Wednesday 9th May 2018 Montchanin to Montceau-les-Mines 11 kms 8 locks

Lock 5's bricked up empty house

12.8ºC Breezy, grey clouds, brief sunshine later but wind turning cold. All the other boats left before us except for the narrow DB. Gave them all a good head start (most went in the opposite direction to us), and didn’t set off until Mike had been to ask if it was OK to leave our car on the furniture shop’s car park for a couple of days. No problem. It was 9.45am when we left – a man in a VNF van in the yard alongside asked where we were going, etc. Chilly, we put fleeces on and kept them on all day. A short distance on the last of the

Boats at Jeff's yard in Montchanin

summit pound, past Jeff’s yard – full of boats as always – and on to lock 1 Ocean. There is no sensor or hanging pole so the locks are set by the roving keeper. All the locks closed down, lock lights out, after we’d passed through them so we were the only boat moving and the keeper had programmed them to shut down after we’d left. The keeper arrived at lock 2 Brenots and asked if we’d got a problem – no only just got here – not as fast as the cruisers – OK - then Mike pulled the rope. Lock 3 Farée and we noted how quiet the D974

Linkage for opening and closing gates (lock3)

had become – there is a "new" bypass N70 which takes most of the traffic. Lock 4 Paizenot had a lived in house but the garden was brown, looked like it had been dosed with weedkiller. Beautiful blue meadow sage flowers on the lockside. Below the lock there was an old loading staithe. The lock house at 5 Planche-Calard was derelict. The house had gone altogether at lock 6 Brûlard, just a capped well remained. It took longer than usual for the lock to empty and the gates to open. The pound below was low, the gauge at lock

Meadow sage at lock 3

7 La Roche showed there was 30cm of water missing. The house beside lock 7 was lived in but well fenced off from the lock. Through Blanzy, now stacked out with boats both at the mooring and beyond the road bridge. We paused under the bridge and Mike went to look to see if there was any drinking water – nope, taps turned off, apply at the Mairie. Our last lock was 8 Mireau, also with a lived in house and a well-fenced large garden. A big Liebherr digger was parked right alongside the lock. The lock emptied slowly then the gates took ages to start to open, didn’t open fully and then all the power went off. 1pm. Backed up to the ladder by the top

Old loading staithe near lock 4

end gates and Mike went to call on the intercom – someone answered - it was very loud and unintelligible, Mike told them lock 8 was en panne. It took half an hour for our man in a van to arrive, same one as we spoke to this morning when we set off. Mike asked if he’d come all the way from Montchanin. Yes. It was 1.30pm when we left lock 8 and fifteen minutes later we tied up next to a newly rebuilt Leclerc supermarket. There was a wooden staging about 10m long for floating shoppers, the boat overhung each end. We had some lunch and then went shopping. Useful to have a supermarket right on the doorstep. Mike went searching for some expanding foam in a can to beef up our two remaining fenders which keep getting flattened when the boat leans on them in locks. Filled them with foam and left them on the decking for the foam to cure.

Boats moored at Blanzy

Moored by Leclerc supermarket in Montceau