Saturday 26th March 2010 A walk along the old canal to Le Creusot. Montchanin.

Possible old entrance to derelict canal from Montchnin
to Le Creusot via Torcy

Sunny but with hazy cloud so cooler. We had a lazy, idle morning, then we went for a walk to find the canal that lead up towards Le Creusot via Torcy. The entrance looked like it started from just beyond the next bridge where there were two sections of curved stonework. No actual signs of it as all had been obliterated by the building of a furniture showroom and then beyond that the N70. We crossed the road bridge over the N70 and could see a blue post (the French conveniently mark water courses that go under roads with blue posts) by the fire station which indicated where it was, so we turned left by the fire station and went down a road called Chemin des Mariniers (Boatmen’s Road) – a good clue that! - and found a path alongside what was obviously a filled in waterway as it was boggy and there were last year’s reeds. 

Old lock (fir trees in chamber) on old canal to Le Creusot
via Torcy. Montchanin.

Crossed a road with a concrete structure where the navigation bridge had been. 

Tiny tunnel entrance (1,267m long) on old canal to
Le Creusot via Torcy. Montchanin.

On the other side of the road was the Etang (lake) de la Muette with the navigation (still in water) alongside it. A lock could be seen in the garden of a house with fir trees growing out of it. Beyond the lock was a new leisure centre around the lake and the navigation called Port de Schneider (after the family who owned the large steel making plant in Le Creusot). Followed the path along the canal, which became very narrow and sharply twisting within a few hundred metres and the towpath climbed as the canal went into a cutting. Soon we were at the entrance to the tiniest tunnel entrance we had ever seen. They must have used little boats like the starvationers used in the Duke of Bridgwater’s mines at Wordsley, only we guessed these must have used the current flowing on the little navigation as far as the port for transhipment into chalands, the forerunner of the péniche. Interesting stuff, which needs more investigation – nothing found on the Internet. Back through town on the road emerging a bit further uptown than the Intermarché and back to the boat for lunch then Mike watched afternoon the repeat of the (5 a.m.) F1 GP qualis from Melbourne.