Whoops whoops whoops! Pressed ‘Publish’ by mistake! But now all sorted I think.
I’m taking a break from lots of words for this canal section, but still got lots of pictures to share.
We joined the canal at Digoin, mooring by the viaduct, and with Keeva and Abi still on board.
After breakfast amongst the sunflowers we set off across the viaduct towards Paray-Le-Monial, with the girls adding a touch of glamour to the proceedings!
We passed under lovely bridges and past the (sadly to be missed) Snail Festival preparations.
We also passed the entrance to an old ‘narrow guage’ canal, complete with its own pont levée.
Next stop, Paray-Le-Monial; an absolutely delightful little town, where I discovered for the first time that moorhens have green legs! (Cool for cats or what?)
Out for a drink and a meal. I had my portion of escargots and Charolais beef and ice cream drenched in local alcohol!
The girls left next day and Stu and I continued on a strangely quiet barge towards the summit of the canal. We had a lovely lunch stop in sight of Chateau de Digoine, with a ‘swarm’ of baby cat fish swimming alongside.
I had a delicious lunch à la francàise with things we had bought in the charcuterie, boulangerie and boucherie in Paray – baguette, terrine de Lapin avec noix, oeuf et jambon en gelee, cows cheek salad in vinaigrette and big salad with radishes and dressing.
Tucking in now!
We wiggled round Montet where it seems that the canal was forced to go round an important persons chateau – not always easy – and past a beautiful old pottery furnace.
That night we moored up at Génelard. Just what is that creature attached to the quay??
Génelard had several unexpected treasures. One was this 1950’s fake Art Deco facade to an old factory that used to make mechanical parts for locks etc.
Another was the Trancées of Génelard – a cutting sunk round the town.
We carried on upwards next day, passing a famous ceramic tile factory, now a museum and another abandoned kiln. We were getting used to having traffic lights again too!
For cow lovers like me, some different cows. On the left some spotty cows, a change after all the white Charolais. On the right, one white cow who likes to be different – lying on the sun while the rest of the herd crowd into the shade!
We found one of our (less) picturesque lunch stops by an old cooling tower, but with lovely flowers. As we moved on I was waiting with excitement for Chavannes lavoir, imagining another old stone washing place for villagers, only to find a monster facility to wash coal!
Next set of obstacles were the six bridges of Montceau-Les-Mines – a mixture of types of lift brudge and passerelles – leading us into Montceau lock.
We had decided not to stop in Montceau and continued on to Blanzy – a former coal mining town, though nowt like them that I know.
Next day we made the short trip to the summit at Montchanin, noting a change of traffic light structure on the way (bit nerdy!).
We came through the last lock Ocean side (see explanation later) into the top stretch.
The mooring by the VNF office at Montchanin was quieter than it initially looked, with roads and bridges nearby.
And the town of Montchanin was pleasant, tree lined, with some houses decorated with spare tiles from the ceramics factories (more of these to come!)
After after a night at Montchanin we began our descent. An interesting start with the Captain looking to see if we had missed tripping a sensor on our way into Lock 1 ……. And once in the lock we had a great view down over the first staircase of four.
‘Écluse 1 Med’ had lots of interesting points. Firstly it helped us understand why the locks on the way up were all named ‘Ocean’, being closer to the Atlantic, and on the way down named ‘Med’, being in the direction of the Mediterranean.
Second was the amusing painted lock operation building, with mermaids depicting the two linked rivers, Loire and Saone, flanking the architect of the canal.
And thirdly, a strange boat shaped sluice, or something……. (Since found out that it was a ‘lock boat’ – they would float it across a lock gate, open the scuppers and sink it to stem the flow of the canal while they worked on the gates.)
As we went into the deeper locks we began to see real floating bollards to descend with; what a treat. We LOVE floating bollards.
As we reached les 7 Écluses we found more houses and shops with the colourful Borgogne tiles.
Next to Lock 6 Med we went by another set of old canal and locks, the water cover in green algae. Next to it was an interesting decorated building …….
Moving on down we came to what is now one of our favourite stopovers – St Julien-sur- Dheume, a quiet, peaceful village. Lovely lovely.
After St Julien there is a section where the canal and several locks have been moved. We could still see one wall of one of the original locks.
Along the way on this canal were another set of atmospheric abandoned lock houses.
So with With another 46kms still to Chalon we decided to hit another 20 Kms from St Julien to Cheilly-les-Maranges. This turned out to be a good move as we were able to buy some good local wine at Chailly!
The start of the next day’s journey gave good scenic views, plus a wacky garden.
We passed a lovely old steam boat (tug) which deserved a photo.
Then into Chagny over a viaduct above a railway for a change. We found baguette for lunch, and chicken quiche, before leaving Chagny through a narrow channel!
We went down through some lovely locks, both abandoned and occupied, on our way to Fragnes – and often the ‘garden’ within the lock was just as stunning.
Then at the last lock before Fragnes we thought ‘where is the green light…..?’
Aaah, there it is, amongst the Foliage!
And finally, moored up at Fragny, just outside Chalon!
The cruise down to Chalon-sur-Sâone was a short one and we knew we would be whizzing straight past on a downstream current so we visited Chalon by bus! The old town near the river is a fascinating place to walk around.
Now for our river trip on the Sâone and Rhone!
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