Écluse 53S - Marcs d'Or - Canal de Bourgogne - Dijon - France - Waterway Locks, Planes and Lifts on Waymarking.com

This is lock number 53S on the Canal de Bourgogne and is called Marcs d'Or. It is situated in the city of Dijon.

The canal is 242 kilometres long, with 189 locks. There were originally 191 locks but the double stir top set of gates removed the lower chamber raised. This operation then formed single locks which were then twice as deep as a standard lock.

There are 76 locks on the southern side of the summit leading down to the Saône and each of these has its number suffixed with "S" to indicate it is on the Saône side of the summit.

There are 113 locks on the northern side of the summit leading down to the Yonne and each of these has its number suffixed with "Y" to indicate it is on the Yonne side of the summit.

All the locks are manned by an éclusier who will stay with a boat through a few locks and then hand over to the next éclusier. They use vans or scooters to get between their locks.

The lock cottages are quite small and each had a lock information plate providing the lock number, name and the distance to the next major town in each direction.

The canal passes through the departments of Yonne and Côte-d'Or. Its summit level is at Pouilly-en-Auxois, 378m above sea level. At this point the canal passes through a tunnel which is 3,333 metres long. The lowest point is at the junction with the Yonne at 79 m (259 ft) above sea level.

History (from french-waterways.com): A canal on this route from the Saône to the Seine was envisaged in the early 17th century during the reign of Henri IV. The route was the subject of intense debate, reflected in a number of published works in the 17th and 18th centuries. Works began in 1774, and Dijon was reached from the Saône in 1808. It was another 24 years before the canal was opened throughout, in 1832. The locks were lengthened to the Freycinet standard in 1882, but the tunnel remained a bottleneck, even after the 1867 steam tug was replaced by an electric tug in 1893. The canal was experimentally taken over by the Région Bourgogne in 2010, but two years later it was handed back to the State and returned to VNF management. The region found the burden of maintenance and operation to be beyond its capability and resources, with inadequate guarantees of support from central government.

Waterway Name: Canal de Bourgogne Connected Points: The Canal de Bourgogne connects the River Yonne at Migennes at its northern end with the River Saône at Saint-Jean-de-Losne. The canal connects the Atlantic Ocean via the Seine and the Yonne to the Mediterranean via the Saône and Rhône. Type: Lock Date Opened: 01/01/1832 Elevation Difference (meters): 3.00 Site Status: Operational Web Site: [Web Link] Date Closed (if applicable): Not listed

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