A Summary
To reach our Mediterranean destination from Normandy, we sailed from Cherbourg along the English Channel to Honfleur near Le Havre at the mouth of the Seine River. We entered the Seine River and traveled the interior French rivers and canal/lock system to Port St. Louis on the Mediterranean.
We had our mast taken down in Tancarville and transported to the Mediterranean by FastMast. This lower clearance and our shallow draft (with the centerboard up) allowed us to navigate these canals and locks.
We put Chinook into an uncomfortable position of being a motorboat in narrow canals and locks (only 0.25 metres to spare on each side in most locks) but she preformed admirably. It was a very interesting trip seeing the “back alleys” of France through beautiful countryside and into the heart of French cities and towns such as Rouen, Paris, Melun, Moret sur Loing, Nemours, Nevers, Sancerre, Montargis, Digoin, Paray le Monial, Santenay, Tournus, Macon, Lyon, Viviers, Avignon and Arles. Below is a summary of the journey. Our route is marked in red.
This journey took 6 weeks – a total of 1,344 km and 190 locks.
From Honfleur to Paris
- Along La Seine a total of 218km and 6 locks.
From Paris to Chalon-sur-Saone along the ‘Bourbonnais’ Loire-Centre route
- Southeast on La Seine, the Canal de Loing, the Canal de Briare, the Canal Lateral a la Loire and the Canal du Centre
- a total of 495km and 155 locks
From Chalon-sur-Saone to Port St Louis
- South on La Saone and Le Rhone to Port St Louis
- a total of 453km and 16 locks.