We woke up to heavy rain in Auxerre but by the time we left to ride it had stopped. The forecast looked rather bleak (cool and precipitation) but somehow we managed to evade the rain. It was cool, but a comfortable temperature when pedaling. There is heavy rain and hail south and east of us today in France so luckily we were in the right place. We did encounter one problem on our route today, a large tree that had fallen across the path and onto power lines. We could not get past it with our bike and bags so had to back track a bit and find a road to go around the blockage.
There are many boat tourists on this canal. Every lock we came to today either had boats in it or waiting to enter and all the locks were manned by staff, unlike the Burgundy canal where we saw few boats. We witnessed one fellow on the Burgundy canal working at one lock then racing ahead on his motorbike (passed us) to the next one ahead of the boat he just put through. We spoke to one couple on a boat today and they said they aren’t required to book the locks, they just arrive and wait. It is a slow way to travel, we are much faster. There were 38(!) locks on the ride today from Auxerre to Clamecy, about 70kms. I think all the waiting would get tiresome.
We arrived at our new abode for the next 2 nights, La Boule D’or, in Clamecy. It’s an older place with a hostel feel (shared kitchen, courtyard with ping pong, etc.) but we have our own room and bathroom and it’s very bike friendly. An old chapel is where breakfast is served so that is a new experience. There is very little choice for accommodation in the smaller places like this, you take what you can get.
We did a walking tour here as well to get a good look around. The town is very medieval looking, sort of like Auxerre, with narrow streets and half timber construction. There are also many canals within the city and a confluence of two rivers, the Yonne and the Beuvron, and is sometimes described as the Venice of the Nivernais. It is famous for timber floating (flottage de bois) as it is in a rich forested area and on a river. The wood was cut around here and then assembled into large rafts/trains (75 meters long) which raftsmen (flotteurs) then took downstream to Paris where the need for wood to burn was great and supply inadequate. This was happening from the 16th to the 19th century until coal heating took over. It is quite a fascinating history as it went on for nearly 4 centuries and is the genesis of the canal system on the Yonne river, and contributed hugely to the development of so many places along the route.
Clamecy is also the birthplace of a famous writer/historian, Romain Rolland (1866-1944), who received the nobel prize for literature in 1915. He wrote novels but also commentary about the two world wars he lived through. He was a pacifist who lamented the destruction and loss of relationships between the French and German people. He was an interesting man who apparently influenced and had relationships with notable people including Ghandi, Freud and Richard Strauss, I may have to read more about him. This much we learned in the excellent museum here, along with the flottage history.
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