Montceaux-Digoin


	Montceaux - Digoin

Many people dash quickly through this section because the scenery is less picturesque than other parts of the canal.

The locks are not very pretty, their cottages are usually dilapidated and there is a sparsity of villages directly alongside the canal. On several stretches the canal banks are untended and overgrown. There are, however, many things of interest & some places that are well worth lingering in.

As you leave Montceau, via the ancient lifting bridges that replaced an even more ancient turning one, you pass immediately into an industrialised area. It certainly cannot be called picturesque, but even here there are places worth visiting. The Maison d’Ecole houses a marvellous collection that takes you back in time to the days of school children of the late 18th & early 19th century - and the Fossil Museum has very interesting exhibits,

many from this region.

A little further along the canal, at Ciry-le-Noble, there is another opportunity to step back in time in the ancient factory of Vairot- Baudot, which - for over 100 years - made a wide variety of products; bricks, roof tiles, pottery bottles and more, until it closed down in 1967. Restoration is still in progress, but a great deal of original machinery remains and a guide will enable you to follow the production of ceramics, from the extraction of raw materials to the finished product.



					For ambience, situation & amenities the accolade of “best halte nautique”, on this canal, must go to Génelard. The ancient turning circle has been made very attractive and there are good, clean showers & WCs in the square. Génelard got another first prize from us; big platefuls of omelette avec frites, hunks of baguette and butter & a pichet of wine, all for €12 for two, ensured that L’Entracte won our award for the best value restaurant, on the canal!



			Years ago, the entire route of the canal du Centre was known as “Ceramics Valley”, today this part of the canal is the one where several ceramics manufacturers still flourish, but the one that once

			owned this curiously decorated oven is not one of them. This part of the canal is also Charollais country and, after you have moored for the night, there are opportunities for pleasant walks in meadows occupied by curious cows.

Palinges has an impressive, partly 12th century, church that is worth a visit, but the main reason to stop at this village is to start a cycle ride to see the imposing château de Digoine, which boasts formal French gardens AND an English park.

The gardens and parts of the interior, including the Italian theatre where

Sarah Bernhardt performed, are open to the public at weekends and on bank holidays.

A stop at Paray-le-Monial is a must. The old town clusters around its great basilica, an architectural masterpiece that was built in 970 around the clunisien abbey. It was here that Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque saw repeated visions of Christ, between 1673 and 1689, turning Paray into an important centre of pilgrimage.

The town has numerous other historical riches and is well worth lingering in, especially as it has a very pleasant halte, from which you can hear the chants broadcast. .


	The canal du Centre end in Digoin, a town situated on three canals; the Centre, the Roanne à Digoin and the canal lateral à la Loire, which starts with this magnificent 243 metres long aqueduct over the river, which was built between 1834 & 1838.