French canals

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Hi

I am planning to move my 11.5m X 1.55m sailing boat to the med. I can sail round the outside or go through the middle. Does anyone have any experience of doing the canal piece they can share - costs - difficulty - time scales - problems - recommended stops etc. I have looked at Michael Briant book. Many thanks
 
Hi

Is that not on the Canal du midi bordeaux / Sete route? I thought the other was more commercial and deeper. On this basis there would be very few sailing boats that could actually get through?
 
I've done the inland route 5 times now, and can thoroughly recommend it.

We had no trouble bringing a Carter 33 (draft of 1.8 metres) through from Port St Louis to Le Havre in November 2000.

The key is not to rush.

In the Carter, we were in a hurry, and did the trip in two weeks. This was hard work: on passage from dawn till dusk every day, regardless of weather, no sightseeing. We just pulled up for the night wherever we happened to have got to that evening (which gave us some interesting, industrial halts that we'd have otherwise passed by).

In June 1990, we took 6 weeks from Calais to Port St Louis. This gave time to stop each day for lunch, to make day trips by bike or bus, yet still feel that we were making good progress.

Heading North in 1991, we met a Danish family who were heading back home. They'd taken 3 years off work in which they had oringinally planned to 'do' the whole Mediterranean. In fact, they enjoyed the Inland Waterways so much, that they'd never left them.

As regards where to stop, well there's an almost infinite number of options, depending on which route you take. Impossible to make specific recommendations. You'll probably want to linger in Paris, Lyon and Avignon. Apart from that, stop when and where the fancy takes you.

A trip I would love to do again.
 
Paris, Lyon and Avignon are great places, but I wouldn't - personally - leave the boat unattended on the public quay in Lyon for very long and having just come through Avignon (heading upstream) the facilities for boats are woeful. A big shame on both counts because they're both, as I say, terrific places that deserve and repay some exploration time.
Paris does, of course, have an excellent port de plaisance right in the centre at the Place Bastille.
In addition to these three there are many others, smaller, well worth lingering in. Towns, villages and hamlets. We're looking forward greatly to stopping soon in Viviers for a few nights. Unspoilt (unrestored) medieval small town with France's smallest cathedral at the top.
 
Yes it is. (Midi) Although the "official" depth is 1.6 it is often less. The "Freycinet" canals of northern France have an "official" depth of 1.8 metres minimum as do the Canal Lateral a Loire and Canal du Centre which comprise the main thoroughfare down to the Med. For the full picture get "Inland Waterways of France" by David Edwards May or "The Channel to The Med" by Derek Bowskill. Both are good.
 
"just come through Avignon (heading upstream) the facilities for boats are woeful"

Do they still have the showers in the 'steel box'?

25Avignon.jpg
 
Heading past the marina (to the right in the pic), there's the town quay: we've stopped there for free several times, though last time was in 2002. Maybe no longer possible?
 
Hi Neal,

I didn't think the 'marina' existed anymore after it got swept away a few years ago. We were there the year before last and there was only the quay to use.

Have they replaced the marina now, because the picture seems to show it where the quay is, i.e. north of the 'bridge'?
 
Avignon

The showers are still in the bilges of the steel barge - the last time we used them (2004) they were 'ok'.
The pontoons have been gone for many years now, swept away by the Rhone and never replaced. There is frankly, limited space along the public quays for the numbers of boats, some of them quite large steel liveaboard peniches, that (understandably) want to moor up and see Avignon. Those that know Avignon will also know that the quay is next to a very busy and noisy main road. For us, the end result was having to tie up a fair way along the quayside (although no problem for that reason per se), all other places occupied, no water or electricity (again, we can live without where necessary) - for 12 euros a night nonetheless - but also on a pretty rough broken glass strewn quay with shady drunk or druggy characters wandering past looking the boat over and engaging us in 'conversation' and sleeping in cars and vans alongside. The first thing the boat next door did was to come and warn us not to leave the boat unattended, although we'd sussed that one out already. We're not overly sensitive shrinking violets demanding pristine newness or featherbedding, and Avignon is one of Europe's 'must see' places, but the town's welcome for boats is frankly pretty indifferent. We stayed for the shortest overnight time feasible (we explored the town very fully last time) and moved on.
A shame.
 
Re: Avignon

Hi Grehan,

Yes, I thought I was right. SWMBO used the showers in the barge a few times when we were last there, but I preferred to use the one aboard. We were lucky when we stayed there (for three weeks) as we were right by the steps about halfway along the quay and right by the water and electricity points!

Except some of the other cruisers(!!) we had no problems with 'dubious' characters or any cars on the quay, but agree that the road could be noisy in the rush hours. We left the boat all day, just about every day we were there, either cycling off to different places or taking a bus. never had the slightest problem, and nor did any of our friends as it happens. Just lucky I guess.

We hadn't intended spending so much time there as it was blazing hot and there was a big music and plays festival on at the time, so millions of tourists. We were on the way down to the Med again, but SWMBO's Dad became ill so we had to head back home.

Avignon was the 'turn round' point. Sorry your visit wasn't so relaxed, but it's the same with most places - sometimes you hit it right and another time something mucks it up.
 
We've just reached St Jean de Losne via the Seine, Yonne and canal de Bourgogne which is supposedly a Freycinet canal.

Don't believe the official 1.8m depth. Our Gib'Sea 402 is 12.2m with a draft of 1.55m (laden) and we encountered quite a number of sections, mainly on the Yonne side, that were 1.5m or less, even two sections that were 1.2m in the main channel - a real struggle pushing the keel through more than a foot of mud! The edges are even worse and make ad hoc mooring more or less impractical, even for short periods like the lock-keepers lunch break.

We have also had problems with weed which is very thick in places on the canal. The raw water inlet was totally blocked several times. We managed to partially clear it with the tender pump, but we'll need a lift-out to sort it before we tackle the Saône and Rhone.

Lack of facilities was a disappointment on the canal and several times we had to moor up overnight at 45/60 deg to the bank due to no depth.
 
Re: Avignon

Yes, that's true. Closer to the capitainerie peniche the mooring ain't too bad. Right the way along, where we were, ain't so good!
Compared to other places Avignon is an amazing place, let down by its boat facilities, in all honesty. Whereas Viviers, where we have just arrived, is also an amazing historic place (medieval town, France's smallest cathedral (it's very small, but its got Gobelin tapestries)) with really excellent boating facilities (for its diminutive size). We love it, very very happy to be back here!!!
 
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