Canal de Briare
Ultimately
July 2000 we are camping out in Châtillon-Coligny at a
camping-site between the Canal de Briare and the river Loing. Close to our site is a
waterfall. The murmur of the water is emphatically present during the
day. At the other side of the river is an old covered watching-place. Wooden plateaus
can be lowered to the water by ropes. People used to do the laundry in earlier days. I
have seen similar constructions in a village nearby, Montbouy. The washing-places
have been overtaken by the youth of the village who now have a meeting-place there.
In the documentation of the village I read that in earlier days the protestants had a meeting point in the Rue de l'Enfer (hell) en de Catholics in de Rue du Paradis. The short streets and lanes are connected together. It does not take much to come from paradise into hell and back.
I
discover another waterway behind the canal. It looks like a branch especially for a
agricultural grain-elevator. At further study it appears to be a piece of the
old trace of the Canal de Briare. The canal is diverted later around Châtillon.
At the end of the branch I still see some remains of an old lock-quay and the old
lock-keepers house.
I have cycled the last few days along the Canal de Briare. In Briare I find a remarkable aqueduct over the river Loire, built in 1896. It's a metal channel of 660 meters long filled with water high above the Loire with a broad towpath on both sides. At the railing a endless series of old lanterns.
I cycle on one of the towpaths along the
channel to the Canal latéral à la Loire on
the other bank. When
I have to give way to some pedestrians I cycle at twenty-thirty centimeters from
the water. In the middle I stop for a while, high above the Loire water and look
in the far distance. It 's good that there are no traffic-bridges or
railway-bridges beside this monument. Just water crossing water.
In Briare I search for the old canal branch. I cycle along the water-garden and a port. You can hire water-cycles and canoes here. The bridges are beautifully decorated with flowers. A rivers runs parallel to the canal, the Trézée. I see another washing-place.
I pass by some locks and a little bit further the old canal meets the new Loire Lateral Canal which goes to the aqueduct. It is difficult cycling again. You can barely speak of a towpath. It difficult to cycle through the high grass. Two kilometers further I see a lock and from there the towpath is practicable again. At lock 6 I see the ruins of an old house that seemed to be slipped off the dike. In earlier days the level of the canal used to be lower. There is a spreading in the canal and I see a landing-stage. There is no one to see and I dive nakedly in the water. The weather is sunny the whole day and cycling makes me warm. The water is lovely and refreshing.
I go on. The locks are getting abundant now. Some of them have a beautiful
steel draw-bridge. It is a very beautiful part of the canal. It is interwoven with the river
Trézée at some places. Sometimes the river discharge into the
canal and the towpath crosses the river by a bridge with iron railings. Then I
cross an overflow and the canal and river go their own way separately. I climb higher and
higher and at the last two locks before the watershed I end up in a totally
different world, the world of the 'étangs'.
The lakes are
situated at
the left and right side of the canal. They had to take care of the water supply in times
of low
water. Nowadays water is pumped from Briare but in earlier days the water supply of the highest
parts of the canal was always critical. In the étangs water was collected. The
landscape is more open here and fishermen are taking their chances here and
there.
Later in the week we go to the same place with the whole family. We have lunch at a picnic-table and take a dive in one of the lakes. The water is lovely. Afterwards we get a warning from the keeper of lock number 12. He is threatening us with a summons. We were not allowed to swim there but I think he was annoyed because the children had thrown little stones into the canal.
Then
I leave the étangs and after a couple of long straight canal parts
in a woody environment the locks follow one after an other. The towpath is
asphalted and I cycle, almost without pedaling, downhill until I reach Rogny. I
look at the old staircase of seven locks. They were used from 1642 until
1887. We were here on the last Saturday of July and watched magnificent
fireworks. I have never seen something alike before. It 's a huge spectacle
of fire, fireworks, light and music. It took about an hour and I was not bored
for a moment.
After Rogny the scenery is very dull. I walked it before so I skip it this time. At Dantelot I search and find the canal again. The lockkeepers houses are not occupied by lockkeepers anymore but they are in use by citizens. They look beautifully. Some of them are full with flowers.
At the lock of Moulin-Brulée we see another staircase of locks, now with four locks. It seems to me that on this side of the watershed the canal changes height with jumps. At some places the locks follow one after another, and after that there are long parts without any lock at all. Some days ago I cycled from Châtillon north and there I saw the same. I read that in earlier days a staircase of five locks was situated there. Unfortunately nowadays there is little to be seen anymore. The landscape varies. Sometimes I cycle in the woods, sometimes between the grain-fields and sometimes I see nothing but fields full of sunflowers.
The Canal du Briare is less nostalgic then I thought. It is the oldest connection-canal of France. Much is lost with the renewal of the canal at the end of the nineteenth century. The lockkeepers houses, the bridges, the locks are all dated at the end of the nineteenth century and many of them are identical, all built about 1880. There is little professional navigation. Fortunately I have seen one barge toiling through the water.
At
the last day I take a look at the Canal d'Orleans.
This canal is out of use since 1954. I drive by car to the village
Grignon at the watershed. There are three locks close together. Some old gates
hang as carcasses in their hinges. The gang-ways are moss-grown. Most of the
gates are missing. The canal breathes a lot of nostalgia. I follow the canal
towards Montargis. The towpath is always good practicable.
As I come lower, the atmosphere is less nostalgic. There is practically no water at the lowest but one part. The canal looks sadly so. I make a photograph of an old weeping-willow symbolizing the degeneration of the canal. Then I arrive at a three forked-waterway. Canal d'Orleans, Canal du Loing and Canal de Briare are meeting each other here close to a dilapidated factory.
