The Saône part 1: Chalon to Macon

5th June 2023

As we exited the gates from lock 34 bis, the last lock on the Canal du Centre, it seemed like ages since we were in a river. When we started this journey, in April, the distance even from Brighton to Paris seemed immense. Going up the Seine we took for granted the current pushing against us, reducing our speed over ground by a couple of knots. We learned to keep an eye out for peniches, the massive commercial barges moving much faster than us and having priority. Then we reached the canals, where the only commercial traffic is hotel/restaurant barges. Pleasure boats have the waterways almost to themselves. It was so relaxing.

It was a definite change of pace to be on the river again. Apart from the exit from the lock, where we were strongly advised to stay in the centre of the channel to ensure a decent amount of water, the river is deeper. There is plenty of room to manoeuvre. There is no weed grabbing at the rudders and slowing us down. Best of all, the current is with us which means that the speed over ground is now slightly faster than the speed of the boat through the water.

It took us about an hour to reach Chalon and once there we headed towards the marina.  It's on an island in the river, and traffic passes it in an anticlockwise direction.  

As we approached we could see that it was very busy. We slowly motored past pontoon after pontoon and finally saw a bit of space where another (demasted) sailboat, much smaller than us, was mooring. It was the last available spot and if they had parked a bit more considerately the two of us would have fitted in comfortably. A girl in an official looking t-shirt and lanyard shouted to us that if we wanted power and water we should carry on and go to the pontoon on the other side of the river, the Ponton de Manon.

We carried on and found it easily. The outside was reserved for barges, the inside for pleasure boats so we tied up at the far end of our side.  The difference is that the outside has larger mooring posts and a heavy duty electricity supply so is obviously for floating hotels and the like.

There was a board with instructions in French and English, telling us that we had to pay at a machine at the top of the access stairway which would provide us with the entry code we would need to get back onto the pontoon.  So far so good.

Once the boat was secured we went to the machine. It was 18 euros 40 for the night. There were no facilities at all. I called the marina and queried this in case I just hadn't seen them. No, they confirmed, nothing. I could use the marina showers if I wanted but that would be a very long walk. Great. Electricity wasn't included, it was an extra 4 euros for 24 hours.  Most town pontoons we've visited were free so it was quite a shock to have to pay so much for more or less nothing.

At least the pontoon was convenient for the town. We went for a walk in the evening. Lots of people were out and about, eating in the restaurants and enjoying the relative cool. Chalon the town made a much better impression than the marina suggested.

Tuesday 6th June 2023

We woke up reasonably early and the internet told me that there was a strike today.  Of course, I hadn't checked the names of the locks on the river, I was still in a canal mindset, muscle memory telling me there would be lots of them and assuming that ours would be affected. We decided to take it easy and explore the town of Chalon for a couple of hours rather than setting off. After all, we'd spent so much on this mooring with no facilities whatsoever, apart from a gate to keep the hoi polloi away from our boat, that we may as well stay awhile and get our moneys worth.

Chalon is a lovely town to wander around in the sunshine. It was the place where a man called Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph, and he has a statue and a museum here.

We had a lovely Italian gelato at the end of our walk, strolling through the pretty streets in the sunshine.

We left the mooring around midday.  Passing Chalon I noticed that a lot of the bridges had iron rings, like those used for mooring, set into the supporting pillars.

One of our guide books mentioned that in the old days the town would charge ships a tariff for passing through.  As these rings only seemed to be on the older bridges I wondered if that was why they were there. I can't think of any other reason for them.

The river was beautiful, wide and tranquil, much calmer than the Seine with less traffic. There were very few boats at all, let alone commercial vessels. The sun was high above us and it was very hot. Igor decided to have a dip off the back of the boat.

I was tempted but hadn't packed a swimming costume (it wasn't particularly warm when we left England and I'm far too inhibited for skinny dipping in such a wide open space), so I had to content myself with dabbling my feet off the transom.

We only motored until 2.30, to Gigny. The marina is in an old, disused lock. I'd phoned earlier to check we would get a berth and the capitan was waiting for us to take our rope.

Once moored I visited the capitainerie and paid the paltry sum of 11 euros which included water and electricity. This was far better value than yesterday's rip off price.  I was looking forward to a hot shower but it turned out that the shower and toilet were inside the capitan's office and could only be accessed when he was there.  I don't know why but I found this a bit offputting so decided I wouldn't bother.

Our guide book told us that there was a restaurant at the marina and a shop within easy walking distance. I asked the capitan about the restaurant. It had closed. What a surprise. The shop was still there though, but didn't open until 4pm. It was about 3.15pm when I asked him about it and for directions.

He gave me a choice of routes. The quicker one was along a footpath by a field of wheat, or there was a longer route following the road. We decided to take the short cut. For the first part the footpath was barely there, but after a hundred or so metres it widened to a proper farm track.

It only took us around 10 minutes, if that, to reach the village, so to while away the time until the shop opened we had a look in the church, a traditional limestone building.

It was fairly plain but had a lot of statues of saints, some of whom I recognised, like Joan of Arc.

It was blessedly cool.

Just before 4pm we went to the shop which was on the grounds of a campsite. Literally on the dot of 4 it opened. There wasn't much there but the quality was excellent so surprise, surprise we got some cheese.

We decided to walk back the long way, skirting the perimeter of the campsite.

It was huge, field after field of campervans. All these people wanting to get away from it all ending up cheek by jowl with other people wanting to get away from it all. Yep. Right.

We were moored next to a barge, Ma Belle, owned by a British couple, and a little while later the hire boat with people from Yorkshire who we'd met in Chagny arrived. A little corner that was, for an evening, England, sorry, Britain (the owners of the barge were Scottish and Welsh as evidenced by the flags on the bows, sorry Martin and Hilary).

All in all it was a very good day, a gentle introduction to the Saône, not even one lock and we managed some sightseeing.

Wednesday 7th June 2023

Wednesday was another hot and sunny day. We left our mooring at around 8.45, with slight trepidation that today we would do our first river lock for a long time. At least we knew we would only have one lock, not 10 or 15.

We reached Ormes at around 9.10. As we approached the green light was showing to say we could proceed but I called the lock tower anyway on the VHF as a courtesy. We could see that there was a barge with a crane already in the lock.

A garbled message came over the VHF. I didn't catch a word so responded and asked him to clarify. He said to wait 10 minutes.

There was a convenient waiting pontoon so we moored and turned off the engine and I made a cuppa, then we decided to have a walk to see what was going on as it was obvious that the barge wasn't moving.

The pontoon had one of those uninviting tall vertical ladders, must have been 5 or 6 metres high at least, but I was very brave and scaled it and we headed towards the lock. Sheep were grazing next to it, sheltering in the shade of a small shed.  

We were able to see the guys working on the barge seemingly doing some repairs assisted by more men in a van. The lock lights went to red/green ie 'wait'. The lock gates closed. Why hadn't they let us go through?

We went back to Libra and the lock keeper called again on the VHF to say that two boats were coming upstream and we'd have to wait 10 minutes. We waited, and eventually two boats exited the lock.

Finally at around 10.15, an hour after we arrived, we were allowed into the lock. Once there everything was very straightforward and 9 minutes later we were out.

We decided to stop in Tournus and get some supplies as there was a decent supermarket within a few minutes walk of the town pontoon.  We arrived just before before 1pm. It was really hot.

The supermarket wasn't far and I enjoyed the aircon inside while Igor bought diesel, then we met up and bought some salmon tartare for lunch. It was too hot for anything more substantial. Is this the French version of sushi?

We set off again at 12.50. I think the canal discipline of stopping for lunch must have got to us. It certainly felt like a very civilised break.  

The afternoon on the river was wonderful. The sun shone. The water was calm. Cows huddled by the waterside in the shade, some braver ones actually on the water's edge.

There were hills and glimpses of mountains in the distance.  Some stretches had red cliffs, which reminded us of one of our favourite anchorages on the Crouch, Cliff Reach. After four hours of this we moored at Macon on the town pontoon.

Some moorings just feel safe and private. This wasn't one of them. There was an area with steps with a lot of people sitting around aimlessly. There was no gate to impede their access to the pontoon.  

We weren't the only boat there thankfully, there were 3 other sailboats with masts stowed on deck plus a big motorboat. One of the sailors, an Italian, asked if I'd keep an eye on his boat while he and his wife went for a walk. Of course I agreed, then when Igor and I went out later he did the same for us. The place has a reputation for opportunistic theft but I'm happy to say none of us was a victim.

There were a lot of nice looking restaurants along the waterside but we had eaten before we left the boat. The rest of the town seemed pretty nondescript, maybe we went to the wrong bit or maybe it was because the shops were shut. I'd been quite excited to visit Macon, having enjoyed the wine from time to time (hic!) and frankly I was a little disappointed.

Igor and I talked about our last few days progress and decided that we should make an effort and get up earlier. If we left at 7.00 am rather than 9.00 am it would be two hours in the relative cool of the morning, and this way we could cover distances more comfortably and stop earlier. This wasn't an option on the canals as the locks don't start operating until 9.00am. I hate getting up early but I hate being hot and sweaty even more. So in the next post I'll tell you if this tactic was successful.

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