Canal Lateral a La Loire, Nevers to Briare.
Friday 22 June. Lay day in Nevers. Shopping, haircuts and sight seeing. Too bad the canal port is so far from the down-town area. Found a radio and TV repair shop with an interesting display of old radios and test equipment.
Saturday 23 June. Heavy rain and strong wind over night. Tried to fill water tanks but water had been turned off. Tried to phone Capitaine but no answer. Ho-hum. Under way at 9:00 and through 2 locks and right turn to Canal Lateral a la Loire at 10:00. Cold fresh westerly wind but rain holding off. Crossed “Pont Canal” and descended double staircase locks at Guetin with strange sloping walls and lots of onlookers. Stopped for lunch at lock 24, Laubray. Under way again at 13:00. Stopped for water at Cours-les –Barres, a small village which had gone to a lot of trouble to make a port for canal boaters. Our intended over night stop at Marseilles-les-Aubigny was clogged up with old peniches so we carried on and moored for the night at La-Chapelle-Montlinard. This was listed as a port with power and water but we found that the boat yard had gone bust in 2004 and we had to join the local club “Les Amis du Port” (€3.00) to get power. No water however. The scene was dominated by huge wheat silos with a peniche waiting to load up. Run for the day, 39.5 km and 10 locks.
After dinner Ann organized a diversion in the form of a yacht race. We each had to make a yacht from a walnut shell with mast and sails made from materials found on the boat. The yachts were then launched on the canal to sail a down-stream, down wind course of about 5 metres. Two contestants sank, one finished the course and the other is still sailing; good fun.
Location for La-Chapalle-Montlinard. N47º10.185’ E002º59.439’ Altitude 161 metres.
Sunday 24 June. Morning calm, cool and overcast. Under way at 8:50 and with Terry on the helm kept a good pace to lock 32, La Grange, for lunch. Conditions warm and sunny(!) so lunched on the after deck. Under way again at 13:00 for the short run to St Thibault, close to the hill town of Sancerre, famous for its wine. Good mooring with a very helpful Capitaine who also provided taxi services, so we took a taxi trip up the hill to Sancerre. Very interesting old town with panoramic views from the tower which is the only one left standing after the religious wars of 1573 when the town was besieged by the Catholic forces of the King. The St Thibault port is on a short branch canal and has a lock connecting it to the Loire, 4 metres below, which is seldom used. It was a calm, clear and warm evening(!) so we had a BBQ dinner on the after deck. Run for the day, 23 km and 4 locks.
Location for St Thibalt. N47º20.414’ E002º51.919’ Altitude 147 metres.
Monday 25 June. Morning rain with fresh NW wind. Under way ay 8:45 and tuned to starboard at end of branch canal to continue northward on the Canal Lateral a la Loire. Stopped for lunch at Belleville-sur-Loire with its huge nuclear power station and cooling towers (but where they’re making effort to attract boats to moor). Under way again at 13:00 in rain as we approached Beaulieu, past the old canal which descended to the Loire for the crossing to Briare and past Chatillon-sur-Loire to the famous Pont Canal at Briare which crosses the Loire at a high level. This was constructed by Gustave Eiffel in 1886 and consists of a steel tank supported by stone piers and is something of a work of art. We needed to go down the branch Canal Henri IV to the old port of Briare to meet the France Fluviale agents and refuel. However we tangled with a tour boat loaded with school children which insisted on passing us and then went down the first lock of the branch canal and back up again, forcing us to wait about 30 minutes. We eventually moored at the old port at 17:15, fuelled up and Pascal did some checks and brought us extra bedding and towels.
Briare was a maze of small canals where the small Loire river boats used to transfer their loads to the larger boats for the trip to Paris. This is now a strange area of overgrown islands and water lilies. The town features a church with mosaic decorations and many relics related to the canals. Run for the day, 42 km and 8 locks.
Location for Briare. N47º38.413’ E002º44.293’ Altitude 130 metres.