Monday 21st March 2010 Molinet to Paray-le-Monial. 15.8kms 4 locks

Canal aqueduct over river Loire at Digoin. C. Lateral a la Loire

After a cold night, the day was sunny and mild with a light breeze. A VNF man in a van arrived to ask which way we were going, he was disappointed to find we were going uphill (confused by the fact that our bows were pointing downhill, which we explained was due to our liking to moor port side to the bank) and wished us bon voyage. I added see you next time! We set off at 9.30 a.m. to get to Digoin for ten, winded and headed uphill. The countryside was coming to life with huge purple splashes of violets along the towpath edge and celandines under the trees. A small DB called Gudrun, flying a Dutch flag, was moored just before the lock. N°1 Digoin, (3.9m) the last (or first) lock on the Canal Latéral a la Loire, was ready for us empty with both gates open. 

Canal aqueduct over river Loire at Digoin. Canal Lateral a la Loire

A small crowd of gongoozlers were taking photos from the tail end bridge. The keeper came over to take a rope for me and I handed it up on the end of a short shaft to him. The lock is mechanised so he only had to press buttons. The gongoozlers transferred to the lockside, but behind the long metal fence, where they chatted away between themselves in Dutch. I told the keeper that we weren’t stopping in Digoin and would continues to Paray. He said OK he would let the keeper know to set the locks for us. It was 10.10 a.m. as we crossed the aqueduct over the Loire. We tip-toed through the town so as not to wake the sleeping masses of hireboats. One small, sparkly new little narrowboat, called Eau de Vie, was moored on a pontoon end among all the cruisers, majority of which like it were left for winter. 

End of moorings in Digoin. Canal du Centre

Two DBs were moored at the end of the town basin, an inhabited one called Talisman and an unnamed bare-looking barge. I made a cuppa as we headed off along the 7.5 kms pound, the first on the Canal du Centre. The next bridge had sprouted a fence made of wooden poles, which extended along the towpath on both sides to protect the cyclists from falling in the cut or down a steep ditch. I found it annoying that they should deface the canal with such a monstrosity in the name of health and safety! The old Recla factory was now a Canalous hire base and a long line of cruisers of all types stretched out along the bank. Two youths were busily scrubbing the bottom of one Tarpon cruiser out on the bank, getting it ready for the approaching new season. 

Lock 26 Bessons. Old paddle gear and one of the
four posts to activate new automatics. C du Centre 

At the end of the line the converted former youth hostel barge C.E.C.I.L.I.A. was looking very unloved and in need of renovation. We passed the odd cyclist and jogger now and a again but mostly the canal was ours alone as we left suburbia behind. A black kite wheeled over the boat, searching for fish that we might have flushed to the surface and checking the winding loops of the little river Bourbince too. A chunky looking horse was grazing below lock 26 Bressons (1.98m), which was ready for us, empty with a green light showing. Must be on automatic, there was no sign of life. We went in and Mike pulled the blue cord to activate the automatic sequence. These locks were only recently made automatic and each chamber has four posts with pull cords, roughly one at each corner. It filled gently but quickly. 3.2 kms to the next. A large factory on the right marked the outskirts of Paray’s industry. We passed under the noisy, busy bypass N70 and carried on to lock 25, Mont, (2.73m). It was ready with a green light although it was well into lunchtime at 12.30 p.m. Mike pulled the string and the lock worked. A short pound lead to lock 24 Quarrés (2.56m) which also was ready with a green light.

Mooring at Paray-le-Monial next to the wooden post eyesore.
Canal du Centre

A VNF atelier (workshop) on the towpath side of the lock was shut for lunch. The lock was almost full when the keeper came out with a clipboard to have all our details and ask the usual questions, where were we stopping, how long for and when were we setting off again. Formalities over, he and Mike had a chat about the weather, etc and he confirmed that our suspicions that the clock goes forward an hour this weekend coming. We motored on into Paray, the busy D979 road on our right was now right alongside the canal. A new replica DB called Kotare from London was moored at the end of the wooden fencing (which goes most of the way along the canal towpath through town) and its skipper came out to say hello and ask where we were going. We tied up at 1.20 p.m. put the dish up and had to move along a bit to find a gap in the branches to get a picture.