Tuesday 2nd May 2017 Fontenoy to Corre 21kms 11 locks

Rock cutting and lk 35 Fontenoy

2.0°C Sunny start, grey clouds by midday and heavy showers in the afternoon. Set off at 9.05am, winded, zapped and then waited for the green light. The canal leading to the first lock is very narrow, not much more than a péniche width and leads into through a rock cutting round a bend to lock 35 Fontenoy. The towpath on the right hand bank was closed due to rock falls. There were four very yappy dogs in a compound at the lock house. The rock

Houses alongside cutting in Fontenoy-le-Chateau

cutting was wider below lock 35, 1.9kms to the next lock, with houses lining the right bank and houses in the town beyond the river Coney to our left. A black kite followed the boat for a while, hoping for fish stunned by our prop to surface in our wake. The locks on this canal seem very slow to fill and to empty. Down 36 Montmotier – the ancient length of rope Mike had been using on the stern to stop the boat surging forward as the water exited decided to break – one for the bin! 2.2kms round a big U-bend

Rock cutting nr Ambiévillers

to lock 37 Gros Moulin. The woods were filled with birdsong. A lake had been made in the course of the Coney on our left just before the lock; swans, mallard and grebe were fishing in it and there was a solitary bird stood on one leg on a horizontal tree trunk with its head tucked under a wing fast asleep – we agreed, we both thought it was an Egyptian duck, first one seen this year. Down lock 37 – there was a large VNF van by the cabin and a man in the cabin with the control

Ambiévillers

panel tilted up. I lifted the blue rod and the lock worked OK. No idea what the VNF man was doing in the cabin. 960m to lock 38 Ambiévillers. By the lock house there was a tree trunk cut into pieces ready for logging and stacking. A long pound! 3.6kms to lock 39, winding through the forest then passing a new VNF office building and the mooring place above lock 39 Pont du Bois had a water tap, so we paused to see if it was connected. Yes, it worked. Hosepipe out and

Chateau-de-Freyland

started refilling our water tank. By which time the lock was ready, gates open, green light on. Mike took several bags of rubbish to the bins by the VNF buildings and by the time he got back to the boat the lock had got fed up with waiting and closed up. Guess who had the task of walking back to the post and zapping it? And what state was the towpath in – like a ploughed field, as they’d been using it to tip dredgings by the looks of it. The VNF man in a van came down to the lock, waved and

Chapel of Chateau-de-Freyland

went off again. Mike took the boat into the lock, slowly, and I got back in time to lift the blue rod and get back on board. Unnoticed by us a couple were sitting by the bottom end gates watching the procedure! 1.8kms to the next, 40 Bois de Selles. A DB called Cornelia-Helena, Swiss flag on the bow and a French flag on the stern, was coming up lock 40. A couple sitting out on the deck waved as we passed and likewise the steerer. Judging from the number of bikes on the bows we reckoned it was a hotel boat (another first for this year) There was a very nicely

Zapper post other side of blue bridge, towpath like a ploughed field!

appointed house before the lock and fishermen’s vehicles (we’d seen them fishing further back up the canal) were parked outside it. 500m to 41 Carrières de Selles – its lock house was bricked up. 1.9kms to the next. In Selles there was a manually operated swingbridge and a VNF man had opened it for an uphill Le Boat hireboat and kept it open for us. Two cruisers were moored on the town quay, one looked permanent (sheeted and plugged into a private electricity post).

Hotel boat leaving lock 40 Bois de Selles

Strangely, lock 42 Village de Selles is nowhere near the town, it’s in the middle of nowhere in the woods. Its lock house was also bricked up. 4kms to lock 43 Basse Vivre. We had some lunch on the long pound. Black clouds were gathering and it started to pour with rain when we were about 1km from the lock. We dropped down lock 43 in pouring rain, the wind was picking up too. Just over 1km to lock 44 Demangevelle. The rain had virtually stopped by the time we arrived at the lock. Its house

VNF man swinging the bridge at Selles

looked renovated but was shuttered and didn’t look lived in. 2.2kms to our last lock, 45. Vougécourt, which had a lived lock house next door to a very large woodyard and sawmill. 1.4kms, last of the canal de l’Est Sud and the lock that leads on to the start of the river Sâone navigation. No longer a hire base, the layby in Corre with fixed finger moorings was almost empty, only four cruisers and a large barge on the quay beyond – all pay moorings and, for us it

Moored at Corre. Rookery to the left, former hire base behind. 

would have cost 15€/night (as we are over 15m in length, under 15m would be 12€,) with water and electricity costing each costing an extra 2€. We moored next to the piling further on towards the lock. It was 3.30pm. The bank was covered in tall, wet grass which sloped up to a narrow road at the top which lead to the lock house. Left setting up TV, etc until we came back and went shopping by car at the nearest Carrefour Market, 12kms away in Jussey. Got stocked up as Mike will be moving the car on to Soing (about 50kms away) next day. More rain.