Tuesday 12th June 2018 Chatillon-Coligny to Montargis 25kms 10 locks

Orange lilies growing wild along the canal banks

14.2ºC Sunny after heavy rain the previous evening, clouds gathering later and a few showers of rain. Just us on the moorings still. Set off at 9.40am.  3kms to the first lock. When we were 1km from lock 25 Lepinoy, two cruisers went past, a British one and a Dutch one. A large steel cruiser was moored above the lock. A man in a van worked the manual lock for us. Work was in progress on making the towpath into a cycle piste and the storm weir opposite and inflow from the

Tar sprayer - turning the towpath into a cycle path

river had a coffer dam around it so they could make the tarmac path across it. There were orange lilies growing along the banks, don’t think they are wild, just garden escapees. 2.3kms to lock 26 Montbouy where a young lady worked the lock. A little further on another large hotel boat was moored. A long pound of 8.4kms. Another British steel cruiser went past. 1.5kms from the next lock a Locaboat hire boat went past. The next four locks were automatic,

He will never swallow that!

linked, and the first lock 27 Montambert was activated as we passed through a set of sensors. There were cameras at each lock. I lifted the bar and we dropped down 3.70m (all four locks about the same depth) Lock houses were empty and one had all its windows smashed. Down 28 Chesnoy – a lizard raced down a wall into the grass. A man in a van turned up at lock 29 Moulin de Tours and the guy was very chatty and interested in the boat. He told us that the Seine was currently in flood and was closed – that might cause us a few problems. The water in the next pound was cristal clear but with lots of weeds, our man in a van said that they had stopped putting chemicals in the water. Next pound was back to mud coloured. Down 30 Souffre Douleur – what a name for a lock – suffer pain! Where did that come from? we asked – he had no idea. There were a couple of edible snails on the damp

Stainless steel pipe to put ropes round
in lock 28 Chesnoy

lock walls. Rain poured down as we headed for the next lock on a 1.9kms pound. Lock 31 Sablonières (soap maker) had been part modified, it had manually operated gates (our keeper had asked if we could get through one, yes no problem) but the paddles were operated using a heavy duty yellow control box. Our man in a van phoned to tell the next keeper we were on our way. 2.3kms to lock 32 La Toilerie (linen maker) where a more or less silent keeper worked the manual lock for us and asked if we were continuing, yes. 4.1kms to the next lock. On towards the large town of Montargis with some very posh architect-designed houses along the road alongside the canal. Where we had moored in the past by the maison de retrait (sheltered housing for the elderly) there was now a long line of mostly dead boats, some of which were looking pretty ropy, and a few boats with crews aboard. Lock 33 La Marolle was next to the VNF offices and a man and a young lady (under tuition) came out to work the lock and take registration numbers. The man handed Mike a controller for the automatic locks on the canal du Loing, the next lock was automatic then we’d have to ring the keeper at lock 35 when we set off to tell him were coming. A short distance to lock 34 La

An edible snail in lock 30 Souffre Douleur

Reinette (the frog) which was surrounded by crowds of people, including a bunch with a tour guide who was busy doing his speech. Gongoozlers everywhere. Glad when the lock gates opened and we could continue. More boats were moored below the lock – a very smartly painted blue and white péniche called La Petite Venise which was a restaurant boat. A tripper was heading for the lock we’d just left – with more crowds of gongoozlers. Under a bridge and past the police station where more old péniches and DBs were moored. We carried on towards

Chateau in Montargis

the end of a very long quay along an old railway track, which is used once a week by the silo. Two péniches, having just loaded at the silos, were setting off heading downhill towards Moret. It was 4pm. As we were tying up a town council van arrived and stopped by the boat - two young men got out ready to do some strimming, but one wanted to try his English and Mike and he conversed for a while, he said they each had to cut 10kms of grass a day – that’s a lot of grass. While I was putting stuff away and about to go in the cabin via the side doors, a young blonde lady started talking to me in rapid French – I hadn’t got a clue what she was saying, I lost it after she’d said she was sorry to bother me but.. so I replied in English to say I hadn’t understood, it turned out she was asking me for some drinking water. OK I filled a glass with cold filtered water from the 'fridge and got Mike to hand it to her, she drank it, said thank you and carried on walking. What that was in aid of we have no idea – maybe she was just thirsty? 

Moored in Montargis looking back at town

Moored in Montargis looking away from town at silos