Free at last

We’re free at last!

The word came around at 8.45 that the lock was going to open at 9.00. At 9.00, I phoned VNF and they confirmed that the Loire was open for navigation. So 10 days after we had intended to we cast off and did the 500 yards down to the lock following some Austrians on a hire boat. The lock keeper was busy doing his garden and said it was closed but we got him to go into his house and phone VNF and sure enough, 5 minutes later and the lock was open.

The Loire had dropped about 2 feet from flood level but was still running at 3 knots against us. Right by the lock there is a nasty eddy which pushed our bow around. I over compensated and ended up in a position where I couldn’t line up properly and decided to abort and go around again. This time I went in closer to the bank and we got in fine.
Frank and John who we have shared a jar and a yarn or two with over the preceding days had kindly come over and took our ropes in both the Loir lock and the one onto the Canal Lateral du Loire (PK68). Both locks are automatic and very gentle – apparently so the hire-boat novices get a gentle introduction.
By 10.30 we were out of the second lock and on our way. We decided to put on as many miles as possible and batted on through Motte (PK61) and had lunch waiting for l’Huilerie. At 1.00 we were off again sailing in bright overcast. The canal (at least this part) is wider and much more uniform than the Nivernais. Attractive enough in a gentle rural sort of way but it certainly does lack the beauty and interest of the smaller canal. The locks are manual and very similar to the Nivernais although I think they are a bit bigger. They have a different system of Paddles than the Nivernais and the lock keepers don’t like you touching them. They have a system of ratchets that look very easy to trap a finger in.
We met few boats and just one commercial: The Liberty

By 4.00 it was raining and it kept it up on and off until we moored before lock Thiel (PK21) at 7.10. There are no facilities so we moored using our trusty Ronde Anchors. These are wonderful devices that are used extensively in the Norfolk Broads. If you are following in our footsteps, you could do a lot worse than ordering a pair from Norfolk Marine in Wroxham.

On the way up we kept our spirits up by watching lots of Black Kites and an even larger number of Herons.


Each Heron seems to have its own strip of canal that it's careful not to go outside. It also has an absolutely fixed 'danger distance'. They completely ignore the boat until its an exact distance away (about 30 Meters). It then looks up in horror at this hugething that is passing it and takes of in a hurry. More often than not, it flys 100 Meters down ints territory, lands, stalks up to the bank and resumes fishing - only to repeat the whole process when we catch it up within the critical distance. This can go on 3 or 4 times till it reaches the end of its strip and doubles back. Talk about bird-brained!


Altogether we covered 51Km today which is a record for us. And we've finally left Bourgoyne ant entered Auvergne! Altogether a red letter day which we celebrated in traditional style with two large steaks and a bottle of Chamagne (we Bailly which really is just as good).

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.

Up the Canal du 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.
So far (Clamecy), 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). The locks are very small (much less than the Fresinet guage) which makes it advisable to enter and exit slowly - but that has the huge advantage that they fill and empty very quickly. They are all manually operated and (so far) have all had ladders that are easy to get up.

to be continued....

Lindsay's take 2

Sun 25ht May
Arrived in Auxerre around midday and glory be facilities and best of all Internet !
As the weather was still inclement, I spent the afternoon catching up on my emails and drying the boat out.
Auxerre looks a very interesting place, very old with three magnificent churches - one of which was in fact a cathedral.
Both of us were knackered so decided to do sightseeing tomorrow. We met a lovely couple Charles and Joyce both in their 70 + who lived in Paris on their barge for the past 10 years and ventured out to the canals during the summer months. They kindly invited us for evening drinks on their boat so a pleasant evening was spent.

Mon 26th May
Discovered it was a GB bank holiday when Dave was puzzled that nobody was in at work, It doesn’t take long to forget such things!
As the rain had let up mid - morning we risked it and walked into Auxerre town visited the three churches, lots of towering ceilings and beautiful stain glass windows in that wonderful blue that one doesn’t seem to see in English churches. Auxerre is a town within a town with the old part full of original 16 C buildings still used and winding cobbled streets absolutely wonderful, gave one very much a sense of history.
As I had discovered a hypermarket on my travels to find bread we wanted to stock up as we had heard that on the Nivernais canal there weren’t a lot of shops catering for the boat traffic and having been caught out previously we wanted to make sure. Dave was still looking for a child's fishing rod to place at the bow as an early warning for low bridges and had been informed of a fishing shop the other side of town. We went back to the boat so he could dig out his bike only to come across a hired pleasure motor boat trying to maneuver into the place next to us. It was rather obvious that they had little experience of handling such a craft and backed into poor old Rosa leaving a rather nasty scrape across her prow. The boaters were some Aussie old age pensioners on a 2 month trip incorporating France, England and Ireland, damage was looked at and the insurance forms produced, not a good start to our venture! Dave was remarkably calm about the whole thing but I was cross that no one had given these poor souls any instruction on how to operate their craft, They plan to head in the same direction as us tomorrow but I think we will give them a wide berth!
After all that excitement we finally went off shopping a low and behold, the hypermarket had a fishing rod and more importantly cheap, Dave was a happy man!!
Back to the boat loaded up and quick clear up as Charles and Joyce were joining us on a return visit. Nice evening

Tues 27th May
Still raining !!! we had planned to visit open market early then stiff upper lip wrap up in waterproofs, brave the weather and make our way up river, after looking at the rain still throwing down our stiff upper lip disappeared and having reviewed the situation make the decision to wait until after lunch, Used the capetainaire’s facilities and caught up with the washing at vast expense, waited until 14.00 to collect my stuff from the dryer only to discover that the power had been switched off while the staff had gone to lunch- washing still wet, temper aroused! They at least gave me my money back but even now we have various items of clothing draped over most of the boat.
Braved the weather at last and moved off down the canal. The locks here are manual and it is expected that one helps. My nightmare comes true but actually it isn’t too bad, the lockeeper winds with a handle one side of the lock and one of us does the other. We went through several locks with a pleasure boat full of Swiss and after several episodes of us jumping out and helping and they just stood and watched we explained the error of their ways. They were under the impression it was the lockeepers job to do it “oh no we said, it is yours to help” we also noticed that not once did they say thank you to the lockeeper !
After a while the rain went and the sun came out and we could appreciate the canal itself quite narrow in places, very low bridges and no room for error in the locks.
We looked around for a mooring spot and came across Bailley, they produce some form of local champagne here part of the process is to keep them in caves so as it is very close to the river we plan to visit the site tomorrow

Auxerre & start of Nivernais

We stopped at the quay managed by Paul of Aquarelle - A very efficient operation with good moorings, water, electricity, rubbish, showers, toilets & washing machine. Mooring is pretty reasonable at €11 for a 10-12Mboat. Other charges though are not cheap –electricity is €5 per night and the (small) washing machine and dryer are €6 each! Almost next to the quay is a huge Leclerc Hypermarket.
Be careful if you go there, the electricity is configured so that live and neutral are reversed. This mostly presents no problem but if you had a fault on your boat, it could make things much worse by keeping circuits live even when switched off or with a fuse/breaker blown. It could also cause a neutral-earth short on your boat to turn from a benign and probably unrecognised problem into a potential fire.
We used a crossover cable to correct the fault. Most people won’t even know it was there. I told Paul – who seems like a nice chap - about this and was surprised that his attitude was “It’s not my problem. It’s been like this for 30 years and I’m not going to fix it now”.
All that said, it is still an excellent place. Paul even has a selection of chandlery and was able to provide me with a spare impeller for my engine to replace the one we used in Paris.


Auxerre is an absolute gem. It’s a medieval walled city on a hill. Much of the part within the walls is unspoilt with medieval timbered buildings mixed beautifully with 18th century and modern buildings.
It has excellent shopping, fascinating squares and cafes, a superb cathedral


with a fantastic fully 3D sculptured doorway to take your breath away. Inside is very impressive – although it is still beaten in my view by the amazing Cathedral at Sens.

The church of St Eusébe is also well worth a visit. It is pure-white, with sparse but tasteful decoration absolutely beautiful! The stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel are very strange – I suspect it’s something Knights Templar /Corelyngian ish. Whatever it is L & I couldn’t figure most of it out. We didn’t go into the third great church – but others told me it is well worth a visit too.
We got back and were talking to Paul’s wife when I suddenly saw a large motor cruiser backing into Rosa. I rushed over and jumped aboard but they seem to have sorted it out without damage. They went round for a second try and this time screwed it up completely, ending up sideways to the river with their stern pinned against my bow by the current and a crew member clinging like grim death onto his stern line. I yelled at him to go forward which he did at full throttle and full wheel which hugely increased the pressure on poor Rosa. She ended up with several scrapes on the bow. The Aussies on board were apologetic but the poor guys had never been on a boat before and they were cast adrift on this huge machine by the hire company with essentially no training! I’ve put in an insurance claim. Unfortunately, Paul has prevented his wife as being a witness for me (even though she saw everything) as he doesn’t want to get involved.
You can understand that he probably gets a lot of business from these hire companies so he doesn’t want to get on the wrong side of them. Nevertheless it confirms again that while his services are excellent and his reputation for doing what he says is well deserved, if any dispute or issue might impinge on his interests he will have no hesitation, or compunction about putting his own interests before yours.


A short trip to the Hypermarket found us a cheap fishing rod to mount on the bow to act as a tell-tale with low bridges – an idea I got from Mike at Moret. Works beautifully and hugely reduces the stress of low bridges!
We had planned to go to the market in Auxerre on Tuesday morning early and then set off up the Nivernais. When the day came, it was pouring with rain and hammered solidly until 12.00. It was then very wet in bursts until 1600. Rather than getting soaked, I sat and worked and L went to the Hypermarket and also did the washing.
We finally got away at 1550 and went with some trepidation into the first lock on the Canal du Nivernais which is not only tiny but also completely manual. In the event it was surprisingly easy. It took us four locks get our technique down pat but it now feels like a smooth operation with little stress.
Rom, if you are reading this, you were dead right. It’s essential to snub the bitter end of the mooring lines on a cleat or winch. Otherwise you end up hanging on for grim death and risking the rope being dragged bodily out of your hands (or following it, still attached, into the water).
We’ve moored up underneath the caves at Bailly and are looking forward to seeing the caves and buying some bottles of the local sparkling wine that is made and stored in them.