Wednesday 24th May 2017 Allenjoie to L’Isle 32.6kms 17 locks

Lock 8 Fontenelle - we turned round here

11.2°C. Sunny with a light breeze and white fluffy clouds. Set off at 8.10m doing some washing as we went. Paused while Mike took photos of the little river Allan from the canal. Round a left hand bend, over the Allan on an aqueduct and into the new lock 9 Allenjoie and dropped down 2m. Down the next three 10 Marivées, 11 and 12 Etupes. Mike thought he saw a white cruiser pull out of the moorings above 12 and go down the lock, but there was no sign of it afterwards so it must have gone into the moorings at Montbeliard. There was a DB waiting to come up below 12 as we left it.

The old route to the old lock 9 Allenjoie

On to the 4.4kms new section past Peugeot’s factory and into Montbeliard. Under the noisy A36 motorway, passing where lock 13 used to be (removed when they modified the canal to be ready for the upgrade that never happened). Down lock 14 Montbeliard  and lock 15 Couteau-Jouvent, nice house with three little dogs including a Dachshund. There was a VNF man in a van at the liftbridge above lock 16 Courcelles, he timed it just right so we didn’t even need to slow down, perfect.

The very picturesque river Allan

Down lock 16 and back to having a noisy road alongside (and no towpath) as we passed through two long narrow sections. Our VNF man set lock 17 Voujeaucourt for us and it was almost full when we got there. Crossed the Doubs on a level below 17, into the canal again with a flood lock with sloping sides and a floating pontoon to tie to for working the lock, noting that the water level on the gauge was now 2.6m (VNF forbid crossing the Doubs if it’s over 3.3m on the gauge). Passing the wickerwork eco bank edging, dropped down 18 Bavans and took photos of the church, the z-

Church at Bavans

bend and the Madonna in a niche. I made bacon sandwiches (last of our stock of UK thick cut bacon) for lunch as we went down 19 Plaine de Dampierre and 20 Raydans. Mike took photos of the burnt-out factory that he didn’t notice on the way uphill. Our VNF man was at 21 Colombier-Fontaines and he’d set the lock for us and was cleaning down all the spider webs, etc, from the lights, lock cabin, etc. The lady keeper set 22 St Maurice for us, she was chatting with the

The Z-bend at Bavans

maintenance man whose big VNF van was on the lockside. Four young lads were fishing by the sharp bend before the railway bridge above 23, one caught a fish as the boat went past (it happens quite often). We did 23 Colombier-Chatelot ourselves, our lady keeper arrived as we left the lock. A man was driving a quad bike pulling a trailer with three small children seated in the trailer (all of them were wearing crash helmets) along the path by the canal. He swerved to miss a low hanging bush – but not far enough and all three kids were swept 

Madonna in a niche at Bavans

backwards off their plank seat with legs in the air! We couldn’t stop laughing and wished we’d taken a video of that – it would have been worth £250 from Harry Hill! It was still very weedy above 24 Blussans and all along the section to lock 25 Coteau-Lunans, We counted four different varieties of water weed. Masses of damselflies and dragonflies had hatched out. Into a section with a high steep tree-covered bank on our left that felt like going into a tunnel it was so dark after the

Burnt out factory abv lk 20 Raydans

bright sunshine – there was no weed where the sun don’t shine and it was much cooler. Two VNF vans passed on the towpath, one uphill one downhill, pausing for a quick chat. Madame worked 25 for us, but we were on our own to work through 26 L’Isle. Tied up at 5pm in the town, back on the high quay wall by supermarket.

A weed gathering boat in L'Isle