This canal runs for 189 kilometres from the River Saône at St Jean de Losne in the south through 189 locks to the River Yonne at Migennes at the northern end. The locks are numbered from 1 to 76 on the southern side of the summit and from 1 to 115 on the northern side. I know this adds up to 194 but some of the original locks were replaced by larger ones hence the reduction in lock numbers.
The canal connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean via the Seine and the Yonne to the Saône and Rhône. All the locks are manned by an éclusier who will stay with a boat through a few locks and then hand over to the next éclusier. They use vans or scooters to get between their locks.
The lock cottages are quite small and each had a lock information plate providing the lock number, name and the distance to the next major town in each direction.
The canal passes through the departments of Yonne and Côte-d'Or. Its summit level is at Pouilly-en-Auxois, 378m above sea level. At this point the canal passes through a tunnel which is 3,333 metres long. The lowest point is at the junction with the Yonne at 79 m (259 ft) above sea level.
History (from french-waterways.com): A canal on this route from the Saône to the Seine was envisaged in the early 17th century during the reign of Henri IV. The route was the subject of intense debate, reflected in a number of published works in the 17th and 18th centuries. Works began in 1774, and Dijon was reached from the Saône in 1808. It was another 24 years before the canal was opened throughout, in 1832. The locks were lengthened to the Freycinet standard in 1882, but the tunnel remained a bottleneck, even after the 1867 steam tug was replaced by an electric tug in 1893. The canal was experimentally taken over by the Région Bourgogne in 2010, but two years later it was handed back to the State and returned to VNF management. The region found the burden of maintenance and operation to be beyond its capability and resources, with inadequate guarantees of support from central government.
Not only do we include pictures of the locks we have also captured lock cottages and name plates where they exist. Click on a lock to see pictures and more details.
Versant Yonne
A photographic record of the locks we have visited during our travels.
Locks: Canal de Bourgogne
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