Rangali Adventures: Chambilly to Digoin and then the beginning of the CANAL DU CENTRE Digoin to Paray-le-Monial

Friday 6th June

Chambilly to Digoin

5 locks 25km

We set off at 8.40am and made it to the deep lock at Bourg le Comte by 9.50am, there was already a boat in there and the lock keeper waited for us to arrive, which was great. We went down the 7.2m very gently. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a great trip to Digoin.

The Canal du Roanne à Digoin was well worth the detour to get to Roanne. It’s a little shallow at the beginning, and overgrown on one side but it looks like they are working on the canal to improve it and most of the canal is beautiful. The locks are gentle in both directions; the lock keepers were really helpful and we liked the places where we moored. The least pretty mooring was Chambilly, and the mooring has sloping sides but the town Marcigny 2.5km away made up for that.

We arrived in Digoin at around 3.30pm, and moored at the Haulte Nautique, nothing special and we thought it was quite expensive per night at 14.80 euros plus water 2.10 euros. As we are over 15m the cost jumped from 6.20 euros to 14.80 euros. Next time when we stop at Digoin we will moor before the lock going into Digoin and then walk over the aqueduct to the town.

Digoin
The Loire and the aqueduct we came over in the background
The weather is starting to heat up, the beers went down well

Our mooring at Digoin

Digoin to Paray-le-Monial

Canal du Centre

3 Locks 11km

We set off at 8.30am because we were concerned that there was a hire boat base at Digoin and wanted to beat the possible novice boaters. We needn’t have worried we didn’t see a single hire boat, or any other boat for that matter, all day.

We are now on the Canal du Centre. All change on the locks and how they are set out. It’s just the first lock you come to you, you have to be aware that it maybe different to the last lock you were in on the previous canal. The locks are going up, they were all automatic and they were all ready and waiting for us with a green light. We thought from our guidebook that we may have to call the control centre to prepare our first lock but no, it was ready for us to go straight in. On our last lock of the day, a VNF gentleman drove up to take our particulars, boat name and SR number. It was very lucky that he was there because once the lock gates closed behind us, nothing happened so he was able to sort it out. Also luckily I was able to ask about the moorings at Paray le Monial. There is lots of choice of moorings at Paray but the Halte Nautique was the last mooring we’d come to before the next lock. He told me there was plenty of room at the Halte Nautique as there was only one other boat moored there. So we confidently went past all the other possible moorings at Paray, to moor up at the Halte Nautique right next to the electric and water point.

We had been recommended to try a restaurant in Paray called Trois Pigeons so we decided to go there for lunch. We had an amazing meal and pretty reasonable; we’ve been so lucky the past week to eat in some great places. We had also been told that the town looked great at night, so later in the evening when it was dark we went back for a walk; it was beautiful. There is a large Basilica and old buildings that are lit from all different angles. If you ever visit Paray le Monial, you must see it at night, it’s absolutely stunning. Paray is a religious centre with a convent and monastery, so we saw Monks and Nuns in their habits wandering the streets in the evening, there had been a concert at the Basilica. It looked really surreal, almost medieval. We even saw Monks sitting with ordinary folk drinking beer at a bar!

The weather has been sweltering the past couple of days, it is 6.30pm Sunday evening as I write this and the wheelhouse temperature is still 35 Celsius, and that’s with all the windows and doors open including the wheelhouse front window. Our air-conditioning in the bedroom has been absolutely necessary to be able to sleep. We use it to cool the bedroom before we go to bed.

It’s tough doing anything when it’s so hot but we do love it when its cools down in the evening as it is so balmy, and so far on this trip we’ve not encountered any mosquitos so ok to sit outside till late.