Down to Decize

The locks in the downhill (southward) direction are a little different from the uphill ones. They are not as long which keeps the hotel boats away and many of them have vicious sills near to the up-stream gates. They can’t be seen when you enter from upstream – so we have learned to make sure we moor well into the lock. Many of them are quite high – well over 3m – and have no ladders so getting onto the boat after helping the lock keeper open the gates is very difficult. Theoretically it is possible to get on from the stone platform just outside the gate but in reality it is difficult to manoeuvre the boat to pick up there and with our high topsides it is also difficult to get on. It is made even worse in the rain as the steps and platform become very slippery. The first time L tried this, I couldn’t get her back and she had to walk nearly 2Km downstream before I could find a suitable spot to come in to her bank! We’ve stopped doing that it of helping now unless there is a ladder in the lock or it is less than 2m high.

After the night at the summit, we wanted to try to get down the other side and find somewhere to go out for a meal. There are several locks in close succession, the most notable being a triple lock, basin and double lock sequence at Chavance. It was here that we met our second less-than-helpful lock keeper.


He seemed to go out of his way to operate his set of locks in the least efficient way possible. First he locked us down into the mid-way basin. Then he left us floating there while he reset all of the upper locks and let another boat down to join us in the basin. Then, despite the fact that the lower locks were already set for downward traffic, he left us both floating in the basin and emptied them. He then locked a boat that had been waiting down below for over an hour up into the basin. It was only then, just before he went off for lunch that he finally locked us down. Altogether it took us two and a half hours to get through. There was a small cafe beside the middle basin and we wondered if it was run by his brother so that he sees it as his task to make sure there as many boats as possible nearby for lunch!

We refused to play ball, went on down to Marré and had lunch while waiting for the lock to open. We noticed a couple having a picnic outside their car in the pouring rain. Later we realised that it was the lock keeper and her friend. It just goes to show the sheer dedication that the French have to their lunch!
The morning had been nice, but the weather was rapidly turning colder and looking like rain so we decided on a short hop down to Chatillon-en-Bazois. We went on without further incident but getting wetter at each lock.


Chatillon has a very impressive chateau, a few shops, a hotel and a pizzeria. It also has a hire-boat base run by a great chap called Chris. He welcomed us, gave us a pontoon and hooked us up to water and electricity. He let L use his own washing machine for a modest fee.
He recommended a restaurant run by his mate Réné who he could arrange to pick us up and return us. In the event, this sadly was not to be as the restaurant was closed in the evening until the holiday season. Not daunted he recommended the Pizzarea rather than teh hotel which he feels is a rip-off. We took his advice and were very glad we did. It is far more than a Pizza Joint. A huge space with lots of tables done out nicely and full of locals. The menu is reasonably extensive with French as well as Italian cuisine. The wine was good, the meal was excellent, the waitress was friendly and helpful and the bill was reasonable. What more can you ask?
Thursday was raining but we had to get to a train station by Friday Lunch for Richard and Janet to get away to catch their ferry. We discovered that there is no station at Paneçot so we had to go all the way to Cercy-la-Tour - a distance of 35Km and 15 locks. Quite a challenge particularly as we had hung around till 10.30 before deciding to brave the rain!
Realistically, we didn’t expect to make it and we didn’t quite. We ended up cold wet and miserable at Lock Chaumigny moored to the bank amid piles of dog shit. It rained all night and was still raining next morning. I cycled the 4Km into Cercy, found out the train and bus options and cycled back. If we cracked on, we had a good chance of making Decize by lunch time where train options were simpler but we could get to Cercy by 10.00 with little risk. As there are always risks of unexpected holdups on the canals so we went for the short option and sat around till we saw Richard and Janet of at 13.00. And it was still raining!
That’s when we heard that the Loire is too high to cross at Dicize so we are well and truly stuck in the Nivernais until it hopefully re-opens on Monday. Well it poured all Friday and all Saturday and now we hear that it will probably be another week before we can get across and it could be longer!

We waited at Cercy which is a nice little place with a bar, Boulangerie, General shop and pharmacy all by the excellent pontoon moorings – one which are free water and electricity. There are plenty of other shops further into town and some nice walks up to the castle and church and up the rivers. By Sunday (slightly better weather) though, we had exhausted its charms. Monday has dawned clear and bright so we are off to see if there is room and reasonable moorings down at Decize. We can always come back later if we don’t like it....
It was an uneventful trip down and only took 3 hours. There isn’t much room but we’ve moored up to a barge on the town quay where there’s water and electricity. It’s a pleasant place with a Lidle, a Hypermarche and the railway station all in very easy reach.


I cycled into Decize this morning. Most shops are shut because its Monday but it’s a pretty little town fairly similar in size and flavour to Clamecy. We’ll go and explore properly tomorrow. I went over to the Loire lock and the river really is impressively wild. It’s a huge brown torrent running at over 6 Knots and appears to be over 150cm higher than normal. L and I walked down to the barrage below the town this evening and it really is impressive. They lock keeper says that it should be clear on Wednesday but I have to say it looks very unlikely.

On top of the Nivernais

The high part of the Nivernais above Chitry les Mines is both beautiful and impressive. There is a staircase of 16 locks that is run very efficiently in sections of 3 or 4 locks. There are several places to stop between locks although stopping in general is prohibited. There are no real facilities at any of them though. We got through all 16 in one session from 9.00 and lunch with four people on board – one of which helped the lock keepers. It wasn’t even particularly hard work.
At the top lock, you ask the keeper for permission to enter the top section. This is alternate one-way so the keepers at each end coordinate to make sure that nobody meets in the middle. They operate a green/red light so you wait for the green. We didn’t have to wait at all.



Once on the top section you go around a couple of bends and then enter a narrow and increasingly deep cut. The banks are very close and very roughly cut out of the rock leaving a very dangerous looking shoreline. It is all very quiet and almost mysterious shrouded in trees with hanging vines. Then you come to the first (and shortest) tunnel. It is straight but completely un-lit so you can see the end all the time but are completely unable to see the sides next to you. Without torches continuously shone on the banks beside me, I would have been completely unable to steer a good course and would have hit the banks a great deal probably doing a lot of damage to the hull. As it was we negotiated the first one without incident. It was only 250m long but seemed much longer particularly as I felt the need to run at tick-over speed (about 4Kph). The second and slightly longer one was similar and also passed witout incident.
The longest tunnel is just short of a kilometre and fortunately is straight like the others. However the end is so far away that it provides no useful guidance for steering at all. I found it really difficult to keep a straight line and dropped the speed even further. We didn’t touch but got very close several times. Without the torches, we would have had to tow the boat on ropes from the towpath. That could itself have ended in disaster as the tunnel starts with tow paths on both sides but half way through, the right hand one just stops! As you get beyond the half-way mark, there are several vertical shafts. All of them were pouring water down so we would have got drenched if we hadn’t had our wet weather gear on as it had been raining earlier outside.

We finally emerged into the light to find huge lakes which feed the canal on the right. After the entrance to the lake, there is a long causeway separating the canal from the open water. This is an excellent mooring spot although there are no facilities at all. We read from the Navicarte that there are moorings and facilities below the first lock on the downward section so we went through. Big mistake! The banks are all sloping and mostly concrete with no bollards of any description. The only facility is a small cafe which only opens at lunch time! No water, no bread, no nothing.
We spent an uncomfortable night on mooring spikes with our stern propped out by a bit of wood which bumped and ground against the concrete all night.

Up The Nivernais

The Canal Du Nivernais is widely regarded as the most beautiful as well as most challenging of the routes from Paris to the Med. It starts from Auxerre which is the highest point on the ‘free’ river Yonne, crosses the watershed into the Loire Basin at Bray and eventually joins the Canal Lateral Du Loire at Decize.
I have to say that it is truly beautiful – rural, green and peaceful with no commercial traffic. At least so far, we have not seen a great deal to challenge us other than the shallow draft of 1.2M (which isn’t a problem for us at 0.72M) and the low bridges (lowest 2.71M) which would have been a problem if we hadn’t arranged for the Gantry to be hinged). We measured depth ofonly 1M in one section which looked as if it had leaked overnight but presumably the lock keepers filled it later on.


The locks are very small (much less than the Fresinet guage) which makes it advisable to enter and exit slowly - but the small size has the huge advantage that they fill and empty very quickly. They are almost all manually operated and mostly have had ladders that are easy to get up. You never know which side the ladder will be and a few have ladders right up by the up-stream gate so you have to go to the end, drop crew, then reverse back to the downstream end.
Virtually all of the lock keepers have been really nice and helpful. Just one ageing hippy seemed to think it was a great idea to open both paddles full on at the same time and throw us about a bit.
Occasionally we met large hotel barges. They have right of way because they are carrying passengers and also because they are huge and unwieldy. In the event they have been incredibly helpful.

We met Belle Epoque in a wild place by a lock in the middle of nowhere. With our twin sticky-out rudders, I am more than a little chary of mooring close to rock or sloping banks. They allowed us to tie our stern to them and put a line ashore from our bow so we had a safe and comfortable night.
We first saw Art Du Vivre as a huge pair of anchors over the top of a lock gate. We kept well back and well to the side under some trees. As she came through, the captain was concerned that as a sailing boat we were too far in and, giving us a wide berth, called to warn us. He didn’t know about our lifting keel though and we were fine.

There is a river crossing at Basseville. At this point, the canal and the River Yonne cross at the same level so if the River is in flood, you can’t get across. We heard that it had been closed for a couple of days as we approached it. In the event, it was open when we got there. It was very confusing indeed so I’m glad the river was calm. Going upstream, we came through an open ‘stop gate’ then entered a section of ‘left hand navigation’ then hit the crossing. A big weir was to our right, a channel entered from the left under a low bridge and a very decrepit lock was closed opposite. We hung around for a bit but no lock keeper appeared. Looking more closely at the bridge it had two spans – the right hand one had a no-entry sign on it but the left did not. The Navicarte said there was a longish channel up to the lock so I though that (since we were doing left side navigation) maybe we were supposed to go through the left span. I nosed up to it but it was too low. I was just going back to moor and think about lowering our superstructure some more when the lock keeper turned up. It WAS the lock! I had been about to go up the river which would probably have led to disaster as it is generally full of trees and rocks.

There are several manual lifting bridges on the Canal and the Navicarte typically makes no mention of how to deal with them! We came to our first one just below Clamecy. At first we floated around a bit and tooted our horn but nothing happened. There were no obvious notices or instructions. I was just about to try to put L off on the bank for a closer look when a kind passing cyclist went over, puzzled it out and then lifted and closed the bridge for us. At the next one, we did find a notice, visible only from the land, saying that the bridge was to be operated by VNF service personnel and users. We stopped and lifted the other ones we came to. It’s heavy work though and was a bit much for L so she had to drop me, take the boat through the narrow space on her own then pick me up again. All went well in the end but she was more than a little bit twitchy.



Clamecy is lovely. It is a very pretty and active town with loads of shops and facilities. It has an impressive church with a very strange little statue of a bloke showing off his wounded leg. It also has lots of mediaeval back streets and houses. Well worth a visit. It even has a Cafe with internet facilities called “Mon Oncle Benjamin” right in the middle of the town opposite the tourist office. They have a computer and also an excellent wifi connection and they don’t even charge!
We have been amazed by the almost complete lack of facilities. The Navicarte shows lots of places with water, showers, toilets, electricity, bread, produce, restaurants, fuel, etc. Almost all of it is a complete lie. It might reflect the situation 10 years ago – but it certainly doesn’t now. The only place on the upwards leg that was even close was Clamecy which has everything except fuel and all for €5.00. Water was available free at Cravant.
At Chitry Le Mines, there is a small but friendly frittery. They have toilets, showers, water and electricity although only when they are there which is fine in the evening but they don’t roll up till about 11.00 in the morning so crossing legs really isn’t an option. They are paranoid about people washing boats with their expensive metered water so it is also all locked up so fill up in the evening if you want an early start. There is no bread so a 2K uphill cycle ride to Corbigny is needed.
At Bréves, we came across an interesting problem in the locks for the first time. Near the downstream gate there is a large and apparently funcionless cutaway in the concrete sides – on both banks. It makes fendering difficult for a yacht-shaped hull although straight sided barges and canal boats have no real problem. We couldn’t figure out what they were for until Richard worked it out – the locks have been extended in the past and they are where the gates used to be.
We’re now sitting at the bottom of the staircase of 16 locks that leads to the tunnels at the summit. Looks like it could be a challenge.