Are there free electronic charts for French canals?

[Tradewinds]

Asking for a friend.

There is one thing which i have not been able to solve which your access to the forums may be able to resolve. The problem is finding electronic charts for the French canals. Several of the books and a program i have indicate that the French canal system provides electronic charts for free. However when i go to the site it only gives me a few isolated charts. it would assist if you could inquire for me on the forums whether there is a source for free electronic charts for the french canals. Most other countries have quite extensive electronic chart coverage so the French may as well but i cannot find them.

I did a search but the last thread about free downloadable electronic charts for the French canal system was 2014 and I've bookmarked that.

Has anything changed in the last four years?

Is there a source for a comprehensive set of free, downloadable charts for the French canal system?

TIA

 

[macd]

I daresay your pal may have already found this page, but perhaps not:
http://www.vnf.fr/vnf/content.vnf?action=content&occ_id=34871

This is the relevant text in English:
To view the electronic inland navigation charts you can download the viewer SeeMyENC of SevenCs by clicking this link: Seemyenc 2.1.1 data viewer.
The link is this: https://www.sevencs.com/see-my-enc-download/

 

[WightMistress]

Hi,
I have just come to this page as I am doing a similar search. I am not massively bothered about not having them, so this is a casual search (I have spent 5 seasons in the French waterways, navigating from Dunkirk, Calais and Honfleur a number of routes and as far south as Cap Estang. I have a huge collection of the VNF cartes fluviale, covered with manic pencil jottings. The most useful electronic gizmo we carry is our little car GPS navigator, (Doris.) Doris knows nothing about waterways, but the moment you pass under a bridge, she recognises it and, hey presto, you have a fix. Distances between points and the number/size of locks is really what I needed when planning a passage, so I could determine times and draw up what we in the Royal Navy called a WTFAWG (pronounced 'wotforg') - Where the F&&& Are We Graph. Time vs distance on graph paper. Very useful and very good for pojecting ETAs for speeds and locks (working on your choice of average locking times - I used 15 minutes, as it allowed for waiting times averaged out.) Anyway I digress. What I have found for the Rhone (my next project this year) is this: https://www.inforhone.fr/Infos/CarteECDIS It covers the Rhone but seems to miss out the last bit in the south. I will try to find it. The charts run in S57 format and I have just managed to load up and make them work on the latest version of Euronav Seapro 3000 V11.1946, which I have just bought to replace my old XP Version 6 series.

 

[wonkywinch]

Is http://map.openseamap.org/ any good for your purpose?

 

[WightMistress]

Many thanks for that, it looks like you need to be online to access these. I have managed to get the Rhone charts up and running on Seapro and am kinda hoping to do the same for the Saone Marne and Seine.
Thank you for you responding, much appreciated,
Regards
Steve

 

[wonkywinch]

Many thanks for that, it looks like you need to be online to access these. I have managed to get the Rhone charts up and running on Seapro and am kinda hoping to do the same for the Saone Marne and Seine.

Steve, you can download OpenSea maps to use in a variety of devices. I put them on my handheld Garmin.

http://openseamap.org/index.php?id=kartendownload&L=1