Canal du Centre: Montceau-les-Mines to Genelard

Thursday 27 July 2017. 17.5 kilometers, 3 lifting bridges, 7 locks, 3 hours 30 minutes.

Montceau marina; we are on the outside of the third pontoon.

Although having its origins in the 13^th, Montceau grew to prominence in the 18thC with the establishment of the Canal du Centre but more especially the 19thC founding of a mining company to mine the coal reserves; mining activity finally ceased in 1992. It also saw the formation of the first miners’ union and was the first French town to have a Socialist mayor. The town reflects its history (as it would) – it has none of the feel of antiquity that most of the European towns through which we have traveled have and apart from a pretty town hall and an interesting, shop-lined main street has not much to offer. Unusually, we did not see a monument to casualties of war but a large monument to miners who died in the mines takes pride of place in the main square.

Miners' monument

Look left...

...look right. What you see is what you get. Montceau's main street.

Having had a pleasant evenings sun-downers aboard Shangri La 2 with South African born and bred vegans Patrick and Karen we set off the next day on a most uneventful and quick (all seven locks were in our favour!) cruise

Lifting pedestrian bridge.

Lifting road bridge #1

Lifting road bridge #2.

down to the generous and free mooring at Genelard and were fortunate to find a place right next two one of the two electricity and water points, one on each side of the basin; we had to lend our fifty meter cable to a late-arrival hire boat who were desperate for electricity.

The old brick factory at Ciry-le-Noble, now a museum.

A canal-side gite.

South African flag in Ciry-le-Noble

The cutting leading to Genelard.

Genelard bassin.

Genelard is small but hosts a museum to the Demarcation Line which divided Occupied France from Free France in WWII and believe it or not, we did not even visit the museum even though we walked past it a couple of times – I cannot believe it!

But the nearby town of Palinges

Palinges

is home to the scruffy little restaurant Le P’tit Bistrot run by a former French foreign service employee and multilinguist and serving simple but delicious home cooked fare at a bargain price. Our first meal there was because we needed a break from our own home cooking and, when we had de-rusted and painted the gas bottle locker leaving us without a cooker, it was a perfect opportunity to sample the fare a second time.

Le P'tit Bistrot

The bar - it looks a lot fancier than it is!

The canal outside the restaurant.

A striking resemblance to our host,

All for ten Euro, wine included!

Apart from lazing around and doing some maintenance we also took the bikes the seven kilometres to the Chateau de Digione which was an interesting if a bit, at €12 per person, of an overpriced experience. The guided tour was almost exclusively in French and there were no explanatory pamphlets in English – and no photographs were allowed to be taken (although someone's cellphone worked hard).