Our transition from the Saône River to the Canal du Centre was a memorable experience, involving as it did an 11-metre high lock. The approach was not only daunting but confusing; from a distance the inside of the lock was so dark we couldn’t tell whether the gates were open or closed, even though the control light was green. Eventually we eased our way in, tied up to the floating bollards, braced ourselves for the rush of water and marvelled at the engineering involved in lifting us some 36 feet onto the canal. It was impressive, and not at all as nerve-wracking as we had thought it might be. We then had an easy 4-kilometre cruise to our overnight stop at Fragnes.
When we arrived in Fragnes on a Tuesday the port was absolutely jam-packed and we secured the very last available spot, requiring use of our mooring spikes. The next day many of the boats moved on and we were able to secure a better spot for our three-day stay in this pleasant and well-serviced mooring.
Fragnes wasn’t the quietest location we’d moored in….there was an aerodrome nearby, with an aerobatic practice facility, so there was a constant soundtrack of a sports plane doing its manoeuvres, as well as the sound of the tractor on the farm opposite cutting the harvest of wheat. And with the heat, several of the large hire boats in port decided to run their air-conditioning, resulting in total port-wide blackout for a couple of hours. All told, though, it was a pleasant place to relax and recover for a couple of days before our journey along the canal.
We were looking forward a lot to our cruise to Santenay, for three reasons – firstly, we had heard it was a very picturesque section of the canal and the mooring very pretty; secondly, we were anticipating some great wines from this distinct southern region of the Cote d’Or; and thirdly and most importantly, we were to meet our dear friend Julian from Australia there, who was due to motor in and spend a few days with us on his French holiday. All three expectations were fully satisfied.
The day we arrived, Julian joined us and after catching up on all our news we walked into the village for a lovely meal at one of its two excellent restaurants, the Restaurant l’Ouillette. That evening, 13 July, was Santenay’s turn to celebrate Bastille Day fireworks (smaller towns seem to do this on the day before, while larger towns and cities do their shows on the 14th), so we strolled down to the parklands at the swimming centre where there were a variety of marquees, one selling cheap beer and wine, one with a wooden dance floor, one with dinner tables set for VIPs, all of them surrounded by joyously celebrating familes and youth and children. The fireworks were very impressive.
The following day we piled into Julian’s hire car and set off for a tour of the region, including a visit to the wine centre of Beaune (which we had previously visited on our trip up the Canal de Bourgogne in 2017), some delightful small villages and country backroads, and a visit to the Rully wine house of André Delorme, where we tasted a few wines and came away with some very nice Chalonnaise burgundy and crémant de Bourgogne.
That evening we shared a meal at the other good restaurant in Santenay, Le Terroir – very excellent, and great company.
On our third day we once again did a road trip with Julian, this time visiting the marvellous weekly markets in Chagny. As well as several streets given over to food stalls of all kinds, there is also a section selling bric à brac, some of it truly excellent at great prices and always open to bargaining. Julian nearly needed a separate suitcase for his haul. The other remarkable thing about Chagny is its Poissonerie Kironan, a remarkable fish shop that specialises in sardines, the passion of the owner Ronan Pigent, originally from Brittany. He stocks more than 100 types of sardines and even has a self-service dispenser at his door for those who can’t wait for the shop to open.
On our way back to the boat at Santenay we detoured to a little rural brocante, where we saw some delightful little trinkets and curiosities for sale by local residents. These flea markets pop up from time to time in regional France and they are always interesting and sometimes throw up some wonderful bargains and eccentricities.
Back at Santenay we decided to have a meal on board and then venture to a café to watch the FIFA World Cup Final between France and Croatia. The first part went well, the dinner was lovely. The second part was hilarious. There was almost no one in the cafe, except for some Belgians who were angry with the French and refused to celebrate. We were in France, France won the World Cup, and we were surrounded by grunts and silence! At least we heard some car horns blaring in the distance on our way back to the boat. It was too funny.
The next few days we had some very pleasant cruising up towards the summit of the Canal du Centre, with overnight stops at Saint-Leger-sur-Dheune (full port, all services, small village) and Saint-Julien-sur-Dheune (no services but delightful setting), until we reached the top of the canal at Montchanin (no services, very pleasant apart from some major roadworks nearby).
In one sense, we didn’t make all we might have of our stay at Montchanin, because it is the top of the canal and has a number of lakes that supply water to the canal, including the Étang de Montchanin, with some very nice lakeside walks and a swimming beach. But we only had one night there, and we made the most of that with a visit to a nearby Les Routiers restaurant in the company of an Australian couple we befriended at the mooring. The Relais des Morands is essentially a truckers’ restaurant, part of the nationwide network of ‘routiers’ restaurants. A short bike ride from our restaurant, it offered a delicious three-course meal at bargain-basement prices – truck-drivers in France demand more than a burger and ice-cream! And the service was impeccable and very friendly.
We experienced the other end of the dining spectrum at our next stop, at Montceau-les-Mines. Montceau is a former mining town whose fortunes declined in the late-20th century – although, despite recent decades of high unemployment and business closures, it seems to be attempting a bit of a comeback. Certainly, it is doing well enough to support a Michelin-star restaurant, Jerome Brochot, where we enjoyed a fabulous meal on the night of our stay. A wonderful dining room and great food, including a magnificent fish mousseline in shellfish bisque, and the biggest and best crême brulée we have ever tasted.
Leaving Monteceau-les-Mines we had an enjoyable cruise to Génelard, a small town with not much except a delightful mooring, an amazing art déco metal factory and a museum dedicated to the Demarcation Line (La Ligne de Démarcation) between Occupied France and Free France, which ran through here and along the canal during WWII.
The following day saw us arrive in Paray-le-Monial, “la cité du sacré coueur”, an extraordinary place, a genuine centre of Catholic pilgrimage, welcoming 200,000+ faithful every year, attracted by the 17th-century “visitation” experienced by a young lady by the name of Marguerite-Marie Alacoque, who claimed repeated visions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, confirmed by her Confessor, Father Colombère. The pilgrimage business really took off in the latter 19th century, and it’s never looked back. Today it involves acres of marquees, hours of singing, numerous shops selling religious souvenirs, books and artefacts…. the whole noodle. I have never seen so many people with walking sticks, all presumably looking for “the cure”.
Though it is a thoroughgoing centre of pilgrimage and all its associated religious hooha and commercialism, Paray has a long, illustrious religious history. The oldest churches here date from the middle ages, and there is a close association with the Abbey of Cluny (one of Christendom’s treasures until its destruction in the Revolution). The basilica of the Sacred Heart is a Romanesque triumph (one tower 11th-century, the other 12th). The 17th-18th century Cloister is delightful. And other religious buildings likewise.
Paray also boasts some delightful side streets and alleyways and some remarkable civic and domestic architecture.
It isn’t just about Eternity in Paray…. we found a horloger plying his trade, with some lovely old watches and clocks on display.
One of the most impressive things we saw in Paray-le-Monial was the museum dedicated to Paul Charnoz, founder of a ceramic tile industry here. Unlike others using glazes and tints, he developed techniques of manufacturing tiles using compressed baked, coloured clay powders, resulting in the most magnificent products for floors, walls and decoration. He flourished in the late 19th century-early 20th, exhibited at the Paris World Expo in 1889 (the one that welcomed the Eiffel Tower) and was a genius of industrial production of exquisite craft. Sadly, his factory ceased production in the 1970s and had been lost, but this little museum preserves his legacy in a small way.
Scraping Through France 