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| Old paddle drums now used as planters |
Cooler overnight but clear blue skies to start then a few white clouds made it sunny and very much warmer. Mike moved the car on to the car park by the church and picked up a loaf from the depot de pain at La Terrasse bar. We waited to see who would move at nine. The two small French boats, a yacht and a cruiser who were travelling together, went into the lock when the gates opened at nine. Mike walked up to speak to the keeper. He said we could lock with the two little boats or wait an hour. Mike came back and we untied to join the two little boats in the deep lock, 26 Montbouy (5.30m). The resident lock keeper was a man in his fifties. This single deep lock replaced two shallower ones, the stonework of the top lock remains by the church, the lower one was obliterated by the building of the new chamber.
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| Chatillon lock, old line of canal to left between trees |
The small cruiser in front of us had a very badly smoking engine so I closed the front doors to stop it setting the smoke alarms off. The old paddle drums from the old locks were being used on the lockside as flower planters. The two boats in front were going to Rogny for the firework display. Told them that we’d been told that there were 30,000 people at the event last year. Not by boat – by car and campervan! Posters said it was the 44th year. 2.3 kms to the next. When we got into lock 25 L’Epinoy (4.70m) we had to wait a short while for the keeper asked to open the gates, there was nothing coming down. When we were in the chamber Mike the guy in front if he would turn his engine off, which he did, but wasn’t happy to do so as he said he couldn’t manoeuvre if he needed to. (Where’s he going to go! We were packed in like sardines) The keeper, a bloke in his sixties with a beard, filled the deep lock slowly. 3.6 kms through Châtillon-Coligny to the next lock. We passed a Dutch Linssen cruiser in the first (wide) bridge on a bend, bags of room but he didn’t look happy about it and just about managed a wave. (A sign we’re getting more holiday makers – short tempers and scowling faces!) The port in Châtillon-Coligny was full except for a couple of short spaces. Said hello to the British couple on Cosi as we went by. Lock 24 Châtillon (3.20m) was filling with a hireboat (must have just left the moorings) and the little yacht in it. The small cruiser was waiting below, so there were just the two of us to go up the shallower locks together. I made a cuppa while the keeper turned the lock round. I got off with our centre rope on the approaches of all the next six shallower locks so I could drop the rope down to Mike and help the keepers with the lock gates. Must have been a trainee working the lock because he stopped the cruiser short and then he had to move up so we could get in the chamber behind him and he left them with both ropes on one bollard. The resident keeper came across from his house and moved their bow line on to a bollard further forward, then went back in his house.
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| Swing bridge across the old canal at Chatillon |
800m to lock 23 Gazon (3.20m) which was worked for us by a man in his thirties. 400m to the next, lock 22 Briquemault (3.20m) which still had an old wooden decked liftbridge at the tail end. The keeper was on the left taking ropes from the cruiser, so we did a quick change of sides with the fenders and I got off on the left with the rope and wound a bottom end gate shut. When the lock filled the skipper off the little smoky cruiser wound a top end gate open (don’t think he had realised that you could get off and help the keepers!) Arranged to go up the final three at 1.00 o’clock as we set off on the 2.7 kms pound. We moored behind the cruiser and yacht at 12.40 p.m. Mike went off with the camera to take photos of the old four-rise staircase called La Madeleine or Moulin Brûlé while I made sandwiches for lunch.
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| Keeper at Gazon |
The crews of the two small French boats were having lunch seated at a picnic table in the shade under a big tree. The hire boat that had come up with the little yacht was moored on the far side. The hireboat skipper said he would set off at one. Mike returned at five to one just in time to set off, so he took his sandwiches with him and I walked up with my rope to give the keeper a hand. I asked the crews of the cruiser and yacht when they were following, they said at two, I wished them bonne appetit and see them later. No movements on the hireboat so we went up the final three on our own. Lock 21 Moulin Brûlé (3.40m) was ready for us and I gave the keeper a hand with the bottom end gate. The old wooden decked bridge below the lock was a tilting bridge which could be lifted at one end to pass towropes.
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| The old 17c four-rise staircase, La Madeleine or Moulin Brule. |
Mike asked if the keeper did all three locks, no, his and the next and there is another keeper at the top who will do the two for downhill boats. Meanwhile his trainee helped with the gates. 500m to lock 20 Picardie (3.20m) and the resident keeper from 21 went up in his van to work the lock. The keeper from the top lock, a thirty-something blond, was there on his moped to help work the lock. Another 500m to lock 19 Dammarie (3.50m) and the keeper on a moped worked it for us. We could see Charley tied up above the lock and told the keeper we would probably be staying there for the weekend to watch the F1 racing. It was 2.00 p.m. Charley had tied up at midday and was about to set off to Rogny for the fireworks.
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| Tilting bridge, operated by lever. Moulin Brule |
We had a short chat and they said they would go and see what the situation was at Rogny but if they didn’t like it they might be back (they didn’t like it - there were people everywhere, so they carried on up the locks to the summit). Finished tying up and gave Mike a hand to get the bike off using my short plank as the grassy bank was sloping. He went to get the car from Montbouy and collected our post while he was passing through Châtillon-Coligny. One lockful went past, one cruiser that had been tied up in Châtillon-Coligny and the hireboat that had moored for lunch below the last three locks. I was still doing the log when he returned so I paused to help put the bike back on the roof. Another uphill hireboat went past at 5.30 p.m. No Internet, so no blog updates. We could hear music coming from Rogny, nearly five kilometres up the valley.
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