Life is better in Brittany and Normandy

Our house in Brittany is very near to the Rigole d'Hilvern. It's a 'cut'... a mini canal if you like. But it hasn't been navigated by any boats. Our neighbour did tell me though, that when he was a boy, he and his dad regularly caught Pike at the top of the lane. And, even though it winds for 62.5 kilometers (only 25 or so as the crow flies) it has no locks (as a feat of engineering - it drops just 3mm in height for every 10 metres of its length) and these days not much of its length holds water Many of the pedestrian bridges that cross it have rotted away leaving just the stone buttresses, pillars and iron railings. But it still manages to attract thousands of walkers and riders every year, both equine, pedal powered (and occasionally our neighbour on his trials bike) via hundreds of access points as it winds its way under roads and tracks past hamlets and villages between Lake Bosmeliac and Hilvern near to Pontivy (Napoleon's northern Ga