The best laid plans...

We turned back onto the Saône a few days ago and, after a couple of days in the woods, are now in Auxonne. We have discovered that our route back to Nevers is closed for the time being. The VNF have closed the Canal du Centre due to low water levels and cannot say when it will re-open! We had heard rumours that this might happen in August but, after all the rain we’ve experienced we thought things would be OK by now.

So, what to do? We have decided to go to St Symphorien for the time being. David enjoyed his stay there in May when I came home to mark SATs and we’re wondering whether to winter there even if we do get the chance to head back to Nevers. It’s a lovely mooring but very rural – 4km to the nearest shop – and we were both looking forward to seeing our friends in Nevers again. Whatever happens, we’ll have a few weeks there to see how it feels and research some other possibilities.

Aval

After Langres we reached the summit of the Canal and started heading downhill (aval) after another tunnel of approx 5km. I steered almost the whole length – my glasses steamed up as we entered and David had to take over for a bit. Locks seem easier to manage when you’re going downhill – mooring is easier as the bollards are visible and reachable. In a deep lock going uphill, it’s much harder to lasso the bollards – or perhaps that’s just me. I’ve come to realise that rope throwing is never going to be one of my top 10 skills!

There are no big towns along this stretch of the canal and the countryside is, as has been the case on most of our journey, beautiful and peaceful.

Langres

We found some really good places to stop on the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne and met some interesting people. We spent a few days at Langres, a hilltop medieval town with Roman origins and most of its ramparts still intact. The hill up from the port is quite steep. We took our bikes up once but ended up pushing them much of the way. (Coming back down was fun, though.) We walked the 3.5km around the ramparts which gave us some fantastic views across the countryside. I visited the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire and was surprised to find the archaeological section much more interesting than the art. They clearly have a lot of well-preserved Roman remains here. In fact, the mosaic was discovered on the site where they built the museum.

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