Canal de Bourgogne, travel-report 2002: eleventh day

This afternoon we arrived in Brienon-sur-Armançon. We have eaten a pizza from a fast-food restaurant, one of the only places which is open here. To be honest, Brienon makes a desolate impression, nailed up shops, others are closed because the are having holidays and all buildings are in the colors brown, black and especially gray. We make inquiries if we can watch television this evening because we would like to see the UEFA-cup final: Feyenoord - Borussia Dortmund. Unfortunally the hotel-restaurant is closed this evening because there are no visitors and the other cafe's and restaurants don't have a television set. Maybe we can listen to radio 1 on board.

We are moored at a spacious quay along a busy road, the Route de Joigny. Between the road and the water is a lawn with picnic benches and a barbecue place. The children will start a fire in it this afternoon. There also so is a jeu-de-boules track.

This morning I actually meet Marie at the bakery. She has to work this day on the base in Joigny. On her advice I buy two gougeres. These are some kind of little cheese breads. They taste really good.

From Flogny we navigate in the direction of Saint-Florentin. At the beginning the locks follow quickly one after an other, later on there is more distance between the locks. Then we come in a lock with a huge fall. It's lock 106-107. In earlier days this was a double lock. We descend more than five meters in this lock. We arrive in Saint-Florentin just before noon. I moor just before the lock and the lockkeeper is already making the lock ready for us but she stops immediately as I tell her that we travel on later this afternoon.

We take a look at the aqueduct over the Armance. This one is beautifully made in masonry. After lunch we walk into Saint-Florentin. The church which must have beautiful stained-glass windows is closed and so are the shops.

We are again during the siesta in a city. We have a drink on a terrace until half past two. At that hour the tourist-information opens and according to the signs we can get a key of the church there to take a look. At a quarter to three the tourist-information however is still closed and we go back to the boat empty-handed.

As we are back on board, a oncoming boat just leaves the lock. There are already two boats going into the lock ask the lockkeeper if we can join them and she says that would be no problem at all. So we join in with the other two rented boats. In front of us are a couple of Frenchmen. They can not manage the limited space in the lock chamber. They bob just between the Germans in front of them and us. We are the one boat that lays stabile with two ropes around one bollard. We navigate in convoy to Brienon. As we look back we see the church of Saint-Florentin in a straight line high above the canal.

As we navigate on I notice the decay of the Canal de Bourgogne. I see all kinds of edges: camp-sheddings of wood, iron and concrete but the most of them are fallen into decay. There are also parts without any form of proper edges. At some places the water streams almost over the towpath. It makes a neglected impression on me.

At every lock is a lockkeeper now. Sometimes they come out of the lockkeepers house, sometimes they are waiting for us in their cars or in the sheds which can be found near every lock.

Just before Brienon we come by some large grain elevators. Here the professional navigation can earn some money because I see a brand new quay with transshipment facilities. In Brienon we take a look at the oval wash house. After the beautiful round wash house in Tonnerre this one is a little bit disappointing though the pictures are very good. Obviously the climax of the Canal de Bourgogne is situated behind us .

The weather is beautiful again today. In the afternoon we are I wearing shorts and T-shirts. While making a fire in the barbecue oven Pepijn and Maarten are still walking around half naked this evening. They walk with burning twigs like burning torches, blow them out and light them again etcetera.