The plan for Tuesday is to cruise on the canal to the city of Dijon. After lunch we will take a walking tour through the heart of Dijon and have a little time on our own to explore.
A bit about our cruise. This is NOT a river cruise. A river cruise is usually on a much larger boat - 100 or more passengers - and often travels through many countries covering a considerable distance over the course of the cruise. Our cruise is on one of the French canals. The total distance traveled during our 5 days of actual movement will probably not be more than 40 to 50 miles.
We travel from lock to lock on this narrow, shallow canal. The locks are operated manually. They accommodate one barge at a time and even then it is a tight squeeze to fit the barge into the lock. It can even be a bit dicey passing another barge coming the other way on the canal.
Our cruise is going upstream. That means that we enter the lock at the low level and are raised to the higher level. There is a short span of time during this process when the deck of the barge is at the same level as the ground outside. That is the time when we can get on or off the barge.
Notice the modern power gate on the lock. It operates on 1 man-power. That's our barge - Nenuphar - approaching the lock. (I had bicycled ahead and was waiting for them.). There's not too much room to spare on the sides. All the locks on the canal are the same size and the barges are built to fit the lock.
The barge eases into the lock. If you are inside the barge, all you see is the side of the lock. The top of the barge is barely above the edge of the lock. The barges can't be any higher because they have to go under some overpasses, as you can see by the picture.
