D16 le Guetin to Decize

After our night aboard le petit bayou we crossed the Ailler, a major tributary of the Loire on yet another aqueduct carrying the Canal lateral. The extent of the French canal system is somewhat of a revelation. Each lock is personned by a lock-keeper who is housed in a pretty canalside cottage of standard design - all appearing orderly in a Napoleonic and deeply French way.

This Map shows just how extensive the system is -the rivers are in red and the canals in blue- presumably only showing their modern navigable sections - which is why the Loire isn't shown between Orleans (roughly where it stops being marked South-west of Paris) and Nevers - a huge arc which we have been following all week.
To the North I followed the Seine through the Paris basin and in the South I will follow the Rhone (north eastwards) from Lyon into the Alps. This now deeply rural area of central France we are crossing was once the hub of early industrialisation. Between 1821 and 1854 Fourchambault became one the early ironworks in France producing rails and bridge components to create a communication network to complement the Canal system.
The components of 19th century industrialisation coal, iron and waterways all come together here in a way which is relatively rare in France (see coal field map below with Loire highlighted) which is one of the reasons for the way industrialisation was more patchy in France and why in the current era  EDF are leaders in nuclear power (we cycled by one of their Loire power stations on pathway subsidised by them complete with child friendly exhibition space - hearts and minds for the French nuclear  project clearly important strategically!

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Evidence of the age of revolu tions is also obliquely provided by this glorious 11th century church. Abandoned after the Revolution it was patchwork as a barn only being rescued recently as part of the recognition of national monuments programme. A modern take on superstition is provided by the eurovelist notes left on the altar (' cycling from Budapest to Nantes -Jaques '). The search for meaning is endless!

Decise for the record is a rather forgotten island  on the Loire once serving as a local centre but now feeling rather down at heel.