I'm cycling the Canal du Bourgogne...

...today.  Come and join me...

Fellow travellers on the canal!

I'm camped at Lézinnes, a small village the sits beside the river l'Armançon which feeds the canal.  The Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy Canal) stretches from the western side of Migennes, where it empties into the river Yonne, to St Jean de Losne.  St Jean is a small town that sits on the river Saône, west-south-west of Besançon.  With a population of just over a thousand people, it would easy to mistake the importance of St Jean.  But, the sleepy little town has been fought over many times and I'll be exploring its history at some point in a future post.

Construction began on the canal in 1775 and its 242K length was finally completed in 1832.  This canal is the link that enables boats and barges to cross France from the Mediterranean sea to La Manche, the English channel.  Boats enter the waterway system just west of Marseille, travel the Rhône to just north of Lyon where the river meets the Saône.  Once boats leave the Canal de Bourgogne at Migennes they follow the Yonne, and its attendant Canal de Nivernais, until it converges with the Seine which empties into the channel at Le Havre.  That's a journey of something approaching 1,450K in total.  Floating through all that fabulous scenery must be nice work if you can get it!

The Canal de Bourgogne's lowest point is at its junction with the river Yonne at Migennes, just 79m above sea level.  From there it rises steadily until it reaches its highest point at Pouilly-en-Auxois, 378m above sea level.  That's a lot of locks - 189 to be precise.

Here at Lézinnes I'm starting at Écluse 85 and I'm taking a steady trip to Ancy-le-Franc.  By road the journey is just 7K, but the canal meanders here and the trip is probably more like 10Ks each way.  It's September and the hedgerows are full of rose hips and elder.  I pass a couple of elderly ladies with baskets who are collecting the fruit.  Some wine, I think or possibly some syrup.

At Écluse 83 - Pacy - a large boat is struggling to move away from the lock gates and Madame Éclusière has a very worried look on her face.  I stop for a drink of water, but really I'm just being terribly French and watching the excitement.  With no progress after 15 minutes or so, I carry on with my journey.

As I'm approaching Ancy-le-Franc, Écluse 80, I see a fisherman, all settled on the bank, rods in place and baited.  What I can't see until I draw almost level is the grey heron sat right beside him.  Monsieur Pêcheur tempts the bird wth a fish and I just free wheel by, not wishing to interrupt the creature's dining.

Ancy-le-Franc is my destination for the day.  I leave the canal and take the couple of hundred metres along the D905 to the edge of town and some shade.  Lunch is partaken under the cover of the trees in the fabulous gardens of the chateau.  The afternoon will be spent in the relative cool of this stunning 16th century chateau.  But more on that next month...

There will be more from my trip along the Canal de Bourgogne on March 9th