Briare

Seascapes Travel Log
Michael Grew
Sun 20 Jun 2010 19:58
19/06/2010 Rogny

Left Chatillon in the afternoon when the rain finally decided we needed a bit of respite. (the sun even came out for a very short while) and then we managed to dodge showers every time we were in a lock. We passed through six locks in 10 kilometres, very tiring and seems to take ages particularly if you’re following a very slow moving boat. We had a tatty looking English yacht called “Jay” with a Di and Blodwin from Cardiff, who were a real pain like that for a while but then his cooling water filter got blocked and he was forced to stop and let us pass. We stopped at a place called Rogny for the night. Rogny is famous for having the first lock system in the world. The idea was thought of by Henry IV in 1604 and built by a frenchman in 1605. It consisted of 6 up and down but for single ships so it wasn’t big enough to cope with the increase of traffic in the 1800’s and a new system was built. We walked up beside the old system, an incredible achievement .When we got back, there was a local fete going on in the nearby park and we were lulled to sleep by disco music. Another cold damp night.


20/06/2010 47:59:56N 02:44:07E

Managed to get under way before “Jay” and with some trepidation approached the first of a flight of eight locks up (no not the medieval ones) and six or eight locks down, all in a very short distance. In all we passed through a total of eighteen locks but only covered 17 kilometres. We both came to the same conclusion, it is a heck of a lot easier going down in a lock than it is going up. The last three locks of the day brought us into the marina of a charming little town called Briare, which is off the main canal. The small canal into the town is marked as only 1.2 metres deep and we draw……… 1.2metres! The one benefit of all the rain we have had is that it has made sure that we just managed to crawl up into the town with our bottom dragging through the mud. Our depth gauge registered 0.00 ft all the way up the canal, a bit worrying that! At 16:00hrs when we pulled up at the diesel pump we were greeted by the most enthusiastic, effusive and helpful Capitainair. He grabbed our lines tied us up and handed the hose to me before I could even switch off the engine. When I said I wanted to fill a can as well, he grabbed the can, filled it, then rushed off to get a cloth and detergent to clean the outside of the can. Not content with that he then cycled ahead of us to find an empty berth! What service! The town is very pretty with hundreds of flower boxes, even on the lock gates. The large town church is decorated on the outside with mosaics and all the floors inside are also mosaic. The town apparently is famous for it’s mosaics. The weather today has been damp with a very cold northerly wind. We have both been wearing fleeces, hats, gloves and waterproofs and were still cold. What ever happened to lounging around in the sun in la belle France?