French Canal Cruising-The Burgundy Circuit 

Beau pays et les Français sont très sympathiques.

Yes, cruising is great for families. Especially if you put the kids to work with specific tasks like opening and closing the locks.

I'm glad you enjoyed it. We find canal cruising to be a great way to discover rural France. However, it is hard to beat the west coast of Canada!! We last lived in Kelowna.

We recently looked at buy vrs rent and and decided to rent for many reasons (convenience, one way trips, maintenance costs, insurance and licensing costs all in French, and exploring new areas). Don BTW Do you have relatives in New Plymouth ?

Glad it was helpful! Lucky you being on the Canal du Midi for so long.

@@dontato8675 Hello Don, I have enjoyed your canal boat videos very much and am looking for your advice. Next year we booked LocaBoat from Dompierre to Joigny (2 weeks). Which canal would you recommend? The Nivernais or Lateral de Loire? Access to towns and villages for food, culture, beauty?? Thank you so much!

@@joannemclennan9835 Glad you like the video Joanne. A very simple answer is that the Canal du Nivernais is more rural and beautiful and the canal lateral a la Loire has more villages. However I checked our log books and it looks like you don’t have enough time to go to Joigny via la Loire and Briare. This section took us 17 days and 82 hrs of cruising. We went from Joigny to Decise in 12 days with 58 hours cruising time. Which you should be able to do in two weeks. If you get to Joigny early, you can always cruise north beyond Joigny and return to meet the end of your time.

@@dontato8675 thank you again Don.

Thanks and welcome

Glad you liked the video. The book we use for planning and day to day navigation is the Guide Fluvial (Bourgogne Nivernais). Their web site is editionsdubreil.com/en We didn't find any app that was this useful.

Hello Mika’s Mom, My suggestion would be to have a look at the Locaboat.com websites. Their brochure outlines the various areas and the highlights of each one. Then I would phone Locaboat and talk to one of their reps who are very knowledgable and would be happy to match your interests with the right area. They are also great resources for any questions you might have. I'm sure they will suggest that canals are a bit easier to navigate than rivers! Best of luck and have fun

I would love to send you the spreadsheet but I am not sure how. Perhaps try send ing an email to this temporary address. blob_tabs0p@icloud.com

@@dontato8675 i would also love to see your spreadsheet and time guide. Probable will schedule for this fall. In 1985.my wife and I cruised from Finland thru Sweden Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France to the Med. Have done the MIDI, Garrone and Baise River since then. Can I send an email to the same temporary email address? Best regards, Bill Singleton

@@tonabill Yes no problem. Just send the email to blob_tabs0p@@t and I will send you the spreadsheet. Don

Hi Gordon, Cruising time 8 min/PK, Flight of 16 locks 192 min, Flight of 6 locks 72 min, single lock 12 mins, raise/lower road bridge (Pont Leve) 10 min. If you have only got two crew members, one stays on board at the helm! Hope this helps. Times can really vary depending on how many boats are waiting for the locks to be ready. Have fun. Don

@@dontato8675 Thanks Don. V helpful. We havent been on the French canals for 15 years. We are going to avoid July & August so traffic will be less.

Thanks so much for the feedback. Your plan to take twice as long as we did is a good one. Because of Covid-19 we did not take any time to visit the villages, markets and restaurants on the way, and it still took us a month for this circuit. Taking two months would provide lots of time to enjoy the route even more. The costs are quite expensive but much cheaper than buying a boat! Locaboat have many cumulative discounts which they apply making the longer trips less costly. For our route-finding we use the brilliant guide books from Editions du Breil. Each Guide Fluvial is by region and they are in English, French and German. This circuit was in the regions 02 and 11. The web site is www.carte-fluvial.com. The physical books are extremely detailed. Every kilometre on the canals have a PK (kilometre) number and this is invaluable in calculating distances and time requirements. On busy days, the time needed to get through a lock can really vary if other boats are waiting too. In terms of fuel, we used 127 litres over the 28 days. Each day the engine ran for between about 4 and 6 hours. To calculate your requirements get the fuel consumption / hour and tank capacity for the specific boat you hire. You can then calculate your refuel points. We had to refuel twice, once in Joigny at Locaboat there and again in Decize at the marina there. We paid that bill ourselves and as soon as we returned to Locaboat Briare the amount was repaid as we had the ‘inclusive pack’ which included fuel costs. Interestingly there is no fuel gauge on the boats we have hired. No idea why! To calculate our cruising times we used an average cruising speed of 8km/hr. Add 12 minutes for each lock or ‘pont levé’. Our calculations were quite critical as we were doing a 500km circuit and had to be back in Briare on time. We did use an Excel spreadsheet and this was invaluable as we explained in the video. If you have any other questions for us, please just ask. Best of luck with planning your cruise - and for your retirement.

@@dontato8675 Thanks so much. I've dreams of owning a boat before we're too old to enjoy it. This information helps a lot and just piques my interest. Cheers.

Check out www.french-waterways.com/practicalities/canal-depths. or vnf.fr

@@dontato8675 Thank you so much

Good question. First of all the two doors on the boat are both lockable. Secondly rural France seems very safe and we have had no issues in the past 30 years. However at some places there is a bike/tow path right beside the canal. In these and many other situations we moor on the opposite bank where there is no bike or footpath and it is usually quieter.

Thanks Sam. We have been very happy with LocaBoat and before that with LeBoat. Most important though is the configuration of the boat and the location of the canal.

Both countries have there own special qualities.

RU-vid planning comments Glad you enjoyed the video. Too bad this year looks like a washout. Here are some planning aids: * The Guide Fluvial - Loire Bourgogne Nivernais (Guide 02 and 11) by www.carte-fluviale.com. This is a paper back book in English, French and German. It contains very detailed maps of the canals., useful phone numbers and information on the local villages. * Fluviacarte Bourgogne Est (19) in English, French and German. See www.fluvialnet.com. Smaller paperback book. Detailed maps and very readable. This is the book we used to record our actual times. Contains lots of details on local services. * The canals are managed by Voies navigables de France (vnf.fr). The website gives current information as to the status of the canal and any problems you may encounter (eg low water, strikes, closures). * Our boat provider was Locaboat (www.locaboat.com/en/). They have been very good to us over the years but we have used others and have been happy with them as well. * French! Best to learn some basic tourist French. The locals are very nice but may not necessarily speak English. * Excel Spreadsheet. We did use a spreadsheet to plan this trip since it was so long. This is clearly not necessary for a 1-2 week cruise but we were doing a 28 day circuit and had to be back on a certain day. The books above are more than adequate for short trips. Here is the secure link to the spreadsheet. ln3.sync.com/dl/5671f0bd0/bsdf5vyd-h4pi4wyu-nxrs3e38-kquknj7w

Thanks you very much Don ! I'm Dom .

We think the route from Corbigny to Dompierre with Locaboat is the best section or Tannay to Decize with LeBoat

@@dontato8675 thanks a mil. I have cruised with Locaboat in 2007 from Corbigny to Baye Lake and back . Indeed that was a great experience in a great place, I am closed to book Joigny>Corbigny but at the end I started looking to Dompierre>Briare : should be easier and quieter (no river) ... I will have onboard a 5 years old girl + a 15 years old dog .

@@marcogrosso3410 Lateral ala Loire is rather boring.

You don’t say how long you are going on the canals, but a one week one-way trip from Corbigny to Decize (or Dompierre) is our favorite because of the lock flight and tunnels although Corbigny port is harder to get to than the others. If you are more interested in wine, then one-way Briare to Dompierre or vice versa) would be our next favorite. Going down hill (entering a full lock and leaving when it is empty) is easier on the ‘crew’ than going up hill (enter empty and leave when full).

Oops, sorry. We have 10 days. We want to do a one way trip so the two options the boat company recommended are the Nivernais, from Joigny to Corbigny or the Loire Lateral from Briare to Dompierre. Thanks@@dontato8675

@@dontato8675 We are now looking at a 10 day one way trip with 2 options. Migennes to Tannay or Tannay to Decize. Which section of the Nivernais would you prefer?

Tannay to Decize would be our choice. Past Corbigny, a series of locks at Collancelle on the Nivernais is very interesting. There is a super pottery half way up the series to the Etang de Baye, that is worth a visit while you are waiting for the locks. Enjoy!

Our stops/points of interest were: Briare, Rogny, Chesnoy, Moulin de Nancay, Nemours, Episy, Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, Joigny (refuiel),Gurgy,Bailly,Merry-sur-Yonne,Clamecy, Monceaux-le-compte, Corbigny,Chantillon-en-Bazois, Anizy,Decize, St. Bouize, Sancerre, Briare

@@dontato8675 thank you very much

So far we have not needed a license, but double check with the hire company first .

No. the canals are quite dirty and not good for fishing either.

The fear added a piquante aspect to a gentle cruise.

It was 4 weeks of cruising. The comment I made at the end was “a whole month”, but it wasn’t easy to hear! Thanks for your comment

I agree! Automated locks are boring!