of stainless steel, and he waved at us. He was going so fast that neither Igor nor I could get our cameras out in time. He made my day!
The VNF woman asked where we were going. We were aiming to get to Fragnes for lunch and stopping at Chalon-sur-Saône, just after the end of the Canal du Centre. We left the lock just before 11.00 so had about 8km to cover in the next hour, with 6 locks to negotiate. In retrospect lunch in Fragnes was never going to happen.
There was a VNF guy at lock 29 Trembley but he didn't speak to us or acknowledge us. This was a shallow lock so we didn't need any help. The old garden was overgrown with purple cornflowers which were a nice distraction.
I didn't make any notes about 30 Bois and 31 Fontana. The two were shallow and close together and it took less than 25 minutes from lock 29 to pass through them. If I remember correctly they were just 'there' if you know what I mean, no buildings, no roads, just fields.
We reached 32 Gauchard at 11.42. By now it was obvious that we wouldn't get to Fragnes by midday. There was a very pretty garden, and once we were through the lock a wide bridge over the road.
It was 11.50 and very hot. We decided we may as well moor under the bridge in the shade as the lock would soon close for lunch and we hadn't seen any boats behind us. We should have at least an hour chilling and relaxing before continuing to our final destination.
We moored the boat, securing it to the wooden fence along the canal side. I went downstairs to put lunch together. I glanced at the lock gates. A dribble of water was coming out a few feet above our water level. As I watched the dribble grew and rose higher. The lock was filling. It was after midday, the lunch hour, what was going on? The answer emerged as we saw the top of a hire boat appear above the gates.
We realised that they were coming through when the top of the boat dropped below our eyeline. I didn't know the locks would work between the sacred hours of 12 and 1! We quickly cast off and headed up the canal, soon followed by the hire boat, Giacomo. Lock 33 Legere, about 1.5km on from where we had attempted to stop, was showing a green light even though it was 12.29. We entered, Giacomo followed us and pulled the handle. He shouted out 'Je suis désolé!' to a second hire boat which we hadn't seen which must have traversed the lock with him but there was no room for a third boat and the gates closed. Two locks in one lunchtime, what is the world coming to?
We had little choice but to continue as there was no point in stopping now. We reached lock 34 Fragnes at around 12.50. A boat was in the lock, attempting to rise up, but no lights were showing.
We initially thought that it wasn't working because it was still lunchtime, but then realised that one of the gates was stuck in the half closed position. We spotted a vacant mooring pontoon and tied up to it. Something was obviously wrong. The lights went red. We turned the engine off and listened to the birdsong.
The guy on the trapped boat was German and came to us to explain what was going on. The lock, as we thought, was broken and VNF were sending engineers along. They took about quarter of an hour to arrive, then spent a similar amount of time mending the lock.
We took the opportunity to stretch our legs and watch them working. They knew what they were doing and in another 15 minutes we were passing through the lock under their watchful eyes. All in all it took us about an hour from arriving at the lock to exiting it. The universe has ways of making you respect the French lunchbreak!
We only had one lock left now, the big one, 34 bis Chalon-sur-Saône. Originally this stretch of canal was served by three locks, but these were replaced in the late 1950s with a single lock. It is much longer than any of the others on this canal.
We passed Fragnes and continued onwards. The approach to 34 bis is down a straight stretch of canal with a series of bridges built quite close together spanning it. One of these has a restaurant, l’Embarcadère, built on it, which is something you very rarely see. We took photos and saw that a hire boat, which had been ahead of us, had moored under one of the bridges (there's a Le Clerc supermarket very close by).
We were sorry to be leaving the canal system. Travelling all this distance along it has been a real joy. On the upside we were pleased to have ticked off yet another leg of the journey.
As we neared 34 bis we saw engineering vans parked at the approach. Red and green lights were showing, which turned to red. The engineers looked very busy and it seemed like they'd be a while. We moored to a waiting pontoon and walked the short distance to the lock. A couple of the guys were the ones who'd sorted out the previous lock. We walked to its edge.
The chamber was empty, dark water a very long way below. The drop was around 10 metres, enough to give me slight vertigo when I looked over the side of the empty chamber. It was one of the few places I've seen in France where there has been a fence by the edge of a long steep drop to water. Usually they rely on common sense to keep you away. I was glad the fence was there.
I was about to go and ask one of the workmen what was happening when the lock keeper appeared. He was very chatty and friendly, and between the little English he spoke and the little French we spoke we were able to have a good conversation. He explained that the lock is so big he can't open it for just one pleasure boat so we'd have to wait for another one to arrive. Fair enough. The lock probably occupied a volume nearly as big as half of the terrace of houses that we live on. We went back to the boat and had a cup of tea.
He also told us that l’Embarcadère wasn't great, it was a canteen for people working nearby rather than fine dining. A more important piece of information was to stick to the centre of the river once we exited the lock as that was where the maximum depth for this stretch, 1 metre at the exit, can be found.
After about half an hour's wait a boat showed up, probably the one that had been moored by Le Clerc and l’Embarcadère. The lock chamber filled. We felt our ropes tighten as the water level dropped by about a foot to fill the massive space. The light turned to green. We entered and hooked to a floating bollard. At the top of the chamber it didn't look anything special, just long, so long indeed that we and the other boat seemed a bit lost in it. Then the mechanisms ground into action and we slowly started our gentle descent. This went on and on and on. The dark slimy lock walls rose and rose above our heads while the bollard smoothly floated down, keeping us in the right place.
Once we reached the bottom, forty feet lower than when we started, the gate ahead rose like a guillotine. When it had fully opened the light above it changed from red to green and we exited under the dripping base of the gate. It was so hot that this was almost welcome.
We had completed the French canal section and were now in the River Saône, well and truly on our way to the South of France! We have covered around 800 km since we crossed the Channel back in April, what a journey.
My next post will let you know about the Saône, which leads from Chalon down to Lyon, watch this space!
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