River Sarthe, France.

[Neil TNC]

In September 2010, Martin Clark and myself were kindly invited to help David Long bring his narrowboat Falcon, up most of the Sarthe Navigation, in France, to Falcon's Winter mooring at the head of navigation, in the medieval town of Le Mans.

The normal TNC boring image format, just click on the thumbnails for bigger piccies.

 

 

River Sarthe

 

 

There seemed to be a floral display competition going on with the lockies...I think this one won!

[magpie patrick]

In September 2010, Martin Clark and myself were kindly invited to help David Long bring his narrowboat Falcon, up most of the Sarthe Navigation, in France, to Falcon's Winter mooring at the head of navigation, in the medieval town of Le Mans.

The normal TNC boring image format, just click on the thumbnails for bigger piccies.

 

 

River Sarthe

 

 

There seemed to be a floral display competition going on with the lockies...I think this one won!

 

Hmmm, very nice, and yet another for Juno's wish list.

 

Is that a two rise or does it just have very tall headgates?

[Neil TNC]

Hmmm, very nice, and yet another for Juno's wish list.

 

Is that a two rise or does it just have very tall headgates?

 

It is very much a river navigation, High headgates to cope with flood waters.

I must say, after our Northern France foray, I was very impressed. Lovely little villages on route, with many nice bars and restaurants. David has spent 3 years on the Mayenne / Sarthe, as he liked it so much. The navigation was a typical cast-off VNF one, reasonably well maintained, but depth problems.

[Guest]

What a great set of pictures....

[Djuwenda]

It is very much a river navigation, High headgates to cope with flood waters.

I must say, after our Northern France foray, I was very impressed. Lovely little villages on route, with many nice bars and restaurants. David has spent 3 years on the Mayenne / Sarthe, as he liked it so much. The navigation was a typical cast-off VNF one, reasonably well maintained, but depth problems.

 

I find this highly interesting as I am originally from Laval in Mayenne.

 

The Mayenne is a beautiful river, however, I have never seen any steel craft navigating it. I am only aware of one barge, moored in the two centre, but believe this may have been delivered by road.

Do you know which part of the river Mayenne your friend cruised?

ic oud not find it in his cruise logs...

[Neil TNC]

I find this highly interesting as I am originally from Laval in Mayenne.

 

The Mayenne is a beautiful river, however, I have never seen any steel craft navigating it. I am only aware of one barge, moored in the two centre, but believe this may have been delivered by road.

Do you know which part of the river Mayenne your friend cruised?

ic oud not find it in his cruise logs...

 

NB Falcon

was delivered by road from the main French waterways (no connection), about three years ago. David and his family have been up and down the Mayenne and Sarthe many times. David took NB Falcon over to France in 1991, for three months....it never came back!

[Athy]

I shouldn't think he dares to bring her back over here, cruising along with all those fenders down, what would some people think?

[MoominPapa]

Are red-over-white tunnel bands a French thing, or a Falcon thing?

 

MP.

 

Edited to add: maybe I'm being dense; there's a small blue band too, so it's a Tricolour, n'est-ce pas?

[RLWP]

Are red-over-white tunnel bands a French thing, or a Falcon thing?

 

MP.

 

Edited to add: maybe I'm being dense; there's a small blue band too, so it's a Tricolour, n'est-ce pas?

 

Is it a Dutch barge then?

 

Richard

 

Edited October 4, 2010 by RLWP

[Neil TNC]

I shouldn't think he dares to bring her back over here, cruising along with all those fenders down, what would some people think?

 

He would be potty to come back.

Even in the centre of Le Mans, the Port de Plaisance charges 550 Euro/year for secure pontoon moorings with free leccy, showers, pumpout (rare!) and water. It you want to leave your boat on the other village pontoons, most are free. No licence fees on these non VNF waterways (run by the Department), no BSS. All you need is insurance and UK SSR registration....which you can do on-line for £25/5years.

 

As for fenders in France, all of the commercials have them dangling down, even some narrowboats get properly kitted out

[Athy]

He should have mounted them higher up, it looks as if someone has put a few dents in his cabin sides!

Those sound very advantageous mooring conditions, Neil - I am tempted, except that experience suggests that a narrow boat is not the ideal craft for French canals.

[Neil TNC]

Are red-over-white tunnel bands a French thing, or a Falcon thing?

 

MP.

 

Edited to add: maybe I'm being dense; there's a small blue band too, so it's a Tricolour, n'est-ce pas?

 

AFAIK it is a Falcon thing as in the "Red, white and blue", there is a little Union Jack at the side of the red band.

As for French Peniches, I would say the most popular "trad" colour seems to be chocolate brown, as seen in this rather well maintained example.

 

 

As for red over white bands on a NB, one in Harefield has just been done this way round!

[Neil TNC]

He should have mounted them higher up, it looks as if someone has put a few dents in his cabin sides!

Those sound very advantageous mooring conditions, Neil - I am tempted, except that experience suggests that a narrow boat is not the ideal craft for French canals.

 

I won't get drawn into that argument!

...especially as I am officially an ex-narrowboater

David has taken NB Falcon around most of the central French / Belgian waterways in the 11 years he has had it over there.

Wandering Snail does have a good blog, but it does not get updated that much, as they are too busy enjoying themselves!

 

Wandering Snail Blog

 

One thing to worry about, the new TRIWV regs will mean that any boat over 20m (like Wandering Snail) could be rather awkward and expensive to get certified, in Mainland Europe, in future years.

[Timleech]

Depth problems? How deep/shallow?

 

Just curious, as my boat draws 3' 6" and in case I win the lottery it's a part of France that I haven't seen

 

Tim

Edited October 4, 2010 by Timleech

[Neil TNC]

Depth problems? How deep/shallow?

 

Just curious, as my boat draws 3' 6" and in case I win the lottery it's a part of France that I haven't seen

 

Tim

 

I did not take soundings, but NB Falcon, which ISTR is around 2' 6" draught did kick up some silt going in and out of a couple of the lock cuts, this was definitely centre channel. Also, we had to watch the speed in lock cuts, as we started to get beaking wash. No problems on the river. I can certainly recommend it. The Mayenne is meant to have a different character, getting a much narrower navigation up the top. Come next summer we may have cracked getting from Angers to Nantes (free flowing/semi tidal River Loire), to access the Brittany waterways. Failing that David will truck Falcon to Nantes.

[mudslide]

He would be potty to come back.

Even in the centre of Le Mans, the Port de Plaisance charges 550 Euro/year for secure pontoon moorings with free leccy, showers, pumpout (rare!) and water. It you want to leave your boat on the other village pontoons, most are free. No licence fees on these non VNF waterways (run by the Department), no BSS. All you need is insurance and UK SSR registration....which you can do on-line for £25/5years.

 

As for fenders in France, all of the commercials have them dangling down, even some narrowboats get properly kitted out

 

Please please tell me more .

I've just returned from two weeks of sun and wine in France to the wet and windy Midlands . My thoughts turned to a long cruise on the French canals but I can't find much information on how to do it ! Don't fancy the 'Narrow Dog' route so any info would be gratefully received .

[Neil TNC]

Please please tell me more .

I've just returned from two weeks of sun and wine in France to the wet and windy Midlands . My thoughts turned to a long cruise on the French canals but I can't find much information on how to do it ! Don't fancy the 'Narrow Dog' route so any info would be gratefully received .

 

<disclaimer>

I have not done this myself and of course, offer no guarantee that narrowboats will not sink and be terribly difficult to control in France...well I assume you are thinking of doing this in your own narrowboat. I certainly won't, it will be in a barge. On the other hand many have done large sections of the continental waterways in narrowboats and retured to tell the tale.

Tam will be along shortly to rubbish the idea!

 

The basic list of things to do is...

 

1 - Gain International Certificate of Competence (Euro boat handling licence) with CEVNI rules (ICC/CEVNI) If you want the proper French experience, get on one of Tam Murrell's courses. (you'll end up wanting a barge!)

2 - Gain VHF licence.

3 - Register your craft with the Small Shps Register (SSR) (I would also suggest sticking a name and address label on your plastic covered registartion document as the French sometimes want to know the home address of the "ship".)

4 - Make sure you have CE documentation and VAT recipt for your craft, or at least bill of sale if SH.

5 - Do a lot of practise over here on such waterways as the Manchester Ship Canal and Thames Tideway. Get the hang of VHF, mix it with commercials. If you ever wanted to do some of the serious rivers in France, like the Rhone, you will have to go flat out for long periods to get between ports.

6 - Try to get some experience of the larger French waterways, join the DBA, they often have adverts for crew wanted.

7 - Get insurance for boat in France, also don't forget to get cover for craneage and transport, unless this is guaranteed in writing by the transport company.

8 - Get quote for transport from UK to France. Obviously cheaper to have boat put it at Calais, but you will straight away be mixing it with a lot of commercial traffic.

9 - Get moorings sorted out in France - often you will only have to do this for the winter months.

10 - Licence boat with VNF, you can now do this online, easier that getting a BW licence!!!

11 - Take boat to France. (best to be under 20m, must have two VHF's!)

..oh...and a last point, best to have someone that can speak French!

 

Our trip to Northern France, in a borrowed barge, will give you an idea of what you can expect getting fron Calais to start going south.

Linky

 

As an alternative, I can offer more first hand guidance on taking your narrowboat to Ireland...but you would not like it, it rains all the time and the beer/wine is expensive.

[Athy]

as we started to get beaking wash.

Ducks suffer from this problem also.

[Neil TNC]

Ducks suffer from this problem also.

 

[mudslide]

Thanks Neil ! that'll give me something to think about over the dull winter - doesn't sound too easy and probably expensive to transport 60ft to Calais . Perhaps I'll try hiring a barge first (http://www.cruisefrance.com/barge-holidays-map.htm).

[Neil TNC]

Thanks Neil ! that'll give me something to think about over the dull winter - doesn't sound too easy and probably expensive to transport 60ft to Calais . Perhaps I'll try hiring a barge first (http://www.cruisefrance.com/barge-holidays-map.htm).

 

The cost of transporting a narrowboat is an art...as I found out when NB Earnest went to and from Ireland. If you know the right people who have contacts with a transport company with trombone trailers, who need return loads, it can be surprsingly cheap. A flat bottomed narrowboat is easy to transport on a trombone trailer, it is almost like they were made for each other!

Of course, the easy way, with the recession biting, would be to buy a barge already in France. There are some half decent ones that have been hanging about for ages.

As I said, unless you want grief, avoid anything more than 20m.

[bargemast]

A nice photo-series of the river Sarthe, on the third photograph you see the quiet and peaceful mooring at Châteauneuf sur Sarthe, when I was there a couple of weeks ago, it did look quite a bit different with the river in flood.

 

 

As for French Peniches, I would say the most popular "trad" colour seems to be chocolate brown, as seen in this rather well maintained example.

 

 

This barge (French Péniche) is a Belgium Péniche from Antoing, not that it changes anything to the barge itself that's very well maintained.

 

Peter.

[Neil TNC]

This barge (French Péniche) is a Belgium Péniche from Antoing, not that it changes anything to the barge itself that's very well maintained.

 

Peter.

 

I don't even know my Spitz from my Peniche!

[Timleech]

I don't even know my Spitz from my Peniche!

 

Aren't they (spits (sp) and peniche) the same, Freycinet-sized barges, just a language thing so it'll depend what part of Belgium they're from?

 

Tim

[Guest]

 

One thing to worry about, the new TRIWV regs will mean that any boat over 20m (like Wandering Snail) could be rather awkward and expensive to get certified, in Mainland Europe, in future years.

 

Neil - wondering if you could expand on this - we have semi seriously talked and thought about taking the Dog Hose to France in years to come, probably when we get bored with the UK system and definitely not till Jan finishes work too.

 

At 60ft (18.2m) she would be under this limit but what are the issues likely to be for boats over this? and is it something that might eventually impact on shorter boats like ours.

 

Many thanks.