Saturday 31st July 2010 Dammarie to top of Rogny flight. C de Briare 6.13 kms 6 locks

An original 17th century bridge

Cool overnight and the boat was shaded from the sun where we were moored as there was a thick belt of trees. We got up early as we had decided to move on. Mike moved the car into the village of Dammarie and we set off at 8.30 a.m. to be at the locks when they opened at nine. A nice quiet run into Rogny. There were about a half dozen DBs moored on the pay moorings. Already there was a boat (DB Marie) going up in the first lock, 18 Ste Barbe (4.00m), and a yacht waiting below the flight to go up. We joined the queue. Neither of us looked up the arm to see how many boats were moored there. A keeper took ropes for us, just our bow rope, and the yacht only had one rope which they kept doubling and threading through the rungs of the ladder as they were next to the control rods. 

Fireworks alongside the old 17th c 7-rise staircase at Rogny

The keeper controlled the automatic lock, pressing the button on the panel at the top of the rods. As expected, the bow of the yacht moved over to the other side of the lock. Above the lock they had set up the fireworks on the left hand bank and up the flight of the old seven-rise staircase ready for the show later in the evening and a huge set of speakers hung from a crane arm, while on the right there was a bank of seating and rows of chairs. The British couple (in their sixties) on the yacht were new at locking (and the panic showed) and were en route for Greece from Kent. A youth in a VNF van went up the flight with us, taking ropes and pressing the button to set the automatic sequence running. 

Seating for the fireworks display at Rogny, opposite the 7-rise.

Up lock 17 Rogny (4.20m), Nick and Diana came down on their bikes on their way into the town for a look around and paused for a chat. Up lock 16 Chante-Pinot (4.10m), lock 15 St Joseph (4.20m) - lock 15 didn’t close behind us and the keeper had gone on to the top lock, he came back to lock 14 Racault (4.00m) and started the locking sequence again. A man and two women on bikes came to chat as I’d walked up from lock 15 after failing to get it working again by putting my hands over the exit sensors. They had come to Rogny in their campervan to see the fireworks display and were interested in boats. He later said he had a boat in Antigua. The yacht caught one of its horizontal planks in the gates and broke it (some yachts tend to hang horizontal planks over their fenders to try and make a flat surface against the lock wall), that made the lady who was steering it in and out of the locks even more nervous. 

Lock 18 Ste Barbe, first of the "new"19th c locks at Rogny

Up the top lock 13 Javacière (3.90m) and we moored beyond Charley on the right bank. Mike had a job chopping down the overgrown vegetation along bank to keep the spiders and ants off the boat. Lunch, then Mike watched the F1 qualis from Budapest and I did the log. No Internet again. Two loaded Dutch péniches, Traveller and Sonnepaerd, arrived at 5.30 p.m. trailed by a catamaran and a large hire boat full of late-teenaged youth, about a dozen, all male and playing very loud rap music. They all came to a stop above the lock. Mike took a walk to see what was going on while I made a salad for dinner. The Dutchmen had loaded bauxite down in the Midi for Paris and, when Mike said he was surprised they’d come up the Bourbonnais route, they’d said it was prettier than the D’Heuilley (Marne à la Saône – the péniches preferred north-south route) 

Two loaded Dutch peniches, a catamaran and a hireboat.

but they’d had a load of trouble (we’d heard them scraping on the gravely bottom as they had slowly passed us). They said they’d let the two little boats past them several times but they kept stopping for coffee, etc, so they stopped letting them pass. VNF wouldn’t let the boats down the flight. The Dutchmen said they were really fed up with the VNF, they said there was no lock keeper to take their ropes in some of the deep locks coming up so they said they had sat in the lock chamber and called them out, refusing to move until they had assistance with the locks. When they realised they wouldn’t get down the locks, the boat full of noisy youth turned round and went back along the summit to the next bridge (thank goodness for small mercies) and the catamaran moored between us and Charley as Mike had left a space rather than chop down loads of brambles. 

Later Mike and the neighbours walked down four locks to watch the firework display – Fireworks of the World – I stayed on board and watched some of the display reflected in the large windows of the Dutch péniche, but retired before the mossies found me and I started reading a “new” (just received in the post) Oldie magazine. The towpath had been blocked off around the second lock up from the bottom of the flight as it was a ticket-only do. (Don’t remember seeing prices on the posters, maybe it was in small print at the bottom!) Mike said it had been a good display. A person told the story of fireworks, with music, Melodiotronic was what they called it on the posters!

Friday 30th July 2010 Montbouy to Dammarie-sur-Loing. C. du Loing. 11.3 kms 8 locks

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.

Thursday 29th July 2010 Montbouy. Day off.

Grey clouds, showers and odd sunny spells. Decided to stay put as there was so much traffic going uphill plus the weather wasn’t very good. The cruiser Heclantis was off first at nine, soon followed by the two DBs – Detje Anna was towing a miniature Dutch tug – and the other cruiser went up in the lock behind Rosa. Mike looked at the Website of the firm who made our new weather station to see if they had a better coverage map than the scrappy photocopy that came with it. Nothing, so he copied the one he’d got, printed several and then after lunch he enhanced the map by hand, outlining the map and adding country boundaries then highlighting the forecast areas. A very small cruiser moored behind us. Two more cruisers arrived and moored behind us over lunchtime, they left before 1.30 p.m. when a large downhill twin engined (very smoky) British cruiser called Awol arrived and moored behind us and the small cruiser. Another two small French boats arrived. Hotel boat La Renaissance came down the lock and moored just below it, then Meeuw (Dutch MTB with French crew) returned heading uphill and moored on the same quay as the hotel boat.

Wednesday 28th July 2010 Montbouy. Day off.

Grey clouds, sunny spells, getting hotter again. The tjalk and the cruiser went up the lock at nine, cruiser first, DB second. We went shopping in Montargis. First, as we were now on our own in the middle of the quay, we moved the boat to the uphill end where the electric box didn’t work. Parked near the canal in Montargis and Mike walked down Rue Dorée (main shopping street) and went to get the new toy he’d ordered from the jewellery shop. Then we found the Carrefour Market on the N7 island in La Chalette. (Why couldn’t we find it before? It was marked in the wrong place on Carrefour’s map!) A small supermarket, but it had all the basics. Annoyingly they had no current leaflets with price reductions and promos. Back home for lunch. Packed all the stuff away and made sandwiches. The new weather station was very neat but needs 24 hours to get the latest updates which are supposed to come with the time signals. A Thames cruiser called Heclantis arrived and moored behind us. Two Dutch Barges arrived, both heading uphill. Detje Anna (new replica) arrived first and moored behind us and the cruiser on the quay. The second one, Rosa, an old one, arrived and the first one moved out to let the second get on the inside next to the quay. They made a right performance of it, even with bow thrusters it took them over half an hour. Another British cruiser arrived heading uphill and wanted to stop on the quay but it was full. Mike told him there was another mooring uphill of the town bridge so he carried on. Five minutes later he came back, making quite a wash past the mooring and went on the quay behind the barges. Later Mike noted he had connected up to the electricity, but neither DB had. After dinner Mike went out to have a look at the mooring beyond the bridge, no one on it and it had an electricity post with three-phase sockets, and on the way back he spoke to the couple on Heclantis. They invited him on their back deck for a beer and a chat. The skipper, Chris, used to be a Thames lock-keeper and now he and his wife Heather live just a bit further up the Loing valley from Rogny. He agreed with Mike that they’d never seen Dutchmen make such a mess of mooring up. They kept their generators running ‘til gone nine although they’d told Chris that they would turn it off when they’d finished cooking. 

Tuesday 27th July 2010 Montbouy. Day off.

Getting hotter again. Rain in the night, grey clouds, sunny spells. The neighbours decided to move up to Chatillon-Coligny. We stayed put. We went by car to Chatillon to see if our post had arrived (nope, not yet) and then went to look at the port. It was full except two places, one on the finger moorings (bows to bank for cruisers no longer than about 10m) and one gap Charley-sized at the downhill end. Mike rang to tell them there was one space. Back to the boat via the back road through St Geniviéve-des-Bois. The Dutch boat Meeuw (Seagull) had moved behind us, the crew were French, not Dutch, as Mike found out when he spoke to them in English. There are two electric/water posts, one at each end of the moorings, the one at the uphill end had a bag over it – out of order – and Mike said you could see marks where someone had tried to lever the box off to get at the tokens. Mike went to get a token – 2,50€ (daylight robbery) for 4 hours of water and electric – the only place open to get one was the bar and a very miserable faced woman sold him the token. I got the washing sorted and he ran the lead out. Put the token in at midday and I did two loads of washing and the rest of the chores. The Dutch MTB left with just the port engine running (it actually had twin engines, so heaven knows how much an hour that cost to run) and a tjalk with a British  couple arrived. They moored in front of us. I was changing wash loads, making some soup and Mike had run the hose out, when the crew of the tjalk went past with a splitter to connect up to the electricity. Mike went out to stop them, the soup started boiling, the phone started ringing - it was in my handbag in the wardrobe, so it took a few minutes to find it by which time the answering service had taken the call, Nick had left a message and SFR rang to tell us there was a message! Hectic! Nick had to moor on the wall and ask someone to move up so he could get on the quay. The gap on the finger mooring was still there but was far too short for us. Mike rang him back to say we’d stay where we were at Montbouy and see them possibly at Dammarie (we’d given up on mooring at Chatillon as it’s always full) in a couple of days. He said they might go further up to be in bike riding range of Rogny to see the fireworks. The tjalk moved back down the quay to moor behind us and reach the electricity (like us they’d said no way to 2,50€ for 4 hours, but perhaps they’d got loads of washing to do too - they didn’t, they were doing steelwork repairs using an electric chisel by the sound of it).

Monday 26th July 2010 La Chalette to Montbouy. C de Loing. 18.9 kms 8 locks

Moulin de Bardin 17th c buildings

Grey clouds, chilly start, sunny spells and heavy showers later. Up early to get to the first lock for nine. The neighbours started later as we didn’t want to do the deep lock together. Past the line of moored boats and the Police station, just one boat on the pay section, a large new DB called Maria, very bare and uncluttered. Under the bridge and into a section with high sloping walls with buildings on both sides. Lock 34 Reinette (1.9m) was automatic, under CCTV surveillance and set by the keeper at the lock above. I lifted the blue bar, which was on the left wall, and we shoved over to the right as there was no bollard for our centre rope on the left. Came up steady and a short pound lead to the deep one, formerly two locks, lock 33 La Marolle (4.90m). The resident keeper was a pleasant young man who lowered a hook to put our ropes on bollards so we reverted to lines fore and aft. Ground paddles on the automatic Briare locks squeeze the boat on to one wall or the other. As there is little commercial traffic it’s not easy to tell which wall, as there isn’t one that is shinier than the other where the water has forced a full length boat to rub against the wall. Lock 33 was manually operated and the water kept the boat hard against the right wall, flattening the only sausage fender that Mike hadn’t repaired! It was 9.45 a.m. as we tied on the old silo quay beyond the pay moorings (which were pretty much full – at 12€ a night there must still be some rich people about). Mike went to buy a loaf and I did the chores. Charley came past at 10.10 a.m. and said they would see us later at Montcresson or Montbouy. I made a cuppa and we set off again at 10.45 a.m. 4 kms to the next lock. A large Tarpon cruiser set off behind us and soon overtook us with wall to wall wash. What speed limit? We trundled on doing our usual 6 kph. A young man in a single-seater rowing scull went past. Took photos of the old Bardin mill buildings with a connecting bridge. It has a water wheel which was powered by the Loing and dates from before 1639 when the canal company bought it. Shortly after a small French yacht overtook – more waves washing the towpath! A Dutch péniche houseboat called En Route from Dorinchem was moored in one of the old oil berths just before the lock. Mike asked the skipper why they’d put no mooring signs halfway along the middle berth which said no mooring for 50m and thus prohibited any full length boats using either of the other two moorings. He said he didn’t know but at least one boat a week stops there and ignores the notice. (He must be moored there permanently then, his Dutch registered car was next to the boat). The two boats that had overtaken us had the lock, so we threw a rope on a bollard on the old quay below the lock and I took a walk up to 32 La Tuilerie (the tile works) (2.00m).

La Tuilerie, lock 32 Canal de Briare

Told the keeper we only needed one gate opening. The Dutchman had said the keeper had been busy this morning, seven boats had been past before us. The lock had ground and gate paddles at both ends but the keeper only used the grounds. He told us we’d have to wait until 1.00 p.m. to get through the next, the other two had made it through and were continuing (the next four locks were automatic). He opened the other gate as we left so we guessed there was something coming down. A large Dutch cruiser from Sneek went past heading for the lock we’d just left. It was midday so he’d probably have to tie up for lunch. We moored below lock 31 Sabloniére  (sand pit) and had lunch. At 1.00 p.m. the keeper from lock 32 came up in his VNF van and worked the lock for us. The sun came out as we went along the 1.9 kms pound to the Chesnoy flight of four locks. The Tarpon had tied up over lunch above lock 31 (the yacht had continued uphill) and had set off when the keeper arrived at 1.00 p.m. so we were surprised to see it sitting in the lock waiting for us – until we saw the VNF man on a moped. 

Empty lock house Sabloniere, lock 31 Canal de Briare

Well, at that point all ideas of a nice easy passage up the automated locks went out the window. The keeper had to tell the French crew (two men and a woman in their sixties) to move forward so we could get in behind them. I’d stepped off below on the lock approach and climbed the steps to drop a rope down for Mike as the locks are deep ones. They replaced the original five locks, a staircase three-rise with a single chamber at the top and one at the bottom of the flight, (of which nothing now remains except the original lock house), when all the locks in France were lengthened to Freycinet standard (38m long) around 1890 and they decided to build a new flight of four to replace them as staircases were more difficult to lengthen  than singles. 

Souffre-Douleur lock 30, another empty lock house (with camera)

Up lock 30, (3.8m) Souffre-Douleur (suffer pain? What a name for a lock - where did that come from?)  29, (3.5m) Moulin de Tours. The fancy new lock cabin had broken plaster around the door, so I asked the keeper what had happened and he said thieves had broken in to get a generator. Silly place to leave a generator, but shows how the situation in France regarding theft is starting to get worse. Up 28, (3.8m) Chesnoy and 27 (3.8m) Montambert. As soon as the gates closed and I lifted the blue bar the VNF man said au’voir and was off back downhill on his moped. As we left the lock a large steel cruiser with a Danish flag on the bows arrived. He waited for the red light to change to green then had extreme trouble getting his 4.5m wide boat into a 5.20m wide lock! At one point the boat was almost across the lock mouth, AND there was no wind blowing! It was 2.25 p.m. as we set off on the “grand biez” the big pond, 8.5 kms to Montbouy. 

Chesnoy, lock 28, empty lock house.

We’d told the keeper we were either stopping at Montcresson or Montbouy as our friends with Charley had come up earlier. He looked at the log in the cabin at lock 29 and said they’d gone through at midday. I steered while Mike went inside to get a cold drink of water as it was starting to get hotter and the first hireboat went past, a Nautic heading downhill. Nothing was moored on the quay (no facilities) at Montcresson so we carried on. Hotel boat Merganser II went past churning up loads of leaves and twigs from the bottom, which tinkled around our prop for the next five minutes. A new looking silo and an old quay in an arm off the canal looked used, but no boats were there now. It was 4.00 p.m. when we arrived at Montbouy. Tied up in front of Charley just as it started to rain. 

Montambert lock 27 - lock house lived-in!

They'd come up the automatic locks unhindered by the VNF, stopped for a bike ride around Montcresson and had been tied up at Montbouy for two hours! An ex-hire boat owned by an English couple who keep it at Rogny and also have a house near there were moored behind Charley. They’d told Nick that there was a firework display on at Rogny over the weekend which was very popular, 30,000 people attended last year. He also said the moorings, water and electric at Chatillon-Coligny were free. Gave Mike a hand to get the bike off between showers and he went to get the car, dressed in waterproofs for the first time since the Netherlands (he said). I got on with the chores. When he came back he said he went the wrong way to start off with and ended up in a farmyard, then he went into Chatillon – still the wrong direction and he’d got the map! So he found the post office as we were due to collect some post from there this week, then he came back through Montbouy and went on to get the car from Montargis. A large Dutch boat called Meeuw (Mike thought it was a Motor Torpedo Boat - but surely nobody could afford to run one of those these days!) had moored in front of us so we had an audience while we put the bike back on the roof. The Internet was on GPRS, the slowest we’ve had for ages 53 mbps. OK for emails, no blogging or picture uploading. 

Tuesday 25th July 2010 La Chalette Day off

After Mike had watched the F1 German GP from Hockenheim, we decided to go out in the car to look at a Neolithic stone monument but saw the car park filling up and decided against it as we’d have had no car parking space when we returned.