We had a nice lunch in Châtillon-Coligny, then set off on the final climb of the Canal de Briare.

12 locks later, we’re moored in the middle of nowhere just south of Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses. But there are now only 7 locks in the town, so it should really be called Rogny-les-Six-Ecluses!

25Km and 14 locks today.

Just two locks this morning, both deep but with helpful lock keepers, so no delays whilst we got our act together!

We’ve now moored at a Halte Fluviale at Châtillon Coligny where we’ve filled up with water and are taking advantage of the free WiFi.

With the hot weather we’ve been having, beer has been a major part of our days here. We found quite a reasonable selection of beers in the shops, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. The French manage to produce some very reasonable Beer Blanche (what we assume to be wheat beer), a far cry from years ago when it was lager or water!

Favourite so far is Saint Omer Blanche, which I think is better than Hoegarden…

Another nice day on the canals. Not as cold this morning as it was yesterday, and soon warmed up to 30C or so. It seems strange being in this temperature with the trees starting to look quite autumnal.

We completed the Canal du Loing, with the remote control locks, and passed onto the Canal de Briare, which has a mixture of manual (with a lock keeper) and automatic locks.

One was particularly deep at 9.8m:

Luckily the lock keeper had a rope with a hook on the end to reach our mooring lines!

We’re now moored at Montpresson, a sleepy village south of Montgargis.

And enjoying a beer!

33Km and 18 locks today.

It’s been a glorious day today, weather wise. And with an occasional breeze which is nice except when trying to manoeuvre at slow speed!

We’re still traveling up the Canal du Loing, and joined the River Loing for a while.

We did meet a few barges this morning, but south of Nemours, there has been very little other traffic.

We stopped at Souppes-sur-Loing for supplies, and are now moored for the night in a quiet spot a bit further on.

24Km and 6 locks today. And 2 geocaches!

Cold and crisp this morning, but a good forecast for the day, reaching 30C this afternoon.

You can just see steam rising from the canal.

Another nice day today, though a bit cooler to start with.

We thought we’d have the waterways to ourselves again, but being a Monday on a more commercial part of the river, this proved to be anything but the case!

A large barge “pulled out” in front of us, and we ended up sharing locks…

Luckily the lock was even larger!

We then reached the River Seine, and ended up sharing the largest lock I’ve seen with TWO barges…

All quite different to what we are used to on the ‘canals’, and it was a relief to leave the River Seine for the Canal du Loing.

The first lock had the gates closed and a red ‘traffic’ light. So we moored up and tried to phone the French canal people and ask what a “Navigation programmée” was. No answer, so we stopped at the jetty just outside the lock and then the gates opened. The lock keeper explained that the next 18 locks were automatic, and gave us a remote control to open them. He then helped us through the first lock.

We hadn’t read the instructions fully by the next lock, so pushed the button, the gates opened, and we went in. As we were locking up, we should have dropped someone off first to loop the mooring ropes, so I ended up climbing the ladder in the lock wall… One we were secure, we pulled a rod up and the gates closed, the lock filled, the top gates opened, and we left the lock.

We did things properly for the next couple, and are now moored up for the night.

39Km and 9 locks today.

At the second lock of the day, we were surprised to see the lock gates shut. Lo and behold, a really truly working barge was coming up.

It took a while, but was very exciting. Our boat seemed tiny!

In other news, I now know the French for upstream and downstream.

We explored Sens at lunchtime; it has an interesting cathedral and town hall.

In the afternoon, we continued north for another 23Km, some bits more interesting than others. But some nice locks:

We’re now moored on a tiny quay in the middle of nowhere!

We set off from Villeneuve as soon as the locks were open, and have now done another 17Km and 3 locks to arrive in Sens.

Our boat seems very small in the locks, which are of course designed for much bigger ships.