Brittany Canal Day 7

Dimanche - Sunday - in France is very quiet. We had planned to have another walk around Malestroit in the morning to visit the boulanger-patisserie and take more photos, but we decide to move on instead because the bakery probably won't be open, it's a grey day, we have three locks to get through in the next section and rain is forecast in the afternoon. We leave as the church bells are summoning the faithful to mass at about 10:45.

There were a number of other boats at Malestroit, but they are probably earlier risers than we are (not difficult), so we have the canal to ourselves and we are the only boat in each lock as we go through. The locks are narrow, so lining up to motor in without bumping the fenders on the sides is a challenge which Peter has almost mastered. As the steering position is on one side of the boat, you need someone standing in the middle judging when the boat is lined up - that's my job. Once in the lock I go forward and put the bow line on the boat hook dangled by the lock keeper, Peter stops the engine and goes back to do the same with the stern line. That means he does all the chatting with the lock keeper, finding out that there is some kind of issue further up the canal which may prevent us from going all the way to Josslin.

In this direction, all the locks are raising the boat, and most are quite deep - a couple of metres. With only one boat in the lock you tie up at the back of the lock, the lock keeper opens the sluices fully, and the lock fills quite quickly. All the controls are wirelessly operated from a bright yellow remote control about the size of a fat mobile phone. Every lock has a lock cottage, which gradually comes into view as you rise. They are so pretty, but by the time you see them properly the lock is full, gates are opening and it's time to unhook lines and move on. I will try to take more pictures on our return, when we'll be starting with the cottage in view before we descend.

Lock cottage

Exiting a lock

The journey is a mixture of canal and river - the canal sections cut off very bendy bits of the Oust. The river is now wider and there are big fields on either side, lots more sweet corn and cows. All along the side of river and canal is a towpath once used by the horses towing barges, now used by cyclists and joggers, all of whom we wave to as they pass, and they wave back, just as everyone in France greets you in passing when you're on foot.

Contented cows

Because we've been told by the lock keepers that we won't be able to go past Montertelot today, we think there may be a big collection of boats waiting there, so we decide to stop one village earlier, at le-Roc-St-Andre. There is only one smallish pontoon with a biggish boat on it, but we squeeze Pladic on the end and go and explore the village, taking our rain jackets because the forecasts have been pretty accurate. It's only a small village, with a church with a very quaint steeple, and not much activity on the streets.

Church steeple in le-Roc-St-Andre

But the bar-creperie is open, so we have our usual galette lunch. Rain starts as forecast as we leave the restaurant, but we don our coats and walk back to the boat by a different route. Back at the pontoon the bigger boat has gone, we can move up closer to the power outlets and plug into shore power. The rest of the rainy afternoon is spent reading and struggling with a crossword puzzle, then it's soup, biscuits and cheese for dinner as nothing is open on Sunday evenings.