29 kms, 6
locks
Being a
Sunday, these locks are not manned unless you make arrangements the day
before. On Saturday afternoon, when Ian
spoke to the lock-keeper and asked for service at 9.00 he was told that was not
possible but a commercial barge had booked for 8.00 and we could go through
with him.
So we were
up bright and early and set off at 7.45, as we did so we saw the commercial,
Mirador, also pulling away from his night mooring and heading for the lock.
The lock was ready and waiting and as soon as we were all tied up the
lockie set things in motion. It was
still quite a bit before 8.00 and by 8.05 we were out the other side. Things were looking good. The locks close for lunch from 12.30 to 13.30
and we had 6 locks to traverse. We thought
we could make it to the last lock before it closed for lunch but it would be
close.
Upstream of
the second lock there is a 4.5 km long canal cutting out a series of tight
loops in the river. It is narrow and
shallow compared to the river and the Mirador ahead of us slowed down to just
4kms/hr. Painfully slow.
 |
| Mirador ahead of us on the river |
 |
| Mirador entering the narrow canal section |
The next 5
locks all have sloping sides, 2 of them with floating pontoons where Elle and
Njord could raft up together but the last 3 have no pontoons and Mirador was
not a friendly barge which allowed us to tie alongside them. So we went to the front of the lock, one boat
on each side, tied up just with a stern line and held the boat off the side of
the lock with boat hooks. The lock
movement is slow and gentle so it was really easy.
 |
| The side of the lock sloping away beneath us, and when full the water level is just 10cm below the top of the quay |
We made it
through the last lock a minute before 12.30 and were tied up at the pontoon in
Montereau by 13.00.
This town is
at the confluence of the Yonne and Seine Rivers.
 |
| Two rivers with distinctly different colour waters. |
There is a
huge statue of Napolean, erected in about 1867, because this is the site of one
his last victories when he defeated the combined Prussian and Austrian armies
as they marched towards Paris.
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| It was during this battle that he uttered the words "Don't worry my friends, the bullet that will kill me has not yet been cast". |
There is a
very interesting looking church but it was all locked up.
 |
| At last, I have managed to take a picture of flying buttress that shows how light and airy they were, yet still managed to support the upper sections of a cathedral |
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| I love they way these old churches have mis-matched towers and steeples. They evolved as succeeding generations added more embellishments to the original 12th/13th century structures |
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| Again, all the heads are missing... |
 |
| ...or the statues are gone completely |
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