Canal of Briare
The Briare Canal was the prototype of all modern canals.
The Briare Canal was the prototype of all modern canals.
The Briare Canal is one of the oldest French canals, running from the River Loire at Briare to Buges near Montargis. Via the Canal du Loing, it forms a connection to the Seine. It served as the prototype for many of the French canals that followed and nearly all of the canals that link rivers operate using the principles invented for the Briare Canal.
The Briare Canal had three connections to the River Loire. The first connection was at Martinet, and the second was north at Rivotte, or "Maison Blanche", in 1696. The third connection is closest to Baraban and was built because of a shortage in Paris, and it was believed that this connection would improve the number of ships. It is unclear whether the third connection was rebuilt in 1794 on an earlier possible passage.
The Combles lock, which is close to the Baraban lock, is part of the Loire Lateral Canal and is not part of the Briare Canal. During the construction of the Briare Canal Bridge, several modifications were made, and the Loire Lateral Canal now extends to lock 4 La Cognardière.
The Briare Canal is the oldest canal in France. Engineer Hugues Cosnier solved several problems during the construction of the canal. He invented the staircase locks and deviated from the course of the Loing River due to the risk of flooding, thus creating the lateral canal along the river. Even Pierre Paul Riquet adopted some of his ideas for his Canal du Midi. Construction of the canal began in 1605 and it was put into use in 1642. In 1720, the canal was extended to Buges to connect to the Canal d'Orleans. In the 1830s, the canal was modernized to Louis Beckuey standards, and again in 1879 to Freycinet standards. Between 1890 and 1896, the Pont canal de Briare was built to connect the Canal lateral a la Loire over the Loire River, eliminating the need to cross the Loire River.
Modernizations.
During the 1830s, a significant modernization campaign was carried out on the canal as a result of the Becquey laws of 1821 and 1822, which among other things, imposed a minimum size on canals. The locks, which until then had a size similar to that of the current canals in Brittany (around 26 m by 4.60), were widened and lengthened to dimensions of 31 m by 5.20 m, and the canal was deepened to a water level of 1.60 m to allow the passage of boats with a draft of about 1 meter 30 centimeters.
The canal was taken over by the state in 1860.
During the 1880s, the canal, which had been taken over by the state in 1860, was again modernized in accordance with the Freycinet law of 1879. The size was again increased with locks of 39 m by 5.20 m, and the water level of the canal rose to 2.20 m for boats with a draft of 1.80 meters. During this modernization, parts of the canal were abandoned and replaced with new, less winding routes. As a result, the staircase locks of Rogny, Moulin-Brûlé, and Chesnoy were abandoned in favor of new locks on a new route. In certain places, the old canal route is still visible, such as at Le Rondeau, Moulin-Brûlé in Dammarie-sur-Loing, Venon, Briquemault, Notre-Dame, Moulin-Neuf.
Characteristics
The water supply system of the Briare canal is very complex. It consists of 18 reservoirs of different sizes that capture the waters of the Bourdon, the Loing, the Trézée, among others, connected to each other by dozens of kilometers of feeding channels on the Puisaye plateau. The Bourdon lake was significantly expanded in 1905 and the original dam is mostly preserved. In addition, the Loire is supplied by the Briare pumping plant since 1895. The canal also benefits from the contribution of small tributaries of the Trézée that converge in it.
The Briare Canal connects the two most important rivers of France, the Loire and the Seine.
The Briare Canal had three connections to the Loire, which were put into service in order and functioned more or less simultaneously. The first was that of Martinet, probably in use since the 1610s.
The second one, further north, is that of Rivotte or "Maison Blanche", mentioned in 1696. Nothing is visible of the lock itself. The eddy is completely overgrown. Only a piece of the wall of the house is still visible.
The third is closest to the city, at Baraban. It was opened in emergency in 1794 due to the famine reigning in Paris at the time (the locks of Martinet and Rivotte could not absorb the flow of boats descending on Paris). The irregular shape of the Baraban lock is what makes its originality and never prevented it from functioning perfectly until its downgrading in the 1950s, before its reopening in 2011.
Lock 3 de La Place is a lock in the original Canal de Briare. The section of the canal before the Briare canal bridge was built. The section of the canal is known as the Canal Henri IV.
Lock 5 Venon is, seen from the Briare canal bridge, the first lock upstream of the canal. The locks in the original canal are no longer part of the downstream navigation due to the construction of the Briare canal bridge.
Above lock 6, the water supply canal crosses the canal with a bridge. This supplycanal is supplied with water from the pumping station in Briare. This supplycanal leads towards the highest part of the canal, above lock de la Gazonne.
Ouzouer-sur-Trézee is a picturesque village along the Canal de Briare. The Trézee river flows a bit through the canal. There is a mooring in the village and a little further on, the lock.
Lock Rondeau, or what remains of it, is a lock from the original canal. The canal has undergone several modernizations and, with the adaptation to Freycinet standard sizes, the original winding separating wall was abandoned. The adjacent 7-lock of Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses was also impossible to adapt to the new sizes. Thus, a new separating wall was dug and the drop was caught with new locks. The staircase lock has thus been preserved.
The single lock of Rogny is one of the locks built to replace the staircase lock. The staircase lock is located nearby.
The 7 locks of Rogny-les-Sept-Ecluses is a staircase lock located at the town named after the locks. Since the adjustment to Freycinet standards, the locks are no longer in use. During the adjustments to the canal to make the locks suitable for barges, the Freycinet standards, it became clear that the chambers of a staircase lock could not be extended. The solution was to dig a new section of canal with five single locks, thus preserving the lock.
The lock Moulin Brûle with number 21 is a guard lock in the French Canal de Briare. The lock was built around 1880 to replace the original staircase lock. These staircase locks could not be adapted to the Freycinet standard measurements.
The Langlée lock is located in the Canal Neuf, a part of the canal built to connect the junction of the Orleans and Loing canals. The Canal Neuf is a newer part of the Canal de Briare and to establish a connection with these two canals, a new part of the Canal de Briare had to be built.
In 1720, the Briare Canal, which until then flowed into the moats of Montargis for navigation and flowed into the Loing through a weir, was extended to Buges to connect to the canals of Orleans (opened in 1693) and Loing, which were still under construction. This section from Montargis to Buges is called the "Canal Neuf".