CENTRAL
LOIRE VALLEY
CHATILLON
SUR LOIRE AND BRIARE
MAY 2018
Please note this post deviates from the chronological sequence otherwise adopted as illustrated by this map of my travels.
There is a campsite at Briare itself but I chose to
stay at a smaller one on the right bank of the Loire opposite the
town of Chatillon. This was less well equipped and
serviced, but less crowded and with pitches right on the riverbank as
this photo shows.
You can't get closer than this
From here I was able to make rides along pleasant cycle
paths and minor roads into Briare downriver and on either side of the
river in the other direction.
The Chatillon site was run by the municipality from a
large building originally used as the lock keeper's residence and
this stimulated my interest in the origins and facts of the canals
hereabouts.
The
16th
Century was a turbulent time in the history of Paris with rapid
population growth to about 350,000 citizens in the middle of the
century that dropped to 300,000 by 1600 as a result of plague and
religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.
Catholics committed the notorious St Bartholomew's Day
Massacre of Huguenots in 1572 and this was followed by Protestant
Henry of Navarre's siege of the city in the 1590s. The siege
was finally resolved when Henry agreed to become a catholic and was
accepted as King HenryIV by the whole country including its
capital city.
Henry therefore had good reason to try and keep the
citizens of Paris as well fed and content as possible. At the
time that was no mean task since the city streets were narrow and
congested and roads outside the walls were little more than primitive
cart tracks. Most grain and other supplies were conveyed and
distributed by barge on the Seine and local canals.
So it was that Maximilian de Béthune the Duc de Sully
who restored the castle on the Loire and was Henry's Finance
Minister, conceived the idea of building a 57 kms long canal from
Buges on the Seine to Briare on the Loire crossing the watershed
between the two valleys. This would enable grain from the interior
to be more reliably brought in larger volumes to the capital but
would require reservoirs near the summit and 36 locks from end to end to
climb and descend the hills.
Construction was started in 1605 but Henry's well
conceived plan to keep the populace happy didn't have time to work as
he was assassinated six years later. The Duc de Sully was
disgraced and work on the canal stopped until twenty seven years
later during Louis XIII's reign. The canal was completed and
became operational in 1642.
This canal was a vital link in an ever widening national
network including the Canal Lateral de la Loire that terminated at
Chatillon at the time. Barges travelling across the Loire had
to pass into the river via locks on each side.
The one on the right bank, connecting the Briare Canal
to the Loire had the unusual need for an external and an internal gate system at each
end because the huge range in water level in the Loire
between times of drought and flood meant the riverside water varied between being higher than the canalside in Spring and lower in Autumn.
External River Gate
Internal Canal Gate
I haven't been able to find accurate figures for the full range but, from observation and my own photos, estimate it could be as large as 40 feet. Apparently the same problem did not arise on the left bank,
presumably because the height of the canal water rose and fell at the
same time as that in the river.
Whilst here I had a direct indication of the speed with
which the water level could change lending real meaning to a number of
signs showing a running man and a wave formation with the words –
“en cas d'inondation”.
There were a couple of days with relatively light rain but perhaps it was heavier farther inland and
in the Cevennes where the Loire rises. Whereas the water level
had left many signs of sands at the river edges and was flowing at a
couple of knots when I arrived, two days later it had broadened and
deepened considerably and was running at more like 6 or 7 knots.
Although Henry didn't survive to see the degree to which
the canal was used others did and about 100 years later bulk goods of
many types were being conveyed along it – including wine apparently
requiring more than 500 barges at one period so great was the thirst
of an ever increasing population.
Unlike many other canals haulage was normally performed
by two men and not by horses.
Two
important extensions and improvements were made in the late 19th
Century. The first was installation of a pumping system so water
could be supplied to the reservoirs during droughts and the canal
kept operational all year round.
The second was to do away with the need for barges to
enter and leave the river at Chatillon by extending the canal lateral
to a point opposite Briare from which a viaduct carrying it across
the river could be built to directly link with Briare's Commercial Port and Canal.
Canal viaduct over the river
And river under the viaduct
Links Briare's commercial port to the Canal Lateral
Nowadays the viaduct is still in use but as a leisure
facility with tourists either walking across or riding on a canal
long-boat built within an inch to just pass through the stonework
sides where the viaduct joins the canal proper.
Passengers
Bikes
On wide barges
That only just squeeze past the narrowest section
