Segré (l’Oudon) – La Vielle Maine – Briollay (River Sarthe)
Wednesday 29.7.2015
7 Locks 47 km
As promised in the last post, things start to look up and moods start to raise. We wake up to marvellous sunshine and the promise of a hot day.
A visit to the boulangerie produces fresh bread and pastries. After breakfast we use the local facilities to stock up the larder and fill up with petrol.
Today the l’Oudon is so much different. It really is just beautiful with wildlife galore and more kingfishers than anybody could take in.
The éclusier at écluse 3 la Himbaudière is a student of the German language. So we have an extended chat with him. Passing Lion-d’Angers we rejoin the Mayenne and turn downstream towards Angers.
Ècluse 45 Montreuil-Belfroy is the last lock on the Mayenne.
After this point the scenery changes dramatically. Since Mayenne we have followed a well defined, often rather narrow valley. Here the hills disappear and we enter a vast flood plain. Not too much unlike the Shannon Callows of home, but at a much grander scale. What appears like a dike of some description in the picture below, is in fact the level of the land, which gets flooded every winter.
The Île St-Aubin lies in the center of this picture. It is another huge flood plain that becomes a lake in winter. The Vielle Maine runs to the left to join the Sarthe near Êcouflant, while the Mayenne heads towards Angers on the right. The markers are on poles about 5 meters high to maintain navigation in times of flooding.
An amphibian landscape.
We moor up on the little jetty of Briollay. This is a delightful village perched on a sandy bank just above the flood levels. The harbour mentioned in the Guide du Breil is totally silted up. But there is an excellent slipway and an Aire de Camping for disposing unwanted ballast. We share the jetty with a french cruiser and crack out the BBQ, also the restaurant at the other side of the riverside park looks very promising. The child finds a play mate and we have a very relaxing evening in the sun.
Just after nightfall a huge Locaboat hire boat turns up. They are slightly lost and have no place to go. So we do a bit of a boat shuffle, so they can moor up to the jetty while we moor up to them. It turns out that they are a crew of nine, including six kids (so the child is catered for) and are out of all places from Israel. They are spending a week on the boat and seem to love it, but complain that they haven’t got any tuition before they set of. We will keep bumping into them the next few days and they are really lovely people.
Adventures of nb ARGO and other watery stuff 