Rangali Adventures: Paray to Génelard/Génelard to Montceau Les Mines

We went out late on Sunday and took more photos of Paray at night

Our mooring at Paray, loads of room

Monday 9^th June

Paray-le-Monial to Génelard

7 locks 20km

We left Paray at 9am for the lock just along from our mooring and we arrived at Génelard at 1pm. We had a really great trip, beautiful countryside; friendly toots and waves from drivers on the country road that follows by the side of the canal. It was quite busy (compared to Paray!) at Génelard with about 5 boats and another two moored up while we were there. It was another very hot and humid day and we had a thunderstorm late afternoon, which cleared the air somewhat.

Peter and Pauline on Peppa a dutch barge were already moored there, we met them in Roanne, so we caught up with in the evening over drinks. They have been to Strasbourg in their 60ft barge via the Canal du Rhõne au Rhine and the Grand Canal d’Alsace. It was a route we had been considering but we were worried about rules and regulations on the Grand Canal d’Alsace (a canalised section on The Rhine), but they assured us that our boat (also 60ft in length) is ok, and they gave us great tips on good moorings. So we may well go that way.

You have to pul the rope to start the locking procedure on the automatic locks

Our mooring at Génelard, we are the boat in the distance,
too far away to reach the electrics but not a problem

Tuesday 10^th June

Génelard to Montceau-les-Mines

7 locks and 18km

We set off again at 9am, our first lock was just in front of us so no distance to travel. The lights went green for us to enter dead on 9am.

All went smoothly all day until we got to Montceau-les Mines. We arrived around 12.15pm. Our canal guidebook told us about the lift bridges in the town. It said we had to pull a pole hanging in the middle of the canal. We’ve used this method before but we were a little confused when we saw a blue rope dangling in the middle of the canal. The only problem was that is looked too high for me to reach so we didn’t stop to pull it thinking it can’t be what the guidebook was talking about. So we carried on along the canal round the corner to the first lift bridge. There was a red light showing and no obvious pole or rope to pull. On the Canal du Centre the locks don’t close for lunch so we thought maybe these lift bridges don't either. We thought maybe we should have tried harder to reach the blue rope we had passed so we backed up around the corner, about 300m to see if I could reach the blue rope. I couldn’t, it was far too high and blowing in the breeze, so we went back to the bridge and hovered, thinking maybe they did close the lift bridges for lunch. Peter and Pauline on Peppa caught us up; they had left Génelard after us this morning. They told us that the lift bridges closed for lunch and we didn’t need to pull any ropes! So we waited until 1pm and hey presto, the bridges went into action.

We were fortunate to get a mooring at the Port du Plaisance, on a floating pontoon, at the end on a hammerhead. There are three floating pontoons, so three hammerheads, (the only part of the pontoon that would be suitable for our length of boat), we got the last available one which was great.

We had a snack lunch in a cafe, it was still very hot and humid so after a quick wander around the high street near our mooring we then went back to the boat. Thinking we'd go out and explore when it was a little cooler.

We have had more thunderstorms this afternoon and rain has continued this evening so it will certainly make it cooler tomorrow. So we didn't get our look around the town today. We haven't decided if we are staying another day here or moving on, we'll see what the weather is like.