Through the French Canals - video

Grehan

Grehan

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 Jun 2001
Messages
3,729
Location
Inland France + Oxon.
www.french-waterways.com
The video section seems to have closed down, but if anyone's interested I have posted a vid on YouTube of a complete journey through the rivers, canals and waterways of France, from Le Havre/Honfleur to Arles (via the Rivers Seine, Marne, Saone and Rhone) and then onwards through the Canal du Midi and the Canal de Garonne, nearly to Bordeaux.

Through the French Waterways
 
lovely trip
(planning towards it myself - before 40 if the plan works!).
thanks for posting.
rgds
c
 
Hi Paul - no, we haven't yet got as far as Bordeaux itself nor is Grehan#2 very suitable for a sea-going trip. That is to say, not at all. :) Having done the 'Med exit' on Grehan#1 we are interested in reports from the Gironde side.
 
Thanks for that Grehan.Made me feel v.nostalgic.Would dearly love to do it again some time.Trouble is our caravan don't float! :)

Cheers.

David.
 
Grehan - we will be following extactly your route starting 2nd April on the tide up the Seine! So prefect timing for us. Thanks - I am looking forward to the trip - can't wait!
 
Gironde side.

paulclan said:
Hi Grehan,

Very enjoyable, nice of you to share it with us!

Did you go out to the Atlantic?
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There may be typos, wood jumped out of the chop saw and attached my finger!A word about tides in the Gironde and cautioary tale. Habbourmaster at Paulliac looked doleful when I said I wished to go downstream. Looked up tided tables and looked even more doleful!Coefficient was 102. seems to vary between 90's and more than 102.Downstream trip was wild water! 20knots of wind on nose is nothing on its own, but coupled with this spring ebb, the result was washing machine like and we were very glad to track a ferry into Port Bloc opp side to Royan.Whew! engine stopped three times due to branches getting in the way underwater, although only on tickover to maintain steerage way.No damage to s drive or prop maybe due to shock absorber built into hub.So try to go to Royan when the coefficient is less!
Good sailing and boating to all.
P.S. nice music on slides, did you play it Jim?
 
We left Bordeaux for Royan with a stop alongside an empty barge at Pauillac in September 1970. No drama on the way as I recall.

Our problem was that the Admiralty pilot showed Royan as a drying port with plenty of space alongside the walls. Entering at the top of a fast dropping spring tide we found that the harbour had been filled with pontoons for small plywood cruisers and there was nowhere to turn a 42ft motor sailer except by going alongside a wall at the far end. (we didn't do reversing!).

Unfortunately when we did that we were immediately aground and only refloated four days later, much to the annoyance of the harbourmaster and several boats whose access we were blocking.

Rather embarrassing really.
 
paulclan said:
P.S. nice music on slides, did you play it Jim?
Click to expand...
Malheuresement I have your chop saw's ability when it comes to playing an instrument. A big regret; I'd give a lot to be able to play like Ry Cooder - except the time and dedication, I guess. No, the current professor of piano at the Royal College, Ronan O'Hora, plays Debussy. Girl with the Flaxen Hair and two Arabesques.
Thanks for the Gironde notes - I'm doing some more website development right now and I'll try to remember to incorporate into the Bordeaux page.
 
Slides Music!

Hi again Jim & Others,

Finger much better tonight!All there too!
Thanks for the musical info Jim, will look out for the tunes!Thought it might be a French piano player , Georges Feyer or some such name comes to mind. These ancient LP's developed bumps and became unplayable alas.Nearly as bad as hard drives that quit!
Saw a movie "Les Choiristes" in a friends house few nights ago (Eng subs) really good movie have you seen it?

Best to all!
 
Gironde

Just a final word of caution when transitting (?) the Gironde either way. There is apparently a bore of sorts which can happen during high tide coefficients and can be quite severe in the narrower sections of the river. Always take local advice during such times. The tidal streams on the upper levels can be very severe. We were there at around 80/85% coefficient and the stream rates were in the order of four knots plus. As an ex-east-coaster it was great to be able to ferry glide up to the pontoon; just like a spring ebb on the Crouch! Slack tide at high water lasted exactly 10 seconds and then everything begins immediately banging away in the opposite direction equally as strongly. Even with doubled up mooring lines the noises were quite alarming at times.

As for the Pont Pierre in Bordeaux itself, suffice it to say that it was one of the scariest experiences I have had on the boat. Low bridge (actually looks lower than it is) narrow arches and a four knot current up your a**e pushing you to what seems like certain disaster was not a pleasant experience and we went through at around half tide!!! All you can do is put on a load of throttle to keep steerage and blast through. Mrs. R. said I went very quiet and pale for a while. In the event all was fine but scary, very scary...........

Moral(s) of the story:
Always have your mooring sorted out well before the turn of the tide.
Always double up mooring lines
Always take local advice re the tides even if it means delaying your trip.
Never be tempted to try and push too far in a single day.
Don't try and do anything at slack tide as there isn't one!

For all that a great trip.

Chas
 
chasroberts said:
As for the Pont Pierre in Bordeaux itself, suffice it to say that it was one of the scariest experiences I have had on the boat. Low bridge (actually looks lower than it is) narrow arches and a four knot current up your a**e pushing you to what seems like certain disaster was not a pleasant experience and we went through at around half tide!!! All you can do is put on a load of throttle to keep steerage and blast through. Mrs. R. said I went very quiet and pale for a while. In the event all was fine but scary, very scary...........
Click to expand...

When we did it in 2005 we arrived at the bridge at around 3/4 tide, easily covered the distance from Royan with tide under us all the way. We had taken note of the pilot instruction to only pass through the central arches, to find that every one was closed due to repair work. There was absolutely no chance of turning round, so we went through one on the south side. Plenty of water all the way but our hearts were well beyond our mouths!

At low water we could see that parapet stones had fallen (been pushed?) off the bridge at all the central arches. There appeared to be plenty of water beneath all the others though.
 
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