The Fourth of Four

On Tuesday, July 23, as we left Digoin behind, we also left the Canal lateral a la Loire and entered into the last of the four "Bourbonnais Route" canals, the Canal du Centre. At the time of its construction between 1783 and 1793, it was called the Canal du Charolais, after the historic region of France in which it was constructed. This artificial waterway is a transportation link between the town of Chalon-sur-Saone (to the east, on the Saone River) and Digoin in the west. It contains 60 locks within its 114-kilometer length. 

In several particulars, the differences between the Canal du Centre and the Loire Lateral Canal made themselves known immediately: (1) the locks on the Loire Lateral were primarily manual, with eclusiers on site to work the locks. On the Canal du Centre, the locks are automatic, with lock preparation done remotely, and with the lock up/lock down functions being triggered by a boater pulling on a designated blue cord after entering a lock; (2) the Canal du Centre has many more curved sections than the Loire Lateral Canal, which means more blind curves and thus a heightened need for slower approaches and for a judicious use of the horn to warn possible oncoming traffic; and (3) there are more low and narrow bridges--many at curves--on the Canal du Centre, with the same need for slow speed and the use of a warning horn.

Upper: the low bridges started as soon as we left Digoin.
Lower: We're still not sure how our first lock on the
Canal du Centre "knew" to be ready for us, but once we
started, all the subsequent locks were ready as well.

We didn't encounter much other boat traffic on the 23rd, but we did have to make a couple of slow passes. Things were a little shallow and weedy when we were forced to leave the center of the canal to make these passes, but it wasn't too bad.

Our stop of the day was the town of Paray-le-Monial. The quay of the halte fluvial was quite large and had space for several barges; it was also conveniently placed to the historic sites of the town center. First impressions being what they were, we thought that this town deserved a 3-night stop.

Paray has been a significant center of Christianity for centuries, for different reasons at different times. The first monastery, associated with the church at Cluny, was founded on the site of the current basilica in the late 10th century. The third iteration of the monastery church was built around 1100, and is said to be a smaller replica of the huge Cluny Abbey church that was almost completely destroyed in the decades following the Revolution.

The apse of the Basilica of Paray-le-Monial, with its
radiating chapels.

The front of the Basilica of Paray-le-Monial by night. At the
front, the tower to the right dates back to the 11th century and is the
remains of a prior church. The tower on the left is 12th century.

View of the basilica's interior. The modifications over the centuries have been few, one of the
most significant being the reconstruction of the southern apse in the 15th century into a 
funeral chapel for a noble local family. The porch also had to be reconstructed in the 19th century.
A restoration in the early years of the 21st century introduced some contemporary elements such as 
the chandeliers and new stations of the cross. 

The domed ceiling of the apse contains this (probably) 14th
century painting of "Christ in majesty" that was discovered
in 1935.

 

The medieval-style cloister gardens of the last
priory building (attached to the basilica to the south),
which was built in the 18th century.

Paray became a center of pilgrimage in 1873, in response to apparitions of the Sacred Heart--the heart of Jesus, the symbol of His love for humankind--that appeared to nun Mary Margaret Alacoque between 1673 and 1675, apparitions that were authenticated by her priest, Father Claude La Colombiere. Sister Mary Margaret became a saint in 1920.

The Chapel of Apparitions, the site where Sister Mary Margaret
said that she saw the apparitions of the Sacred Heart.

There are a number of other churches that have significance in the town. 

The Church of Notre-Dame, of which only the choir remains. Old
on the outside, repaired and modern on the inside, it is situated on 
the site of the town's cemetery.

The interior of La Colombiere Chapel. The chapel is dedicated to the priest
 who verified the apparitions of Sister Mary Margaret. Claude la Colombiere was
canonized in 1992; this chapel was built soon after he was beatified
 in 1929. The mosaics were amazing.

Left: the interior of the Chapel of Notre-Dame de Romay (12-13th century) on the outskirts of Paray.
 It was said to be a place where stillborn infants could be brought to temporarily restore them to life so that they could be baptized before burial. Right: The fountain on the chapel grounds is said to be miraculous for healing eye illnesses.

Not all is a religious experience, however. The town in general was clean and had a nice "feel" to it, including its small, but lovely, commercial area. 

The ice cream break from sightseeing was excellent!

Barging friends Ian and Lisette were in Paray at the same time we
were, and advised us of "happenings" in the center of town on Wednesday
 evening.  It turned out to be street theater, but sadly, we would have
had to understand more French to make it really enjoyable.

On Thursday, July 25, it seemed as though the boating community was converging on Paray. By the time the day was over, the quay was full up with boats. That evening we had a fun docktails/provide your own dinner evening quayside with four other couples.

We departed Paray just before 9 a.m. on Friday, July 26. We hadn't contacted the vnf, but the lock was open and the light "green" just upstream of our mooring when we arrived about 10 minutes before 9 a.m. OK. It seemed we could enter the lock, so we got a slightly early start on the cruising day in the comfortable morning hours. We didn't have any issues with water depth during our cruise, nor were weeds much of a problem. We are cruising through a heavily agricultural area and seeing lots of cows of the Charolais breed, named for the region we are in. 

Charolais cows are cream-colored, and are the most common beef breed in France. They are
everywhere in this region.

The road not taken. The Chateau de Digoine could be seen from the canal. We could have stopped, 
could have paid to enter, but we were still rather "Chateau-sated" from our Loire trip. We heard good
reports of it, though, from Ian and Lisette.

We stopped for the day at the small town of Genelard, which had an amazingly large halte fluvial for a town of its size. Power, water, no charge--the best kind of stop! One of the main points of interest for us in the town was its interpretive center for the WWII Line of Demarcation. France existed as an Occupied Zone in the north and west, administered by the Germans, and a "Free Zone" in the southeast, administered by the French, but under the strict eye of the Germans, from June 1940 until the Germans invaded the Free Zone in November 1942. The demarcation line was officially removed in March 1943. The interpretive center described life under that system.

The interpretive center had lots to read, but thankfully, they provided
the information in three languages: French, English, and German.

An Art Deco facade on one of the former Genelard factories. Its
aim was to make the factory look more "modern," than it actually
was. A true triumph of style over substance.

We were promised a concert in the evening, and this is our view from CARIB. An all music
program would have been great; however, this turned out to be more of a comic
 sketch with some music. Since the spoken parts were all in French, it wasn't easy to stay interested.

We were into our first lock--immediately adjacent to the halte--at 9 a.m. on Saturday, July 27. It was a beautiful morning, and aside from a scare when we met an overly fast cruiser at a bridge on a blind curve, everything went well. We almost made it to our destination of the day, Montceau-les-Mines, without incident, but what fun would that be? We were in Lock 10, the last lock of our cruising day, when it decided to (take a lunch) break.

We entered the lock, triggered the process, the gates closed--and then
opened again. Needless to say, the lock filling process didn't
start. As this happened between noon and 1 p.m., no vnf staff were
immediately available to assist us. Cue lunchtime. A phone call
after 1 p.m., a 15-minute wait, and we were on our way soon after.

Going the final stretch into the Montceau port de plaisance felt a little bit like an obstacle course. We had to pass under 3 lift bridges in quick succession, all operated by the vnf.

We passed under the first bridge (left) and the next (upper
right) was opening. The third bridge (lower right) was a
 pedestrian bridge with a vertical lift, the port/marina
just beyond.

Montceau was very different from most of the towns and villages that we've visited this year. It is a very young town in the scheme of things. In the early 1800's the Chagot family had moved its mining company from the nearby town of Blanzy to what is now Montceau. As the industry grew and the workforce increased, a town was founded in 1856 in response to the rapidly growing population that had come to work in the coal mines of the area. Its name--Montceau-les-Mines--reflects its heritage. The town developed on the southeastern bank of the Canal du Centre and the mining area was very close by, on the northwestern bank. 

We were able to get a spot on one of the floating docks of the city port, and it was one of the nicest ports we've seen in France. Not expensive, and we thought that three nights would be enough to see what we wanted to see of the town itself as well as take advantage of the numerous stores in the area. We treated ourselves on Saturday night to dinner out at an Italian restaurant called "La Trattoria" and had a great time. The couple at the adjacent table was very sociable and the owner of the restaurant was rather humorous. Oh, yes, the food was good, too.

CARIB in the port de plaisance of Montceau. Ian and Lisette showed up in their barge
the day after we arrived and snagged the T-head of the dock just behind us.

Upper: The Infinite Circle, a wooden sculpture installed in Maugrand Park
on the west side of the canal. You wouldn't know to look at it, but the parks
are on land reclaimed from what used to be coal mines. Underground mining
in the area stopped in 1992; open pit mining continued until 2000.
Lower: the old coal washing building, used for the sorting of the mined
 material. The former barge basin is now occupied by a boat maintenance
and repair company.

Upper: The City Hall in the background, the Mine Victim's Monument
 in the foreground (with the dates of the mining catastrophes.)
Lower: left, some of the town buildings had great wrought iron
decoration, like something you might expect in New Orleans; 
right, a view down the main shopping street. It was surprising how
many shops there were, given the proximity to the town of
a large commercial area with many "big box" stores. 

On Monday, July 29, Lon and I and Ian and Lisette cycled to the neighboring town of Blanzy for a visit to the Museum of the Mine. It was a very warm day, but at least part of the visit included access to some of the underground areas where the temps were cooler. The tour guide was a wealth of information--in French, of course--but we English speakers were given a written guide to the place with abbreviated explanations. 

Under the sky (left) and underground (right). I can't imagine
doing that job day in and day out. And the horses that worked
in the mines had it even worse. 

We ended up spending a total of four nights at the port in Montceau. It was a bit more time than the town warranted (but I will say that even though it was totally lacking in things medieval I still liked the town). The length of the stay was a self-imposed navigation stop on our part to avoid having to cruise during some very hot (90+ degrees Fahrenheit) days. The cruising part might not be too bad, but working locks in hot sun can be very draining and probably a bit dangerous. We are fortunate enough to have air conditioning on CARIB, so we were more than happy to take advantage of our access to electricity. As it turned out, sticking around the port on that 4th day was a very good thing. Lon was able to make a repair to our indoor driving station after a trip to the local bricolage (hardware). He had also contacted the local boat maintenance company via e-mail, on Monday the 29th, about our bow thruster problem, but we didn't get a response. Then, a knock at our door on Tuesday afternoon turned out to be one of the owners, and he said that he would be able to repair our broken bow thruster drive chain within a couple of days. We can continue to cruise, and he will drive to meet us wherever we are when the repair is complete. Wow! Totally unexpected, but completely awesome.

We left Monceau this morning for a very short cruise (2 locks and 3 kilometers) to the halte fluvial at Blanzy. It's still beastly hot outside, but the quay has power and we're comfortable inside. It should be somewhat less hot tomorrow, and because we cruised the little bit today, we should be able to get to our next destination in the cooler morning hours.