ABC Wednesday - Ille et Rance

Last week I was on my local canal, but continuing the theme this week I am further afield, in France on part of the Ille and Rance Canal.  Starting at Bazouges-sous-Hede which was about to have a Jazz Festival and here are the dancing musicians. The building in the background is the little museum which tells the history of the canal. I love the variety of little local museums whether municipal or run by enthusiasts. I'm not sure who ran this one but the young guardian made us very welcome, possibly because we appeared to be the only people there. After we had taken in all the exhibitions, artefacts and information she asked if we wanted to see the film about the canal, and looked so disappointed when we declined that I felt a little guilty.

Anyway lets see how much I remembered from that museum.  The canal runs north to south through Brittany from the English Channel to the Atlantic for 85 kilometres linking the rivers of Rance and Ille. It was started in Napoleonic times and one of the reasons was because the British Royal Navy had a tendency to blockade the ports in the north. One of our falling out periods.  The majority of the labour used to build it were Spanish Prisoners of War.

 There are 48 locks along it length, in contrast to last weeks Lancaster Canal which uses the natural contours of the land and only has one in its entire length, but the incline is greater here.

This section from Hede to Tintenieac has many locks and the paths are

beautifully tree lined.

and pretty Loch Keeper's Houses at intervals along its length are festooned with flowers, but don't think it stops there for some of the

locks are decorated too, depending on the enthusiasm of the keeper.

The day we were here we did not see any moving barges on this stretch only

the odd immobile moored boat which unfortunately was not going

through here, or there would have been even more pictures of locks.

I will end with  not a loch in sight.  Sometimes I can resist them.

For Inventive uses of words beginning with the letter I visit the  ABC Wednesday meme