Canal du Nivernais by Bike

Four days by bike along the Canal du Nivernais, opened in 1842 to carry firewood from the Morvan to Paris, first by log floating and then by barge. The route starts at Auxerre and its cathedral of Saint-Etienne above the Yonne, reaches Vincelles and the Saussois rocks, then Clamecy, historic capital of the log-floating trade, Baye and the Collancelle tunnel, a seven-hundred-and-fifty-eight-metre bore beneath the watershed, Chatillon-en-Bazois and its feudal castle, and finally Decize at the confluence of the Loire and the Aron. The towpath is flat and shaded but alternates tarmac with beaten earth. The Chablis vineyards lie fifteen kilometres from Auxerre and are worth a half-day detour.