Barging on ANJA

The town of Briare is full of boats!

The Briare Canal finishes in the town but we chose not to continue to the end through the last three locks to the "Port de Plaisance" there as we had heard that there was rarely room for boats as big as ours. Instead we entered the "Canal Lateral a la Loire" and tied up at the "Commercial Port" together with sightseeing and hotel boats. Room was scarce there too. It was by far the most expensive night so far, at 17.30 euros without water or electricity, the same price as at the Port de Plaisance but without the wifi, electricity and showers available there.

First step was to walk across the Briare Aqueduct which takes the Canal over the Loire River. A boat was waiting on the other side to cross in a Northerly direction, but just as one boat travelling South almost reached the end, another would start across- and the rule is, if you are on the Aqueduct, you have priority. The North bound boat waited quite a while to get its nose onto the bridge first and even then had a bad time banging each side as they were not able to enter the narrow aqueduct .

The aqueduct itself is very impressive with grand entrance columns and lamp-posts installed when it was built in 1896. It is about 680metres long and carries the canal high above the Loire River. It is supposed to be the longest "Pont de Canal" in Europe and possibly the world. It is an engineering masterpiece, even today, and must have posed challenges when designed (with some assistance from Eiffel). On a sunny day, it expands as much as half a metre and there are rubber bellows which take up the slack. Heaven knows how much weight of water there is but it would hold at least 25million litres of water.

Briare is noted for its mosaics which have been manufactured there since 1851. The museum gave an interesting historical account and then we noticed them everywhere in the public areas and town signs. The Church of St Stephen, financed by the owner of the factory Mr Bapterosses used locally produced mosaics extensively on the walls and as friezes throughout. The huge floor area is all done in mosaics.

Leaving Briare, we were very fortunate to find no boats coming the other way on the Aqueduct and David excelled by steering straight down the very narrow channel without wandering to either side. So began our trip on the Canal Lateral a la Loire.

Pictures show the Aqueduct over the Loire and the old tree lined canal.

Best Regards, Penny and Dave