Once we cleared the last canal lock and started down the river the scenery completely changed. Within 300 yards we began seeing factories. We made a check of our river maps and noted we had about sixty kilometers to go to reach the town of Macon. It was 2pm. The timing seemed perfect - at a top speed of twelve kilometers we'd reach Macon at 7pm. We could get some dinner and watch the England - US soccer game.
The first town to come into view was Chalon-sur-Saône. According to Wikipedia "Chalon is best known as the birthplace of photography. Its most famous resident, Nicéphore Niépce also has a lycée (secondary school) named after him. There is a museum which contains some early photography relics, located on the Quai des Messageries in the town, containing more than two million photographs and many old artefacts such as cameras and other equipment for old and modern photography."
Unfortunately, we weren't able to stop and check out the photo museum, we were on a schedule. Our ultimate goal of reaching Lyon by Sunday afternoon could only be met if we made it to Macon by nightfall.
We were making excellent time when my next nautical lesson presented itself. I was at the helm and noticed signs suggesting I steer onto a smaller branch of the river. I asked Henry what was going on and he explained that we were approaching a small weir. I'd seen them before but never fully understood their purpose - to lower the elevation of a river in an organized way. Of course they're bad for boats - sailing over a 5 foot drop would smash us to bits. This meant I was being guided to yet another lock. We cornered Henry "I thought we were done with locks!" He cooly replied "yes, with canal locks - we have a few commercial locks to go through."
The commercial lock was just like all the others except for scale. They're designed for huge barges and commercial boats - not 26 foot sailboats. I think we could have fit 75 sailboats into this lock. Matter of fact, we had to call them and ask when the next opening would be. Usually you have to park and wait for another large ship to join you before they flush out hundreds of thousands of gallons of water. Luckily for us, they let us through alone.
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