Anjou navigation

NEW SPECIAL OFFER

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0200

SPECIAL DISCOUNT FOR SEDAN 4/5 CABINS :

You are a group of 8/12 people and you want to make a cruise?

We offer you our Nicols 1310 or Nicols 1160 or Nicols 1170 with the following discount :

15% for 1 week cruises
10% for shorts cruises

Discount for any new booking registered before the 31/05/2012, for all dates of cruises, included summer time!
Non retroactives offer, can't be added to other discount.

Special discount for APRIL

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0100

SPECIAL OFFER FOR MAY !!!

15% discount for 1 week cruise or more

10% for short breaks

Offer valid for all boats

Discount valid from the 1st to the 31st of May 2012. Non retroactive

Mayenne river from Grez Neuville to Château Gontier and Oudon river

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0100

Grez Neuville

Where your boat is waiting for you, quiet town, which the quai is a walk place considered for the beauty of places, its calm and its landscapes. The first lock made with advices of the trainer, we are txo hundred meters later at the confluence of Mayenne and Oudon rivers. Should we enter on Oudon or to continue? The question can be settled, nevertheless let's go on without hesitation! As you crossed the bridge which marks the confluence, we enter on a smaller river, a green seeting where the treelike vegetable castings go down slopes until banks. Sometimes, at the bend of a meander, a pierced green lets appear a house. Farther, its small ponds lined of reeds and swamps where herons get up at the approach of the boat. Lion d'Angers town offer a pontoon to moor and markets are close to insure the estate management.

The Jaillette village

By going back up Oudon, on the left bank (to the right), a small wooden pontoon invites at a stop in the small village of Jaillette. Do not decline the offer, because this tiny village of character is bucolic. The small church, very simple, lets place to emotions with its small cemetery where rest about twenty souls, just front door as in the last century. This church, to which we have just put back a wooden bell tower and slates, has during a long time suffered of the abandonment. But we can admire a magnificent skeleton there arched in inverted boat hull and its walls again let guess fragments of frescoes of the middle-age. On the other side of the street, a smith works to repair agricultural machines. It preserved its former workshop of forge and is authorized to work for historic monuments.

Segré

Many boats do not go farther than the lock of Mainguet. It is necessary to say that the passage round trip of this lock moves closer to the center of Segré only of a kilometer. For Segré, it is so the choice: either two bathed more, or two kilometers on foot round trip. Past the lock, a long quay offers an capacity of mooring of 10 boats in stopover.
Since Segré we can visit in two kilometers of the port the impressive castle of Lorie (10 000 square meters of roof), the park of the Petite Couère, situated to Nyoiseau (4,5 km of the port). It is a whole village which was reconstituted on 80 hectares. Every building presents a corporate association with tools and objects of this period : smith, grocer's shop, bar, lingerie, school, etc. … Farther, in big sheds, the surprise goes growing. A collection of 80 Tractors, former 35 cars, 2500 miniatures. http://www.lapetitecouere.fr/ Return on the Mayenne, we go back up towards Château-Gontier.

The stud farm of Lion d'Angers

Close to Grez-Neuville, in the direction of the Mayenne, for us river, the stud farm of the Lion of Angers offers an easy and magnificent access. We walk past the castle of Isle Briand which sheltered, during several years, the Chateaubriand family. Where from the name of Isle Briand for this semi-island ground between Mayenne and Oudon. Just close, on the bank, there is a strong aluminum pontoon. Do not hesitate to moor it. This access to the stud farm is one of the best times of the cruise. It is necessary to pass under the small bridge, to turn to the right under the big trees to the castle, and to be allowed guide by arrows until the reception. The stud farm, which dates 1797 was relocated by Angers towards this extraordinary site in 1975. Its accommodation facilities are about 60 brood mares and 50 stallions. Among these packages of energy on clogs, we meet of prestigious stallions which have acquired the glory on race tracks, but also of enormous shall perch and of the powerful line Breton from which the race have almost disappeared, the key point of the visit is the saddlery.

The cave of Montreuil

In fifty meters of the lock of Montreuil-sur-Maine, we discover, on the right bank, a cave which looks like to be mistaken in that there of Lourdes. It is not a mirage, it is effectively a faithful reproduction, in smaller, of the famous cave. In 1898, all the village participated in its realization to answer the wish of five girls and commemorate the fortieth birthday of the appearances of the virgin to Bernadette Soubirous.

Chambellay

The village of Chambellay deserves a stop. A visit in the church St Aubin is imperative. This visit does not cost either for the high and narrow style of the silhouette of this church, or for the outside aspect of its construction which posts a former bad restoration undergoing the assaults of the saltpetre. What you should not miss, it is the internal wealth and the picturesque of the history that accompanies them.

Jaille-Yvon

This picturesque village, in the flowery backyards, deserves a stopping place in the passage. On a boat, legs are little sought, and it is so much the better, because here it is necessary to use it, that rises hard to reach the church which we perceive in the middle of trees by raising the head. A pleasant and quiet path results in the village. Here, patches affixed on houses guide the visitor. So, we cross a very former forge. One also cross as well a old pump Drago with jar of 1906 which always works on its well of 21 m of depth. The church, level with the cliff, was built in 1860 in re-use of the product of the sale of the cemetery. Just behind, we discover the panorama on the Mayenne and the presbytery hung on in the space on side of cliff. It already existed in 1637.

Ménil

In the crossing of this small village, the map indicates the passage of a tub. There is only a small wooden pontoon, but if it is available it is necessary to ammarer. The place is charming and with a little luck, we can see the tub working.

Château-Gontier

In the lock of Pendu, just before arriving in town, we go along the factory Trade Amphora of oil-works. It was based in 1830 and, on the bajoyer, we can see the big grindstones which served to make some oil of linen and colza until 1949. To moor, it is advised to cross the last bridge and to use pontoons. If we raise the head, on the other bank, we see at the top of cliff the purpose of our visit: the church Holy Jean-Baptiste. Certainly, there is the others, but we limit ourselves to the most picturesque part of the high city. We can discover it close to the tourist office, the convent of ursulines.

Crusing on the river Sarthe

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

ALLAN ROGERS GOES BOATING IN THE WESTERN LOIRE ©

We were on the car ferry and bound for a boating holiday in France. In the gathering dusk England was left behind and as we made out to sea we passed the gleaming lights our Brittany Ferries’ sister ship The Mont Saint Michel making her return trip from Caen.

Arriving in the morning with plenty of time in hand we decided to tackle France the quiet way avoiding the main roads.

As we undertook this without maps of the appropriate scale, we swiftly became expert in the joys of being “lost in France.”
Each village we entered into seemed to offer little five roads leading out, all labeled for places that were not on our big map. Invariably we took the wrong one and meandered further than we intended. But it was fun and we met a lot of friendly folk along the way.

We stopped for coffee in sleepy places and got used to the local custom of ordering coffee in a bar and bringing in croissants from the baker next door.

We were almost surprised when we arrived at the River Sarthe.

France is well served with waterways and in the “Vallée de la Sarthe” in the Western Loire you can use rental boats from Angers to almost Les Mans (the latter being more readily associated with the racing of fast cars than messing about in slow boats.)

At Sable-sur-Sarthe below Chateau ColbeI we found the base for Anjou Navigation and met with Francois Peiffer who showed us how to handle a Nicols cruiser. It was 9 metres long, with big windows, positively gleaming, very comfortable and easy to handle.

Once we were under way bird song replaced traffic noise and we were immediately aware of just how peaceful life on the river could be.

Our new floating home had the added advantage of two steering positions.

The one up on the roof had a definite appeal. From there we watched the dragonflies skim over the lily pads and supped our wine as we listened to the sound of the bells from the Abbey of Saint Pierre drifting over the meadows

at Solesmes.

The Benedictine Abbey there has its origins in a priory that was built by the river back in 1010.
The monks are still there and it is possible to visit each day. If you are fortunate enough in the timing of your visit you may hear an Office being sung in Gregorian chant.

With 270 km of river waterways available, free from commercial traffic the Sathe, and the easily accessed rivers of the Mayenne, and L’ouden are ideal places for the first timer to try out a boating vacation.
On the River Sarthe there are only about a dozen locks, they are small and easy to go through.

They are free and worked by the lock keeper, usually a lady.

A toot on your horn as you approach usually brings her out to ready the lock. (If it is lunch time be prepared to wait!)

All you have to do is to hang on to the dangling rope and steady your boat as you fall or rise to a new water level.

We particularly liked the experience of ‘going up’ as it usually dramatically revealed an attractively tended garden beside the lock keeper’s house.

There was always something new to feast the eyes on and in one lock we went through was shared with a somewhat anxious mouse adrift upon a log.

We hope that he made it to dry land and that his “tales of the river bank” had a happy ending.

The river is wide and the only large boat we encountered was
“The Sabelesien” which does lunch and dinner cruises or day trips from Sarthe.

You can also rent bicycles with the boat. It can fun pedaling along by the river, trying out your French on the fishermen, exploring the tracks and generally imaging just what it would be like to live there.

We were surprised to find that the French seemed to place no extra value on riverside properties and they were by UK standard quite affordable.

I particularly liked the little village of Parcé sur Sarthe where in the Rue Moulin we found a 14th and 15th Century house with round and square tower. It was the old prison.

Just up from there was the Tower of Saint Pierre, the oldest building in village and nearby the ‘Place de la Republic’ where you can sit out in the square watching village as you have a meal or a coffee.

The whole boating thing is very easy and part of the adventure is shopping in the riverside villages.

If there was a problem, it was that it all seemed to pass too quickly and so, all too soon, with our nautical skills polished by our few days afloat we neatly docked our boat back at the Anjou Navigation base at Sable-sur Sathe.

The river was the ‘old road’ back in Roman times when the only connection between the villages was the river.

Newer towns may have prospered and fast frenetic traffic may have arrived but the quiet way to the little villages still remains. It is a route well worth following.