Cruising on the Canal de Bourgogne

The Long and Winding Road

Completed in 1832, this 242-kilometre-long waterway connects Burgundy to Paris, wending its way through the heartland of France. If you want to explore the Canal de Bourgogne on a barge holiday in France, we’d recommend a jaunt on L’Impressionniste’s route between Fleurey-sur-Ouche and Escommes or La Belle Epoque’s gorgeous stretch of Northern Burgundian countryside between Tanlay and Venarey-les-Laumes.

Attractions en Route

The great thing about a barge holiday in this region of France is that the canal wends its way through a number of beautiful French cities, giving you time to explore their history and soak in a little local culture. Cruising along the Canal de Bourgogne allows you to explore the Northern and Southern areas of this renowned region.

In the north, be sure to visit the Abbaye de Fontenay. Though founded in the early 1100s, its structure has been incredible well-maintained with its cloisters, scriptorium and dormitories still intact. It’s a breathtaking piece of architecture, and now that it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, even its gardens and ponds retain their original glory.

As you travel further down south, you’ll want to visit the monumental Notre-Dame de Dijon. It’s a Gothic-style church with an ornamented façade that boasts gorgeous columns and archways, as well as the typical gargoyles. Inside, you’ll find lovely colourful stain-glass paintings. Both edifices are an unmissable time capsule, the first providing unrivalled insight into Cistercian life and industry, while the second lets you revisit French Catholic practices.

If you have time, you should also stroll through Dijon’s market. It wouldn’t be a barge holiday on the Canal de Bourgogne without sampling French wines, local cheeses and artisanal breads. There are also pâté and terrine stalls that are worth a visit, as well as local delicacies like snails on offer. Make sure to try Dijon’s famous mustard and take some back with you as a souvenir. It’s a real treat for the tastebuds!

History and Feats of Engineering

Conceptualised in the seventeenth century, the Canal de Bourgogne is an incredibly well thought-out chef d’oeuvre of engineering, perfect for your barge holiday in France. The waterway opened in 1832 and took over 50 years to build. It features 127 locks, the most impressive of which is at Pouilly-en-Auxois. This lock is continuously filled by an underground reservoir via a tunnel system; it serves as a watershed from which the water flows both towards Dijon in the south and towards Migennes in the north.

The canal boasts many ingenious features. Its best one, though, is the tunnel which links the Pouilly-en-Auxois lock with the small port of Escommes. It is a very narrow two-and-a-half-mile-long underground passageway that was dug out from the rock in the early nineteenth century. Even today, it remains an essential connection between the north and south of France.