Canal du Nivernais

We set off onto the Canal du Nivernais - a trip of 174 km with another 110 locks.

It is an unusual canal as in parts it is the River Yonne to the summit. You travel from the narrow canals to wide river stretches with weirs at each end going into the river, then back onto the canalised sections.Oddly enough there are no indications that you are passing the weir...very closely sometimes, and I imagine from time to time that some rental barges simply slip over...the drop is not big, usually only 2 or 3 feet.

It is one of the prettiest canals going through some lovely countryside. Like the canal de Bourgogne it mainly passes through very small villages, many to our surprise not even having a bread shop.

Our first 4 days saw us mooring at Vincelles, Mailly la Ville, Lucy sur Yonne, and then a two night stop over at the small town of Clamecy - we have to be somewhere with a restaurant to celebrate my birthday dinner!  It is the biggest town on this part of the canal and is very interesting because the canal used to pass through  the side of the town, you can still see rings for boats on the walls, but was diverted many years ago. This canal was created to take firewood from the marwan area into the heart of Paris and there are many displays of the amazing log 'rafts' that plied their way north with just logs roped together with men standing with pushing poles in the middle of the 'raft'.  The town is a great mix of the really old,  see the photos of the medieval quarter, this area is surrounded by homes from the 17th and 18th centuries...we think the 'new town' is over the hill....much to steep to walk.
So for us it is 34 locks and 60km down!

Many of the ports are well set up with electricity and water, making very pleasant moorings. These pictures are of Mailey la Ville, with the statue of the Siren welcoming you to the lock.

On the way we experienced our first lift bridge, which you have to operate yourself. There are small pontoons near the bridge where Laurel hopped off to wind up the bridge.  Getting back on was a bit more of a challenge as the pontoons are very close to the bridge and hard to get to after exiting the bridge. We have another 5 of these to do! Those of you who know about my 'dodgy' knee must imagine the grace and dignity with which I  'leap' onto the shore...but needs must when you are a bargee.

Some of the locks are very prettily decorated - this was one of the nicest.

One of the old houses in Clamecy
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Heading off from Clamecy we had a couple of easy days stopping at Cuzy, and Chitry les Mines.  Chitry is a very small village, but is the base for Ted Johnson, who runs Diesel Marine one of the best boats parts suppliers in France - over the last couple of years we have had lots of parts mailed by Ted.  I took the opportunity to pop in and meet him and be amazed by the range of parts he stocks - mainly for engines and pumps.  I bought 2 new fenders at half the price I paid at St Jean des Losne for identical ones.

This trip saw us do another 5 manual swing and lift bridges - Laurel had her role here..(Laurel speaks]., my knee has its days but what do you expect....no time to worry as I leapt on and off to open the hand-raised bridges on the canal this week...what a stupid idea they are....bridges to nowhere but across the Canal....easy enough to open...all balanced etc but annoying to stop the barge, leap off, open bridge, move barge forward pull in again to get me back on board...I actually tried riding between them on a bike that some friends gave us but just as I took off down a little slope the chain guard cracked (it was plastic, out in all weathers for years] and fell into the spokes. Result as you would expect...the only hurt was to my dignity (Laurel stops]

  These are the last on the trip and we are pleased to see these behind us.   

Our next step is to tackle the staircase locks.  We left early and decided to do the 2 staircases in one day - 28 locks - this is a record for us. We paused at Corbigny after doing the first 12 and here we met up again with a party of  delightful Aussies on a hire boat [you know who you are].  We had been told that the day was one of strike so we were not sure that we could continue...next thing a lockeeper hails us from the quay, he is ready to open the locks and so off we charged.

All started well - Unfortunately we had Mr slow as one of the lockeepers (you have never seen anyone move so slowly) for about 8 locks - Laurel actually resisted shouting at him as we felt any comment would make him even s l o w e r.  Andrew tried to keep him on the move by offering cold water but nothing worked....fortunately he was replaced by a very efficient girl - however the trip took longer than it should.   On the plus side it was a warm sunny day and we saw lots of strange things on the side of the canal

A fav was an old lockeepers house, junque everywhere, and on hearing a barge arrive the current owner wandered out  rather expecting us to recognize him, his tight white jeans and studded white shirt setting of his long, lank grey hair [shudder]...on seeing our blank [as per usual] faces he wandered off again and as we left the lock we saw his canal side DJ barge....2 sad old sofas. a massive sound system and a completely burnt out amplifier...we think he must have been an old rock and roll legend.

  On reaching the summit we barely had time to catch our breath before we moved into the cutting that led to the tunnels. They were very pretty...loads of ferns and trees and ivies and the sound of small birds. The tunnels went from 20 metres to 750 metres and then we were suddenly in the final lock for the day the entry to Baye. With no room avaiable in the marina  we moored on a dam wall at about 6pm - a long tiring day.  

The  weather had taken a turn for the worse and the wall was a bit windswept - however it was pouring with rain in the morning - so we decided to stay for a bit - by lunchtime it still looked unsettled, but the rain had stopped - so we decided to set off. - another 14 locks and 15 kms!  It seems such a waste - we are now going down again after all that effort of going uphill to the summit.  The good thing is that it is much easier going down in locks (this is where the lock is full when you arrive and they then let the water out and you desend to the next level down).

Our best lock of the day was a set of three that had the eclusier finishing outside the world's smallest bar...as we moved through the 3 locks most of the customers wandered to watch the entertainment...us. Being Frenchmen most of them also managed to have a pee into the bushes beside the bar....no lemon trees just lots of dead grass. 

Making 42 locks in 2 days!  It rained on and off, so by the time we arrived at Chattilon en Bazois we were pretty wet, and we were tired!

Fortunately we have electricity so the clothes went in the washing machine and dryer and we felt much better after a few wines and a nice curry and a bit of Tv (including the wonderful new series of New Tricks)! Oddly enough we slept very well! We decided to stay for a couple of nights and visit the local supermarket - some of our fresh food was getting very low.

    

When the weather improved we set off for Pannecot - a very strange little mooring round the back of an island with a weir on the side.  We spent one night there, and then headed off to Cercy La Tour, where we had a very nice mooring on a pontoon opposite a huge weir.

 

Then set off on to our final leg of the Nivernais to Decize. We were keen to get to Decize as we were running very low on fuel, and the book said there was a refueling pontoon there. Unfortunately this had closed a few years ago. However, there was a lovely mooring alongside 2 supermarkets.  So we got a couple of trolleys and wheeled back 150 litres in containers to the barge (I had bought the containers in Toulouse, and refueled the barge this way before).  We breathed a big sigh of relief as we didn't think we had enough fuel to get back to Roanne - when we get there we refill the boat by getting a fuel truck to come to the port - much easier!  We took the opportunity to restock our groceries as well as it was all very easy to wheel the trolleys back to the boat. I know most people go by car to the supermarket - but a barge is better!

As this took us most of the afternoon we spent the night there and headed off the next mooring for the one hour trip to a quay near the centre of Decize. Later in the day a bumper boat arrived with two Aussies from WA - Chris and Judy.  As we have now finished the low bridge area (the picture shows one of the bridges on the exit of a lock)

we are able to put our wheel house back up.  It is a bit heavy for Laurel to lift the roof panels and Chris very kindly gave me a hand.  This of course was an excuse for them to join us for drinks and after a few bottles of wine we headed off for a lovely dinner and of course some more wine!Note here that Chris had 2 glasses of a very potent Port.

  To get to the restaurant we had to cross a bridge with a soaring concrete arch on either side.

Now remember the Port.

On the way back, feeling very content,  Chris decided to do his Sydney Harbour bridge thing and walked over the arch of the bridge! In the dark. Now it was fairly wide, perhaps a metre. BUT. The best thing of all was watching the look on a group of French teenagers faces as Chris calmly strode down the arch and back onto the pavement.....priceless. My only concern is that now the local teens are thinking...hey if a crazy Aussie can do this...what about us.

The Yonne to Auxerre

Leaving Migenne we headed off for a fairly long day down the River Yonne to Auxerre. Some 24 kms and 11 locks later we arrived in Auxerre, to a very tricky and expensive mooring near the centre of town overlooked by the Cathedral.  This was a very tiring day!

It is a beautiful town with a very old centre. We had a good wander round and the found an Indian restaurant for lunch - our first Indian in many months!

At night the town is beautifully lit up at night as you can see in the photo below taken from our mooring.

We have decided to stay for 3 nights to explore the town and restock at the LeClerc supermarket which is just around the corner from the mooring.

Mike and Gill on Carolyn are moored up just downstream from us, so we popped over for drinks and nibbles on our second night.  Mike came over and helped me collapse the wheelhouse as we will have to have it down for the Nivernais.  Lets hope it doesn't rain too much!

Steve and Lyn come to visit - to the end of the canal du Bourgogne

Steve and Lyn were due to arrive on Tuesday, but France decided to have a transport strike! So their first class sleeper from Venice turned into a train to Milan and a bus to Paris (about 10 hours sitting up overnight!)! They arrived in Tonnere on Wednesday morning after a night in an Hotel in Paris.

The weather was not great but we had a nice wander round Tonnerre and Lyn and Steve got the chance to see the famous Fosse Dione...a deep water spring with an old wash house built around it....the spring has been in use since the Romans were here and possibly before that, it was a strange blue/green, nothing to do with algae more to do with depth. Then back to the barge and a lovely dinner on board. [Thanks Steve for the Moet! -he said it was an experiment to see if quality Champagne affected Lyn...as our cabin is at the other end of the barge we cannot report on the outcome...lol]

The next morning we headed off to Saint Florentin which was a full days cruising of 24kms and 11 locks - fortunately the weather had improved and we had a lovely relaxing day on the canal. Lyn earned her stripes as barge 'coffee bitch' and Steve tried the delicate art of guiding [never sailing] the barge along the canal.

The town is small but very pretty and built on a hill - originally it had been fortified and was in a good defensive position.However the town was at the top of a hill, a long walk from the port and a lot of it was closed for annual holidays. We noticed the beginnings on a gypsy camp at the edge of the port, many of these travellers have been forcibly removed from paris in the past weeks and we noted with interest as we moved down the canal dozens of their caravans heading along the roads, we think maybe to the site at St.Florien

We decided to head down to Brienon the next day and spend 2 nights there - the weather turned really sunny and we spent the days relaxing on decks.  Another Aussie barge arrived and they joined us for drinks on the second night, it being a small world conversation revealed that lesley.[our guest] had taught Lynn's nieces music in Canberra many years ago..

We have been having a wine tour on board - and tried some very nice reds that followed the regions of France - some burgundys, bordeaux's - a Sancerre white (delicious) - and of course some Rose in the final afternoon sun with Pate and cheese! We have discovered an universal truth....wine evaporates on barges....it can be the only reason for the line up of empty bottles each morning. Ah its a tough life!

On Sunday morning we did a two hour cruise to Migennes where Lyn and Steve were to catch the train to start their journey home.  We had a lovely mooring on the quay, where a Vide Genier (car boot sale) was being held - no purchases though as mainly junk!  At this point we must mention that Steve, notorious for  his dislike of shopping and 'junque', was sent ashore to 'suss out' moorings on the quay, a matter of some haste as other boats were approaching, and what do we see....Steve stopping to browse at the very first market stall!

 The quay was host to not only the car boot sale but also had stalls selling freshly caught snails, and another stall was in full production making boudin ....blood sausage....from scratch. You could purchase it by the metre or by the kilo....hmmm, no thanks.


By the time Lyn and Steve were ready to go down came the rain, which lasted until their train left and back came the sunshine, The quay then became the rather noisy home to a huge quiz/tombola show, all very loud, then segued into a 'le rock n roll' music concert. The folks from Emanuel, John and Lesley Luxton, fled to our barge for drinks as they were moored right beside the speakers for the concert. The night ended with Andrew and John going out to get pizza for dinner, and coming back to say that they wait would be over an hour...so much for French gourmet food...the whole town ordered pizza last Sunday night. {Worth the wait, really delicious].

We headed off the next morning, and sailed off the Burgundy canal and onto the Yonne river....heading now for our home port, Roanne.