Canal du Bourgogne: Lezinnes - Ancy-le-Franc – Ravières – Montbard.

26 May to 30 May 2019. 38.6 kilometers, 20 locks.

Sunday 26 May. Lezinnes to Ancy-le-Franc. 10.3 kilometers, 4 locks, 2 hours, 40 minutes (including 25 minute wait for a late lockkeeper).

A misty and decidedly cool morning broke into a day to die for. Not a breath of wind, puffy white clouds hanging in an endless blue sky, in fact, weather so good that the lockkeeper’s tardiness was soon forgotten.

A farmer, unpacking his fishing gear.

Knowing that La Belle Epoque was already through Ancy-le-Franc gave us hope that the wall mooring, with free electricity and water, would have space for us – in fact, we had it all to ourselves.

Two long-stayers moored to the bank behind us.

A Dutch couple who remembered us from the Canal entre Champagne et Bourgogne in June last year (and, to his utter amazement [and mine], I remembered them and where we had briefly met) stopped their bikes for a quick chat – they are currently at our next stop but will be arriving here tomorrow afternoon so aperitifs have been arranged.

Lunch, then a short ride to the nearby Chateau Ancy-le-Franc where some blurb somewhere described it as “a close second to the Palace of Fontainebleau” – they wish! Marginally worth the €9pp but don’t pay the €3 each for the audio guide – the free explanatory card gives more than enough information – and definitely do not pay the extra €3pp for a visit to the gardens unless you need a close up of the same jardins viewed, in all their magnificence, from the windows of the chateau.

A few pics but their website has the whole bang-shoot.

Buildings on left were probably stables and coach-houses.

Ivory parquetry.

Made to look like an English garden.

Back to Boat

Laundry and shopping needed doing so during a break in the canal-welcome rain which had been steadily coming down the whole night, we hopped onto the bikes and scurried off to a supermarket with the strange name of bi1 (‘buy one’), the first time we have ever heard of this chain. Dropping the shopping off back at Elle, Lynn then went back to take the washing out of the drier, arriving back in spitting drizzle which turned into a hard rain, then cleared, then poured again. And so it continued all day putting paid to our arrangements for aperitifs in the park so, instead, Hans and Tineke from Tinus came aboard and stories were swopped for a couple of hours.

The rain also put paid to my plans for sanding and re-varnishing the handrail as well for taking some photographs of the village.

Lynn did some more sewing.

Tuesday 28 May. Ancy-le-Franc to Ravières. 9 kilometers, 5 locks, 2 hours, 20 minutes.

Waking to more intermittent rain but with patches of blue sky offering promise of a rain-free mornings cruise we exchanged farewells with the crew of Tinus who were heading in the opposite direction,

Another long-stayer...

...inhabited by a lady and her dog.

Tinus, strange design but very spacious and functional.

Hans and Tineke saying goodbye.

and made ourselves ready, hoping that the lockie at the first lock would give us service before attending to Tinus who had also booked lock service for nine o’clock. As it turned out, the Sunday lockkeeper shift and that on Tuesdays appear to differ as we each had our own lockkeepers – ours alternated between friendly ladies who alternated locks and, in rather blustery conditions, we beat the first rain squall of the late morning into Ravieres, letting the onshore breeze drift us up to the very long quay where we gently ran stern-aground but within easy stepping distance of shore.

Lockie Lynn.

An old stone quarry with its loading port.

Not to everybody's taste perhaps?

Locking into Ravieres.

Ravieres.

Free water, electricity and rubbish disposal generously provided and, but a short, slow walk into the charming and ancient village center, contrastingly bounded by sixties architecture, both somehow living together in harmony, takes one to a small supermarket, a café which sells hamburgers (?!), the Mairie and the ubiquitous Tabac – somewhere there is also a petite boulangerie.

17thC church - locked due to thieves
robbing the collection boxes.

A restored bread oven.

Gargoyles above the hairdresser.

An old door with its original bell
and a new button type.

Heading upstream from the port is a small restaurant which we would most definitely have tried but we are trying to keep ahead of hotel barge La Belle Epoch which arrives tomorrow – you simply do not want to get stuck behind one of these relative floating behemoths as they excruciate themselves through these small, shallow canals. After our next stop in Montbard they will overtake us but that is fine as we are staying there for two nights thus putting them a day ahead when we arrive at their turn-around port of Veneray-les-Laumes, on Friday (perhaps).

Talking of the weather, this is the strangest May weather we have had in the six years we have been aboard Elle – it is six in the evening and it is grey, an icy wind is blowing and it’s pouring;

fine as long as the reservoirs supplying the canal get filled but the nature of the squalls means that the rainfall is moving rapidly across the country and not drenching the catchment areas. We have been in jeans far more than shorts, something completely different from the photos we have of ourselves in May outfits from previous years. Having just written that, the sun is now shining brightly, the rain has stopped and there is hardly a breath of wind - but give it another half an hour!

The view through the same window, now open.

Wednesday 29 May. Ravières to Montbard. 19 kilometers, 11 locks, 5 hours, 35 minutes (including a 40 minute lunchtime delay).

During our walk into Ravieres yesterday, I twisted something somewhere and getting out of bed this morning was not fun – in fact, my knee was so sore that I had to crawl to the bathroom. It improved with a lot of stretching but the long haul ahead was not something contemplated with glee. As it turned out, despite very blustery weather in parts, it was not bad at all; we had the locks all to ourselves, the lockies were all on time and very efficient and I became adept at hopping on one leg.

The stoneyard at Ravieres.

Our lockie racing ahead.

"Canal in danger"?

Young lady lock assistant.

At lunchtime we moored up at the Grand Forge de Buffon just before the town of Buffon,

Buffon ahead.

both named after the brilliant Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon but Lynn reported that forge was closing in half an hour and that there were a lot of steps so we will return tomorrow by bicycle and hopefully my walking will have improved.

Maybe this is what the sign was referring to.

Our smiling lady lockie locking us into Montbard.

Lock ironwork painted in the VNF colours.

With half past two approaching, we were snugly tied up in the port de plaisance, ably assisted by Judy from Mon Amie which had arrived yesterday.

Little fish off our stern.

Lynn wandered off to the Casino minimarket and we succumbed to a most decadent early supper of confit de canard.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we will visit the Forge again as well as the famous Fontenay Abbey.