There are seven hundred and fifty miles of canals  in Burgundy alone The odd stately home gave a clue of past glories and ancient lock cottages punctuated our journey down the tree lined waterway.

There is no other country to touch France for the sheer mileage of canals and rivers. Open a map and the mass of squiggly blue lines gives you an idea of the profusion of rivers that flow through the gently rolling countryside.

We explored the Oudon and  also the Mayenne which is perhaps one of the most pleasant rivers in France. It meandered through green hills and forests and passed great lawns leading up to majestic chateaux.

We picked up the boat at Anger  and spent the night before at an hotel overlooking the tree lined river Ouden. 

Along the waters edge flat bottom boats were moored to poles that stuck up from the shallows and on either side a heron and a man considered the fishing.    

It was pretty as a picture and by next morning we were part of it, in our own boat and ready to merge into the scenery, well as much as you could ‘merge’  in a hire cruiser called ‘Charlie Brown’.

The days that followed were a pleasant mix of pottering up the river, cycling through little villages and popping into shops and cafes, generally finding places seldom visited by tourists. Mind you with the bikes sometimes we worked to get to them. It takes hills to make pretty scenery. It  took a couple of days for it to dawn on me that the tow path usually provided the flattest route to the baker shop!.  The cruisers that  passed usually gave a wave to ‘Charlie Brown’  and we met a multinational collection of crews. We found that because there was very little change in water level, the locks were very easy to use, so it was a good place for beginners, with no worry about passing massive barges or  commercial ships.

A pair young Scots girls came  back to the next boat with shopping bags laden with cheese, paté, ham and wine told us that they had being invited to play football with the locals.  They told us that there were four on her boat and they were taking it easy, usually tying  up about five each evening and under way. at mid-day. “That’s the good thing about it, you haven’t got landladies knocking on your door telling to get out of bed.”  Incidentally when you wake in the morning you need to look at the watch or the birds will fool you into getting up at a ridiculous hour.

   Canal Lateral d’ Loire

It was the fun of messing about on the river that drew me back to France to try out the canals.. There are seven hundred and fifty miles of them in Burgundy alone. Blue Line Cruisers have a base at  Marseilles-les-Aubigny on the  and we gingerly edged out a gleaming  forty one foot Commander cruiser into the waterway.

With no current to worry about it was easy to handle.  Back in the 17^th and 18^th century Aubigny was the canal capital of central France and the odd stately home gave a clue of past glories. There was a feeling of history and ancient lock cottages punctuated our journey down the tree lined waterway.

A green light close to a thick cable suspended above the water signalled that we could enter our first lock.  I edged the boat towards the cable, a member of the crew managed to catch it and give it a twist, then as by magic,  the great lock gates opened . Once inside, the lock automatically filled and as the boat rose up we emerged  to find a lady in blue overalls tending a garden. We were at Ecluse No 17 at  St. Maurice.

There was a notice board with a map of  local attractions and we began to see the value of having the bikes on board.  It was to be our last experience of operating the mechanical locks, thereafter a lock keeper would catch our lines and as we moved on, whizz off in little blue van to prepare the next one. When eventually we left his ‘patch’ he phoned on to have the next lock ready. At each we got a friendly welcome from the figures that appeared from the shrubbery. It was very with lush with fields full of  wild flowers, daisies, poppies, and buttercups.

We used the bikes to explore the castles of the Loire valley. At Donzy we found an old red sandstone church with a grave yard crammed full of tombstones, and rusting metal crosses, and reckoned that  it would have made a superb setting for a Hammer Horror Movie.  We saw few other boats,  apart from a British yacht coming other way with it’s mast lashed to the deck. The skipper waved to us, he was on his way home but even so, we knew we’d be in Scotland before him.

We continued exploring and on and on the way back down the river we revisited the places we enjoyed the most, there was the restaurant where Dad did the cooking and  a little toddler with great brown eyes assisted Mum at the tables.  This was France through the back door and it was good to be part of it.

Brochures: Hoseasons: ‘Cruising in France with Connoisseur’  
Tel 01502 500 555

Crown Blue Line Cruisers, Le Grand Bassin -B.P.21. 11400 Castelnaudary France.   Tel 0033 68 23 17 51

Blakes Tel: 01603 782911.