A different kind of New Year

Normally, we go to the coast on New Year's day, as many of my long-time blogging friends know by now. It's been our tradition since we bought the Crumbly Cottage Mk1 (see this old post from 2014) until this year when we were simply too far from the coast to get there; 422 km too far, in fact. We still felt impelled to go somewhere, though, so Koos suggested we go and visit a lock and a tunnel over the canal he'd spotted as he was driving back to the Crumbly Cottage Mk 2 from Chaumont, Haute-Marne's departmental capital. Since a canal is as good as the sea to a boat-loving Val, off we went, only to discover it was a real treasure.

Not only is the tunnel at Condes, where we found Koos's sighting, the only two-way canal tunnel in France (two commercial 5-metre wide péniches can pass each other comfortably in the tunnel), but beyond it there is both an aqueduct and a lifting bridge. What's more, although you can't quite see it from where I'm standing to take the photo below, the end of the lock that Koos initially spotted from the car is next to Zoe. That makes four major waterways' features all in one place. Quite a bonanza for us! As the proud mayor of Conde said when these four monumental structures were built in the 1880s, 'Within 500 metres there are four fine examples of 19th century industrial achievement'. And he was right. From the lock to the tunnel is less than a hundred metres, and the aqueduct with its bridge are less than a hundred metres from the other end of the tunnel, which is itself 308 metres long.

We very much enjoyed our discovery and it made a great alternative to the normal 1st of January beach outing. In fact, the aqueduct and its bridge made it extra special because, as some of you know, I have a bit of a thing about them, so I hope the photos give you a good idea of how these structures hang together.

Zoe and I are standing next to the lock

I'm now standing at the beginning of the aqueduct
looking back to the 'two-lane' tunnel

Along the aqueduct over the Marne

The Marne again

The lifting bridge over the end of the aqueduct

An overview

I hope you've enjoyed this small piece of canal history and engineering. There are many websites that include a sentence or two about Condes' special canal features, but none that are specifically dedicated to its construction and how it came to be. I'll keep looking, though! Have a good weekend, allemaal, and I'll catch up with you next week.