A Barge for Amy
The Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, the Château De Chambord on the Loire, the Palace of the Popes in Avignon, the Cathedral of Reims and the Castle Rohan in Josselin have one thing in common; they are adjacent to one of the 137 navigable rivers and canals, stretching for 5,000 miles throughout France. Moreover, they can be visited while cruising on a drive-it-yourself, no experience necessary, rental barge, widely available throughout the waterway system.
My wife, Amy and I discovered this opportunity when planning a three week trip to France in June of last year. We wanted to visit the WWII sites of Normandy and had arranged to do some ocean rowing in St. Malo on the Brittany coast and were looking for a unique travel experience while there. Having taken a wonderful barge trip with my family 40 years earlier in the Burgundy region, I began to look for something similar and a quick web search led me to Locaboat, a barge rental company with 21 locations throughout Europe, a dozen of which are in France.
Our choice, given its proximity to our other destinations was the Canal du Nantes a Brest. This is a canal that was begun in 1804 by Napoleon I to enable the movement of supplies to major ports while avoiding English blockades. Built by prisoners under appalling conditions, using picks and shovels, and primitive blasting techniques, many died during its construction. It wasn’t completely finished until 1853 by Napoleon III. While the days of its commercial viability are long past, today’s southern navigable section is maintained for recreational boaters, and is 130 miles in length stretching from the port of Nantes in the south to the town of Pontivy in the North where it joins the Blavet Canal.
We would start in the village of Saint-Martin-sur-Oust, which is home port to a small Locaboat fleet. On arrival, we found the offices in an old stone building alongside the Rive de Oust, where a half dozen stubby barges were moored, We presented ourselves, signed a bunch of documents and paid the balance due. With our account settled, a delightful Englishman, named Andrew, led us to the dock and down to our 30 foot long barge, the Xouaxange, named after a small commune in the Moselle region of France. `
Once aboard, he acquainted us with all the vessel’s appliances and equipment, provided us with manuals on boat operation and on navigation, and then demonstrated how to start and stop the diesel engine, how to warm it so it would run smoothly, some piloting advice on managing the locks and then took us for a spin down the Oust under a bridge (aim for the yellow diamond, which marks the deepest part of the channel) and back, during which Amy and I took turns steering and maneuvering our craft.
With a half hour of instruction under our belt, we finished loading our baggage, moved our rental car to a secure area and returned to the barge to put away a variety of groceries and household goods we had ordered from a nearby epicerie. Then, after deliberating which direction was south and giving each other a “well, here we go” look of anticipation, we untied the mooring lines, and gently nosed into the canal. Our destination, La Gacilly, a charming village we had passed through earlier in the day.
Canals have been around for eons. First for irrigation, then for transportation. Darius I of Persia built them in 600 BC. Early structures built to deal with different water levels were called flash locks. A barrier would be raised and the water would rush out along with the locks occupants. This made upstream travel difficult. The Chinese came up with the pound lock, utilizing a pool to refill the lock, which made progress much easier. The Europeans contributed mitred lock gates in the 16th century, a design attributed to Leonardo de Vinci, and which remain the basic design of today’s systems. And by the 18th century, transportation by canal helped usher in the Industrial Revolution. The English, in particular, had latticed their island with canals.
And it turns out, pleasure travel by barge on what historically were waterways built for commercial traffic seems to have started with the English. Robert Louis Stevenson, who as a young man paddled a canoe from Belgium to France in the 1870’s, which he wrote about in a travelogue titled “An Inland Voyage, describes an Englishman, who had come up the canal in a steamer with his “wife and family with him, and servants.” The late Lord Snowdon, noted in a Forward to Hugh McKnight’s, Cruising French Waterways, that his great grandfather, Linley Sambourne, published a book of sketches titled “Our Autumn Holiday on French Rivers at about the same time. In fact, Many of the companies operating or chartering hotel barges or renting self-driving craft on canals and rivers throughout Europe, as is the case with Locaboat, are run by the British. And with 33,000 miles of navigable waterways and thousands of different trip options throughout Europe its is easy to understand the popularity of this realm.
So, we had joined the ranks of voyagers and were now underway, passing beneath our practice bridge, leaving the clutch of stone and stucco, slate roof houses of the St. Martin behind. Ancient towpaths now the purview of cyclists, joggers and walkers were visible along a shore framed by trees. On rounding a gradual bend in the canal, we could see in the distance, a small weir and stonework abutments extending from either shore with iron doors in the middle. This was lock No. 21, the award winning, flower bedecked, Le Gueslin. Weeping willows framed the entrance and on one side,d stood a two story, stone masonry “maison eclusiere”, with gleaming white shutters. On our approached, we sounded our boat horn twice, a signal to the lock keeper of our arrival. The gates were already opened so I throttled down and steered the boat to be dead center, and we drifted toward the dank abyss of the lock.
At low speed, the barge doesn’t respond to steering well and despite my best efforts, it was veered to the port side and banged into the lock wall as we entered. Fortunately, the boat is generously equipped with fenders, so the impact was cushioned. But Newton’s Third Law of Motion was at work here, and we caromed off the wall into the one on the starboard side and then back again. Finally, we were inside the lock and I threw the throttle momentarily into reverse to halt our momentum and brought the barge to a stop.
We were now looking up into a rectangle of sky with glistening, drippy walls on two sides, punctuated by little jets of water spurting out from between the granite blocks. The face of the lock keeper, a young girl wearing a life preserver, came into view as she peered into our moat. Holding a rope, she dangled one end down to Amy in the bow and then brought another to me in the stern, which we looped around deck cleats to allow us to maintain our position. Then she crossed a metal walkway over the upstream gates to a large rotary crank, and slowly cranked the downstream doors closed.
Once closed, she retraced her steps to a control panel, and opened sluice gates allowing water to boil into the lock. As we were rising to the top, a collection of a half dozen onlookers who had been watching our progress, came into view. Hopefully, my pinball entrance was appreciated. Within 5 minutes the water had risen some 8 feet or so and was now even with the upstream side. The keeper then cranked opened the doors, we tossed off the ropes, I stepped behind the wheel, nudged the throttle forward and slowly the barge began to move.
I offered a smile and a “Merci Beaucoup”, as I drew even with the lock keeper. Then glancing back, I noticed the lock-watchers intently following my progress. This is a gathering that would occur at many of the locks we would traverse during our journey. No waves, no thumbs up (or down), just non-committal observation. Apparently for tourists, in this part of the world, this is a spectator sport.
Thus we began a week long trip up and back on the Nantes a Brest Canal from La Gacilly in the south to Josselin in the north, through an area of farmland and forests, dotted with small villages. We would cover 80 miles and 28 locks during the trip. The plan was to spend 4 or 5 hours a day cruising to our next stop, where we would use the two 3 speed bikes included to explore the surrounding countryside and cycle to nearby cafes, markets and museums.
Our barge was small, but good for 2 people. In the middle was a pilot house looking like an airport control tower with sliding glass doors on each side leading to the narrow deck that ran around the boat and a tall swiveling bar stool behind the wheel for seated piloting. In the stern down several steps was a galley with a stove, sink and undercounter refrigerator on one side and a dining banquet on the other with windows all around. Forward through a pilot house hatchway, was a passage with a single bed sleeping alcove on one side, a small bathroom on the other with a toilet and a sink,. It featured a drain pump in the floor so as to enable showering (everything gets wet!). Beyond this was our seven foot square “master”’ cabin with a double bed that filled half of it, and closets on either side. Fore and aft of the pilot house above the living spaces was ample space for lounging.
To reach, La Gacilly, we would need to leave the canal on the River l’Aff, a body of water whose source is in the Paimpont Forest, an area of Arthurian legends and home to a neolithic dolmen named Merlin’s Tomb. After negotiating our third lock, No. 19, La Maclais du Painfaut, we swung into l”Aff and cruised through a reedy area along a channel marked with buoys, followed by a long winding section under overhanging trees.
Finally, we emerged into a small port area with shops and restaurants on either side and a bridge and dam blocking further progress upstream. We spotted an empty spot on the far end of a pontoon, closest to the bridge. I throttled down and swung the boat wide so as to approach the open dock space head on. Despite scraping the limbs of several trees and collecting some leaves, the maneuver worked and I eased into the slip. Once tied down, we hooked up to electricity to recharge, which along with potable water to fill our tank, is free and available at all the moorings at which we stayed.
La Gacilly, is one of several hundred “Villes et Villages Fleuris” in Brittany. These are towns and villages which are awarded one to four stars in a competition each year for landscaping, floral displays and for the “natural and living environment”. A visitor is immediately struck by the gaiety of the area which is festooned with pots, planters and beds of colorful flowers. The medieval town of narrow cobbled streets and stone buildings, many festooned with clinging vines, also display large format photography exhibits on their walls and along walkways. It is the home of the Yves Rocher cosmetics company and through the company namesake's long tenure as mayor, has established France’s largest outdoor Art Festival, which in turn has attracted a number of art and sculpture galleries, 30 artisan’s shops and a dozen restaurant choices.
We pedaled around town looking in shops, picking up some cheese and fruit for the following day’s lunch, looking at the menus posted in front of restaurants and viewing some of the photography in open air exhibits. Our choice for dinner was Au Bout Du Pont, which was on the sidewalk across the street from the quay where we had moored. We feasted on a Plateau de Fruits de Mer, consisting of langoustines, shrimp, crab, oysters, mussels periwinkles and whelks washed down by a crisp Sancerre.
The next morning, Amy cycled to the local patisserie to get fresh croissants and a baguette for the day, while I brewed some coffee. After a delightful breakfast sitting on the front deck of our boat, drinking in the scene of the morning activities in the village as sunlight spread over the water and the flowers that brightened the village, we set off on our bikes.
Venturing into the surrounding hills, we picked a route that would take us into the next valley, by farms and a few small villages and eventually bring us to Cournon, and La Gree Des Landes, a stylish sod roofed eco hotel and spa run by the Yves Rocher group, where we enjoyed a light lunch on a deck overlooking open fields of grass and surrounding woods.
Refreshed, we returned down the hill back towards town, to the quay and our sturdy Penichette. We stowed the bikes in the rooftop racks, fired up our little diesel and reversed out of the slip, this time avoiding the tree, and retraced our course back down l’Aff.
Our objective was the town of Malestroit, which during a 4 hour run would take us past our initial launch point and farther to the north. We negotiated several more flowered locks before reaching a wide part of the canal on the south end of the town. Turning our craft toward shore we spotted an open space on the quay and aimed for it. This would be a parallel parking job between two boats. Amy was standing near me in the pilot house as I neared the open part of the dock. While this would be my first attempt at this maneuver, I felt confident that I could hop off with a line, cleat it down and hold the boat in place.
I signaled to Amy to take the wheel as the boat drifted in. She did with an alarmed look and I clambered aft to pick up the mooring line, jumped on the dock and began pulling. At the same time, in order to prevent bumping the boat docked in front, Amy spun the wheel to avoid such an outcome, resulting in the momentum of the barge being substantially unchecked. My effort to pull the stern in to stop its progress, had absolutely no effect. So, preferring not to be dragged off the dock, I watched as Amy and the boat moved away, with the line paying out of my hand until the end dropped in the water.
Amy, now on her own 100 yards out, with an even more seriously alarmed look on her face, began to circle the boat to come around again, but the far shore and a bridge would present obstacles. (If only the lock-watchers were here to see this!) To resolve the problem, Amy would most likely have to throw the boat into reverse so as to gain space to make the turn and all the while the mooring line was tracing a long curving path behind her in the water.
Looking at the trailing line, I said to myself, admittedly without an alternative solution,” whatever you do, Amy, don’t back up”.
But she did and slowly but surely the barge retraced its path and proceeded to wind the line around the propeller shaft.
Our second try, after having been stripped of my mooring master’s license, which, incidentally, involved some terse back and forth dialogue not fit for this publication, was successful and we finally tied down. Efforts to free the wound up rope were less so and it wouldn’t be until the following morning when Andrew drove up from St Martin to resolve our problem, a service the company happily provides, did we get our aft mooring line back.
That evening we wandered to the center of town and a quaint square lined with half timbered houses and sidewalk cafes filled with diners. We found one near the Eglise Saint-Gilles called Le Grain de Sel. I enjoyed a veal steak, while Amy opted for the Turbot, along with a delightful white wine of the area, a Muscadet sur Lie. And then it was back to our barge and a good night’s sleep, lulled by the gentle slap of ripples pushed against the hull by a light breeze.
The next morning, after Andrew’s mooring line intervention, we set off to explore the far side of the river and cycled up into the hills by the Chateau Beaumont, a 13th century castle, which is one of nearly 100 that dot the area around Malestroit and through several small villages. We returned to town and loaded up with goodies at the Biscuiterie Merlin, returned to our craft had a light lunch and this time carefully, unhitched our mooring lines and pushed off.
We negotiated Lock 25 the Malestroit next to an old mill and a waterfall spilling from l’Oust and started up a straight section of the canal waterway, which bypassed a serpentine section of the actual River. We passed under a railroad bridge at la Bagotaie, our piloting instructions noted, “Virage Serre”, tight corner, sound your horn, then on past the village of le Roc St-Andre and the 14th century manor le Crevy to the boat pontoon at Montertelot.
The services here were limited to a small bar that sold bread of which they were out of and a restaurant that was closed. Undaunted, we cycled back into St Andre and purchased a terrine, a baguette, more cheese and fruit and a pleasant red Chinon wine from the nearby Loire Region. Supplemented by a head of leaf lettuce we had purchased from a lock keeper earlier in the day, we had a delightful evening meal aboard ship.
Day 4 began with our customary croissant, coffee and muesli with fruit and yogurt. Then an hours ride through the countryside, which took us by the Resistance Museum, which celebrates the action of partisans and SAS trained French paratroopers who occupied a large contingent of German soldiers preceding the D-Day landings in Normandy before successfully slipping away.
We returned, stowed our bikes, cast off and headed toward the medieval town of Josselin, 15 km to the north. After stopping for lunch and a quick swim below Lock 30 at Blond during the lock keepers dejeuner, we resumed our voyage promptly at 1:00 when it reopened arriving at Lock 35 below Josselin several hours later. There, several boats were entering the lock on their way downstream. I dutifully stopped and waited as they “locked-up”, drifting downstream and repeatedly nudging the boat back up toward the lock. Apparently, I moved too close and the keeper walked down the bank and gestured to me to back up and gave me an unintelligible lecture in French as I clumsily tried to interpret his directions.
Finally the lock doors opened and the occupants motored out waving to us as they passed by, allowing us to enter. The doors clanked shut, the water gushed in and when we emerged, we were beneath the three looming towers of Josselin Castle and one of the nicer mooring sites that we encountered.
Also called the Fortress of Rohan, which dates back to the 1008 when Guéthénoc, Viscount of Rohan built its predecessor on a rocky promontory dominating the river. Having been updated over the years, the Rohan heirs, still live there, but guided tours can be scheduled. After freshening up with a quick shower, we wandered the streets and ended up at La Table d’O on the same bluff as the Castle, where we had dinner with a wonderful view overlooking the Oust Valley.
Our morning ride the following day, was to the hilltop town of Guegon with a 12th century Romanesque church at the center. This area also featured several magnificent chateau. Also, a good area for hiking with a historical discovery trail running through it, connecting nearby hamlets.
Our early plan was to continue north to the village of Rohan, where the remains of the feudal chateau of the famed family of the same name can be seen along with one of the few wooden market halls remaining in Brittany. But while this was only 24 kms away, it turns out 17 locks were involved, requiring a trip of over 7 hours Interestingly, to travel the final 24 kilometers from Rohan to Pontivy, the canal climbs a mountain and then descends through 57 locks, a trip of over 16 hours. There the Nantes Brest Canal links with the Canal du Blavet and is no longer navigable to Brest due to the construction of a dam
Instead, we cruised north to Lock 38, Rouvray, for a late lunch at an interestingly modern three star hotel, Au Relais du l’Oust. Then returned to Josselin for the night to take in a concert of folk music and dancing in the town square. As this part of France was colonized by a large migration of Celtic peoples from Southwest England after the fall of the Roman Empire, an orchestra of bagpipes played and songs in the Celtic-like Breton language were performed. A large crowd gathered to listen, many of whom enjoyed trying their hand at folk dancing afterwards.
On our return, we stopped once again in Malestroit, at a different mooring site. This time we dined at Restaurant Le Pont 9, a wonderful small cafe run by a husband and wife serving nicely presented, delicious food, I had the duck breast and Amy a mignon of pork in truffle sauce with a red Saumur wine.
After a good long bike ride south of Malestroit into the surrounding woods and farmland, we returned along the canal path, a favorite route for the many touring cyclists that we saw every day. Thus, we began our final day on the canal. Our plan was to return to St. Martin to spend our last night, as we wished to drive to the town of Rochefort-en-Terre, some 20 kilometers distant, which had been voted one of France’s most beautiful villages.
In comparison, La Gacilly was only a two star "Village Flueris", while Rochefort boasted four. It is a wonderful collection of half timbered 16th century dwellings, with cobbled streets, with flowers everywhere. A village of only 400 residents, it welcomes over a half million visitors a year. It also is an artist colony that attracted the American portrait painter, Alfred Klots, who after WW I, restored a sprawling 11th century chateau to its former glory, which is now open to the public. We could have spent more time here than we did, nosing into various shops and exploring the village and surrounding area, but a rain shower sent us scurrying to le Pelican for a sumptuous dinner by a warming fireplace.
In comparison, La Gacilly was only a two star "Village Flueris", while Rochefort boasted four. It is a wonderful collection of half timbered 16th century dwellings, with cobbled streets, with flowers everywhere. A village of only 400 residents, it welcomes over a half million visitors a year. It also is an artist colony that attracted the American portrait painter, Alfred Klots, who after WW I, restored a sprawling 11th century chateau to its former glory, which is now open to the public. We could have spent more time here than we did, nosing into various shops and exploring the village and surrounding area, but a rain shower sent us scurrying to le Pelican for a sumptuous dinner by a warming fireplace.
We spent our last night on the barge and turned over the keys to Andrew, the next morning. Truly a different and enjoyable way to tour the countryside and at the same time improving one’s boating skills. We are looking forward to our next canal adventure in the many other parts of Europe where rental boats are available.
Information on how to get to St-Martin-sur-Oust
Nearest Airports: Rennes St. Jacques (RNS), Nantes Atlantique (NTE) both served by Air France direct from Charles de Gaulle (CDG)
Nearest Train Station: Redon served by SNCF from Paris - 2 1/2 hours
Information on Boat Rentals
Cost; 1 week for a Penichette P.935 varies with the season from $1,060.00 to $2,230.00 plus fuel and cleaning. Early reservation discounts of 20% are available. Secure parking extra.
Locaboat has locations in France, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Poland and Croatia.
Other Rental Companies: Le Boat, H2Holidays, FPP Canal Boating
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