To Burgundy

For the last few days we have been indulging in yet another new experience- travelling on a newly re-opened Canal. From Vitry le Francois our route takes us South to Burgundy, along the Canal between Champagne and Burgundy, previously called the Canal between the Marne and the Saone. At the end of this canal we plan to travel north - east on the Canal des Vosges. This route was planned for last year but not possible then because there was a collapse at Charmes which closed the whole canal for over a month.

We knew that the Canal from Vitry was closed for routine maintenance from the end of
April until the end of May, to re- open on Tuesday May 28th. Why a Tuesday, we wondered? Because Monday was a public holiday, Pentecost Monday, the fifth public holiday in May. We arrived on the Friday before and told the Capitaine at the Port de Plaisance of our intention. It seems that this comment put us in the queue in spot number one for pleasure boats- or else we were put there because our grand- daughter Mary gave the Capitaine such a winning smile.

By this time there were six or seven commercial boats waiting so we knew we would not get away early on Tuesday. In the event, the VNF decided that it would devote the morning to getting them underway and the first pleasure boat (us) could leave at 2pm. An Englishman at the port had been pacing all morning as he thought he should be able to get underway at 10am and prevailed on David to give up our top spot to him. We were in no hurry and did so politely but regretted it later when his slow progress meant that we were waiting for him to finish at every lock.  The barge queue- right across to stop queue-jumping

So what is different about travelling from the first day of a newly re- opened canal? First,for several days you can be comfortable that no- one will be coming towards you. The entire 224 kilometres of canal is clear, so until the commercials drop or pick up a load and turn around, and until the boats from the south get past the middle, everyone is travelling the same way. We have now finished day 4 without any oncoming traffic.

Because the canal has been empty for so long, people seem to notice the barges more. Today was the first time we have ever had a toot and a wave from a train driver.

There is a great deal of weed in the canal. At times on the first day we seemed to be ploughing through underwater gardens. One of the locks broke down at the end of the first day probably because of the buildup of material in the water which prevented the gates from openning fully. The month has been used to make repairs to the sides of the canal, which can only be done when it is not in use, and it was probably drained to some extent. In general the lock mechanisms and lock walls were not on the "to do" list this time.

Because everyone is going the same way, all the locks are the "wrong" way around. For us this means that every lock we come to has taken the previous boat upwards and stayed that way. Before we can enter it has to empty again so that we too can be taken upwards. As a result evey lock takes twice as long to get through. If these were manned locks the lock- keeper would probably leave the locks ready because all the boats are travelling upstream. Unfortunately in this case "automatic" means "not that smart".  

We are very pleased that we did not change our plans, and waited until the Canal was open. It is a very pretty rural canal, with  the Marne still flowing alongside. The main town so far has been St Dizier where in 1544 42,000 soldiers of Charles V were repelled by 2,000 brave men (plus 2,500 women and children) of the town so that it was saved for Francois 1st and Paris was kept safe. It is now a modern expanding industrial town, very attractive and well maintained. The roses were magnificent in the homes fronting the canal. We were moored opposite a large swimming complex which seemed to be doing a roaring trade, with people coming in and out constantly. Other nights have been spent surrounded by fields in the quiet countryside.The manually cranked bridge

A surprise today was seeing on the chart two bridges marked "manually operated". We had already today been through several "automatic" lifting bridges operated by a VNF person pressing a button. The only other manually operated one we have experienced was on the Nivernais Canal where David had to get off the barge to crank it up so that Anja could pass through. Then Peter Aston was driving but Penny is not confident to squeeze through the narrow opening typical of these bridges, so she was flexing her muscles and doing her warm- ups as we approached the first of these manual bridges. While we were looking for a spot where a bridge- opener could get off the barge, we were relieved to see a VNF man appear in the usual little white van and start to turn the crank handle.

Best Regards,
Penny and Dave