Hot and sunny. Mike dried the engine room roof then he took a walk to find a bakery. He had to walk all the way up the hill past La Poste to find one that was open, two were on holiday and one had closed down completely. He put some blue paint on, the last of the diamonds. We untied at 10.35 a.m. A VNF man in a white car arrived to ask if we were leaving as we were untying. Lock 8, Mireaux was ready, its lock house lived in. Dropped down 2.4m. The gates were very slow to open, we thought that someone was going to have to climb a ladder! 1.8 kms to lock 9. Through the outskirts of Montceau-les-Mines, the road was lined with little semi-detached houses built on the side of a slope with first floor doors at road level and ground level below that. On past the Leclerc hypermarket which was having an extension built. The canal was close to the railway again and trains passing on our left were very loud. The VNF offices were on the lockside at 9, Montceau, and the lady keeper came out to ask if we were stopping. She worked the lock from the office. Down another 2.86m. I made a cuppa as we started a longish pound, 3.5 kms to the next lock. The port had short finger moorings and there were a few boats moored there, plenty of space.
There were three lift bridges all of which had been renewed; the first was a vertical lift the next two were drawbridges worked by hydraulic arms under the deck. There was a man in a cabin by the middle one so we suspect he worked all three bridges. The road on the right bank through town was very busy. The layby and basin by the old, (now derelict, windows smashed) steelworks were empty. Just before we arrived at the next lock there was a pontoon with a caravan on it being used as a houseboat.
A row of duvets hung from the upstairs windows of four houses above Chavannes lock 10. Nice to be back in proper rural France, all we need now are chickens in the street! The lock had been refurbished with concrete sides, new bollards and four poles for the automatic activation strings! Sublime to the ridiculous! A woman came out from the lock house where a yellow light was flashing on the VNF office at the end of the building and watched us work through the shallow (2.29m) lock. A large French flagged cruiser was waiting below the lock to go up. 400m to lock 11, Vernois, and down another 2.63m. The lock had four poles around it but the tops were missing. The lock house was empty. I made lunch at the start of the winding 4.3 kms pound. A lady keeper (minder) in a van was waiting for us at lock 12, Four, which also had four new posts - it was my turn to pull the cord. We descended 2.85m. On the 1.9 kms pound we had loads of little blue butterflies settling on the boat, we passed a field full of maize then back to meadows filled with white charollais cows. An old empty péniche with a centre cabin called Romulus was moored just before lock 13, Anzy. An old boatman lived in the lock cottage as there was a boat mast on the lockside. Our lady minder was there to see us through the lock, which had four new posts – Mike’s turn. 1.7 kms to lock 14, Ciry., through the village of Ciry-leNoble with banana palms and chickens in the gardens. Lock 14 was worked for us by an old man with a crane type controller. There were contractors (NOT VNF staff) doing the work of making the locks automatic, one was burning holes in metal plates by the bottom right hand gate. Down another 2.81m. 3.3 kms to the next. A pair of sandpipers flew off down the canal in front of the boat. An old wooden planked cruiser called Mami was moored by some houses 500m down from the lock. It would take a great deal of hard work to get it repaired. The old chap sped off down the road in a VNF car and was at lock 15, Civry, to work it for us, again using a crane controller. Down another 2.41m. 2.6 kms of winding canal, with the ever present road on the right bank, to the next lock (our last) 15, Génelard. There was a place advertising bouncy castles for hire at the start of the village, then the canal went through a deep cutting on an S bend with 45°stone walls that had dozens of flights of narrow stone steps from the narrow path at the base to the bank at the top of the wall. The old bloke worked the lock for us again. Told him we would be stopping a few days, maybe longer. Another, younger, VNF bloke appeared and said if we were staying a few days to moor on the right as there would be a fishing contest on Saturday on the left bank. OK. We dropped down 2.53m. As we would be going again well before Saturday we moored on the left.
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