Revisiting Canal du Centre 7 Years On

The Mediterranean side

June 9th – 2023

 We left La Saône and came onto the Canal du Centre on a beautiful day. It’s quite a rise from the river water level to that of the canal, but the deep lock is very gentle with its rising bollards, and we ascended happily.

This canal, like many others, has a name for each side of the summit. The canal links the Loire, which empties into the Atlantic Ocean, to the Saône, which, via the Rhône, empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Thus the Saône side is known as the Mediterranean side and the Loire side as the Ocean side.

We had booked a mooring for two nights at Fragnes, not far from the Saône junction; our space was occupied by a hotel barge until 1 pm that day so we looked for somewhere to moor up, have lunch, and wait. Under this bridge was our only option!

Not our most picturesque lunch spot.

Ahead of us were a couple of good right-hand bends and so we used the VNF app (Navi) to show us the progress of the hotel barge so that we could move very slowly and wait to pass it in a straight stretch.

Soon after that we were moored up at Fragnes and spent a pleasant afternoon watching some rainclouds approach and then cool us down in the evening.

Next day was Saturday, the one day of the week that the local farm shop is open, so we walked through the little park adjacent to the canal and bought ourselves some fresh goats cheese, courgettes and asparagus. 

Having been woken by some nice church bells, and had time for a quick visit to the boulangerie, we set off on the Sunday morning, into the first lock of the day – the first of 11 ‘montant’ (going up).

Once in the lock all seemed well, until, having pulled the requisite blue cord, nothing happened. In fact, multiple pulls of the blue cord had no effect. I climbed up the ladder and looked for the usual signs and found three phone numbers to try; the final one worked.

Very soon our hero of the hour arrived in his VNF van, sorted the problem, and soon we were on our way again.

The scenery was immediately lovely – village churches tucked away amongst trees, some very colourful lock gardens, and gentle hills of crops soon to be harvested.

We started to see interesting metal work at some of the locks, with cut out designs epicting some canal scenes.

Most of the locks on the Canal du Centre close for lunch – that is to say they are switched off for an hour so that if you get into difficulties you won’t disturb an éclusier from his or her lunch. We were arriving at a lock around the noon closure time, and its also our lunch time, so seeing an easy place to moor in front of a lock we stopped.

The lock was ready for us to go up, gates open. Seeing a boat above the lock waiting to come down and wondering what we were doing Captain Stu walked up to explain. It was a holiday boat and the occupants had not appreciated the 1200-1300 closure.

It was a delightful evening out in the countryside. The skies were ever changing, but we did not hget too wet and enjoyed a gentle sunset.

MONDAY

then set off past the déversoir (spillway) where excess canal water falls away.

There were several interesting navigational challenges for the Captain today. The long straight run into Chagny is a popular place for live-abaord barges, making then navigable channel narrower than normal. The friendly Irish crew of a barge at the other end waited for us to come through.

Then a shallow section of the canal was marked off my yellow buoys – interesting because normally buoys are red or green, to be left to port or starboard. Quick decisoins need to be made about yellow ones!

When we reached Santenay, our next chosen stopover, we understood the comment we had read about hotel barges squeezing past. Actually there is plenty of room and the Captains of these craft are good helmsmen and women. Amaryllis, who we had last seen at Sant Usage before we set off, cruised smoothly past, with a friendly greeting from the crew.

While our Captain dealt with that and a number of narrow bridges, I sat back and enjoyed the view of the valley! The scenery along here is just beautiful and well worth the trip.

TUESDAY 

Along this part of the canal are many small villages, often with a Saint’s name, and a reminder that we are following the path of the river Dheune.

We were headed for Saint-Bérain-sur Dheune and passed through good farmland on the way; the sun was shining and hay had already been made!

We knew that there was no longer a boulangerie at Saint Bérain, so looking for bread along the way was a necessity (although we always have a pack of wraps on board for emergency lunches).

Google maps helpfully located a boulangerie near the bridge in Saint-Léger-sur Dheune, and according to the DBA Waterways Guide there were quite a few mooring opportunities in town. All are full when we arrived! So we took a chance and tied up to the fence posts on the opposite bank while I went to the wonderfully cool interior of the boulangerie; lunch was secured.

The mooring just outside Saint-Berhain-sur-Dheune had many trees around it, just right for a chair in the shade during the hot afternoon.

Back on board the back deck was pleasantly in the shade and was the perfect place for an al fresco supper of risotto (here I go trying for rhymes again!)

WEDNESDAY 

It is always somewhat amusant when we set off early (for us) to travel while it’s cooler, and then the first lock doesn’t work!

The lock was ready for us; Stu took Calliope in gently and we soon had ropes round bollards. The sign says ’Start’, so we pull the rope; nothing happens. So my ankle is taken up the rusty ladder to find the number and make a call to the VNF. 😁

And as I’m speaking to the VNF lady the VNF van arrives! How’s that for response time? Soon we were through and on our way once more.

It was a nice blue skies cruise. Some locks had meadow-like untended gardens; some locks had waterfalls to give cooling spray; everywhere, looking back or looking forwards, was green rolling countryside. Sorry if I am sounding too waffly; it simply was one of those days.

Towards the end of the morning we reached the first two of the 5m+ locks that would take us up to the summit. Thank goodness for the rising bollards, spaced quite well for us, although a bit of clever manoeuvring was required so that we could pull the good old blue cord.

Before too long we had been through 9 locks, been raised 35m up, and all in only 9 kms . At a total of 3 hours it was a pleasant mornings voyage for us. 😊

The second of the big locks took us to Saint-Julien-sur-Dheune, our stopover for the night. We stayed here 7 years ago, when travelling in the opposite direction, and remembered it as the quiet village mooring that it still was.

We took our usual short walk to get to know our surroundings, first to view the river Dheune, very small up here, not far from its source.

The village is really not much more than a hamlet, but has an attractive little church, Saint Julien of course. We could see it from the boat rising up above the houses. There was also the tiniest Marie (town hall) we had ever seen.

Walking over the bridge on our way back we got a different perspective on our mooring.

THURSDAY 

It was not quite so quiet in the morning.

Today was the day we would reach the summit! Not quite Everest! But an achievement of sorts. Only 8 locks to go when we set off that morning. We shouldn’t have been so smug!

The first lock, another of the deep ones for this canal, would of course have the usual two floating/ rising bollards – except it didn’t! One was missing. 

The photos show the situation once we were at the top of the lock; I couldn’t take photos when we were 5m down and sorting out how to deal with it (one rope round the front existing bollard, and Stewart driving Calliope against it.)

We managed that adventure, but virtually all the locks required my puny arms to pull the cord that would operate the lock – positioned almost out of reach at the front of the lock behind a ladder, and slippery with slime! No worries; there is always a way.

So amongst our fun we had a few minor difficulties, but we did it. And on the way up began to see vestiges of some of the the old faience tile-faced bricks for which the region was famous.

So with several more or the deep locks behind us, now all with floating bollards present and correct, we were nearing the top.

And here we are at the top, with this wonderful mural painted onto the redundant lock keeper’s tower. At the top the two gentle mermaids (do canals have mermaids?) tell us which side goes towards the Saône and Mediterranean, and which towards the Loire and the Ocean.

The mooring, outside a VNF depot, may not be the most scenic we have stayed at, but it is safe, easy to moor, and it is at the top!

The summit celebration – wine, pizza and salad next to an étang. It might seem I am over-egging it, but it was a cause for celebration that my recently broken ankle had stood up to everything required of it on the boat, and Captain could once more have confidence in the fitness of his crew.

A short walk back to Calliope, and we settled down for the night, knowing that it was all downhill from now on, as will be related in the next blog post.