We woke up early to the sound of the recycling truck arriving to empty the bins. We heard them commenting on how we were parked in front and then heard them drive off, much to our relief. We continued to doze until some other canal boaters started dumping their wine bottles into the recycling bin, which really woke us up. By this time it was getting closer to 7:30 and we decided we might as well get up and see what our options were. We spotted a picnic table over by the office and set out our breaky things and enjoyed tea while we waited for the office to open at 8:30.

As soon as it opened, Rob went in to find out what our options were for the six days we had left. He came back out shortly saying that the lateral canal was open and they had a boat we could use! At this point, our frustration with the other boat base had grown because not once had the base manager in Migennes mentioned that doing a trip from Decize might be an option. Instead, he had been trying to find out if we could go to the Midi or Normandy, both which were about 600 km away! The Decize base had talked to him several times the day before and not once had he asked if the canals down that way were open or if they had a boat. We were just glad to be heading off once more and not having to call it quits. They had the boat ready for us by 10 am and we were going through the first lock by 11 after an introduction to our new boat & its systems. The first lock was completely automatic with no lock-keeper. You pulled a rope from the boat to indicate that you wanted to enter; once the doors opened and the signal turned green, you drove in. Once inside the canal with ropes secured, you pulled up on the blue lever to start the process of going up or down. We finally had a beautiful day and it actually felt hot out. We pulled out the sunscreen and our hats and basked on the upper deck. The lateral canal doesn't have as many locks as the Burgundy canal, which meant we had long stretches of forty minutes or so where we could just watch the scenery go by. The countryside was very different from the rolling hills of the burgundy canal. There was a lot more flat farmland with fewer towns and houses to pass by, but it was still quite pretty. Just before stopping for the night we went over a neat aqueduct over the Loire below. It was quite neat to be crossing a river via a bridge, while on a boat! At the end of the aqueduct was a two part staircase lock. This was a true staircase lock where you drive from one lock immediately in to the next one, rather than the ones on the Burgundy which were all in short succession. It was amazing to see how far we dropped down to join the canal below. We tied up and then walked back over the bridge to check it out. We enjoyed dinner al fresco which was wonderful. Anoop also got his first sunburn on his shoulder which we figured meant the ozone really is getting thinner each year!

The towns we passed through were often right along the canal side which made it easy to stop to get bread and patisseries. Janet and I did ride ahead one day along the cycle path which took us about 4 km off our planned route, but eventually led us to the town we were going to meet up with Anoop and Rob in. We found the boulangerie and chose our treats just in time to see the boat coming around the corner. The footpaths beside the canal were rather unreliable since they weren’t particularly well maintained. Janet decided to go for a run one morning and just as we’d cast off to meet her further up, she came running back, waving her arms at Anoop (who was on the bow at the time), to pick her up – the towpath had suddenly ended!

Our turn-around point to head back to the base was at the Briare canal bridge. This one was longer and much more interesting than the previous one we had been on. It was built to solve the problem of the barges needing to cross the Loire river which could only be done at certain times of the year and could be quite difficult if the river was too high or the current too strong. Below are a few interesting facts about the canal bridge:

-        663 m long (600 m of which is over the Loire river)

-        Total width of 11.5 m with a canal width of 6.2 m

-        Height of water in the tank is 2.2 m

-        Total weight of water is 13 680 tons

-        Opened in 1896

-        Commonly thought to have been built by Gustav Eiffel (of Eiffel tower fame) but he was only responsible for the masonry abutments and piers

We waited at the one end with two large péniches in front of us. It was interesting to see them manoeuvre ahead of us and you could tell that they had done it many times. The captain on board of the second one even had time to hop off, take a picture of all the tourists on board from the sidewalk and then hop back on. We enjoyed our trip across at a leisurely pace while we took lots of photos. We then docked and walked back over the bridge to watch other boats go across. After lunch we walked in to town and stopped by the church. It had quite neat mosaics of flowers on the outside and inside in the aisles there were other mosaics. We then headed to the canal museum which explained about the Briare section of the canal and the construction of the bridge itself. It was quite interesting to see the old pictures of the types of boats using the canal back then and the models of the different trades that took place around the canal. There were also some interesting coins which were used by the workers building the bridge in exchange for various goods – a coin with an image of wheat symbolized bread, boar for meat & grapes for wine. Anoop commented how this was just like the board game, Agricola, that we enjoy playing. We also saw a model of the manual, wooden "crane" they would use to load the barges with. Since the river levels were always varying before the construction of the canal, they used these wooden cranes as they were easy to erect and were “mobile”. This way, they could be carried with them and no matter what the level of water, easily assembled to load goods. We enjoyed the visit to the museum and were glad that we had learned a bit more about how the canals operated, including the fact that trees were planted all along the canals to help slow down the evaporation of water. We then headed back to the boat, passing by the most enormous moth we’d ever seen. Rob and Janet had gone on ahead and unplugged the boat from the power in preparation to head off. Just as we arrived, the manager for the boat docks arrived wondering what we were doing there and why we hadn’t called to say we were docking (there were no signs to be seen anywhere at the dock itself); there was another boat coming in and we were in its place. We reassured him that we had just been stopped for a minute and would be underway immediately!

We enjoyed watching all the wildlife as we cruised down the canal. We saw lots of deer, herons, wagtails, kestrels and hawks. The absolute highlight was seeing TWO European beavers (they are slightly different from the variety back home) running (yes they do run and rather fast!) back to the water from the nearby field. This was quite a sighting since there are only about 7000 European beavers left in France, and we spotted two of them! Not as exciting were all the bloated remains of animals (deer, foxes, cats, and other unidentifiable things) floating down the canal. We presumed they were a result of having fallen in, either because they were chased by a predator or perhaps while attempting to drink, and not being able to get out. Fishermen were a regular sight with their long poles stretching out in to the middle of the canals, most of them rapidly reeling them in if a boat was coming by. Others with shorter poles just assumed you would pull out around them so that you didn’t run in to their lines… We would greet all the fishermen with a “Bonjour!” and a wave and this was often returned. One fisherman just scowled and glared at us, like he owned the canal and we were trespassing. We wondered why on earth you would want to eat anything that came out of a canal, but I guess some people don’t mind it.

We saw two working péniches (large barge-like boats) heading down the canal ahead of us. We asked the next lock-keeper if they were a regular sight and she said they weren’t anymore and these were the first two of the year to be going through! We saw them stop alongside some silos to fill up with wheat before making the return trip. I guess trains and trucks are so much faster that they don’t use the péniches much anymore. We did have an “exciting” few minutes on the canal when one of the commercial péniches signalled for us to pass them. Rob lined up our boat and then put the motor into full throttle. There wasn’t much room for error as we passed them – about a foot between us and the péniche, and a foot to the canal bank. As we came close to the stern of the péniche, we got sucked into their “stern hole” that is caused because it is displaces so much water. Rob had anticipated this and was able to compensate for it. It seemed for a moment that we were going to collide with the péniche, but thanks to Rob’s skillful manoeuvring, we passed by without a scratch.

On the return trip we passed back through the staircase lock, this time going up. Janet and I hopped off to take some videos while Anoop handled the lines and Rob drove. They assumed you couldn’t throw a rope up 20 ft and just lowered a rope with a hook on the end to bring the lines back up. It would have been quite the challenge trying to make it (and test out my newly developed rope throwing abilities), but it was much easier just attaching it to the hook.

We had a relaxing cruise on the way back to the base and decided to stop in Nevers for the afternoon to check out the cathedral. It had neat modern stained glass which was very different from all the others we had seen. It did allow the light to enter the church beautifully and really lit up all the stone. The duke’s palace had some pretty flower beds in a small park in front of it and we enjoyed strolling past the wisteria on the way back down to the canal.

We returned to the boat base in Decize on Saturday and Rob & I drove in to Nevers to pick up their rental car. We then headed back to the boat to unload and tidy up. Then it was time for one last feast and a game of Settlers. We had a wonderful time on the boat with Rob & Janet and really enjoyed seeing the countryside in a new way.