The best running trails around Coulanges

A nice road that runs along the canal. It's pretty quiet and mostly straight so you can go pretty fast.

Long, good route also for racing bikes. Better during off-season.

Refreshing drinks in a nice atmosphere on the banks of the Loire.

Impressive "canal bridge" over the Loire, which was built over 180 years ago.

A large number of flint leaf tips dating from the Solutrean (Paleolithic) period were found near Digoin, in Volgu, indicating very early human settlement. Further Gallo-Roman and Merovingian traces of a settlement have been found. The place was known by the Latin name Denegontium, later Digonium. For several centuries, the city's activities developed on the banks of the river, where a port had been established on the Loire. From there, wine from the Mâcon and Chalon-sur-Saône area, wood from the Morvan, and stone blocks were exported to the Loire Valley and Paris. At the end of the 18th century, the construction of the Canal du Charolais (today: Canal du Centre) was pushed forward from Burgundy to connect the Saône with the Loire. This canal became navigable from 1794, intensifying the problems with the Loire's unreliable navigability. With the construction of the Roanne-Digoin Canal (1832) and the Loire Side Canal, shipping on the Loire itself gradually reduced and ceased completely during the second half of the 19th century. A stone canal bridge 243 meters long (eleven arches) enables the central canal to be linked to the Loire side canal. At the end of the 19th century, water from the Arroux River was diverted near Gueugnon and channeled into the Canal du Center via a supply canal east of the city in order to improve the canal's water supply. At that time, this canal was navigable for small ships. In the 1950s, the port of Gueugnon was closed and shipping on this supply channel ceased. Even after the decline of inland shipping, Digoin was an important transport hub for rail and road connections due to its central length. Thanks to good transport links, Digoin was able to expand its economy by establishing potteries and the Sarreguemines earthenware industry. Source: Wikipedia

Since the upper Loire was not without problems for shipping due to its irregular water level, a side canal running parallel to the river was built between 1827 and 1838. The Canal latéral à la Loire also represents the link between the Canal de Briare and the Canal du Centre. Inland vessels can travel from the English Channel via Paris and Lyon to the Mediterranean via four consecutive canals. Under the direction of Jean Joseph Pierre Vigoureux, the engineer Adolphe Jullien built one of the first large canal bridges in France near Digoin from 1834 onwards. It was completed in 1837[1] and opened to shipping at the same time as the canal was opened. The bridge was widened in 1870. From 1890 to 1896 it was reworked again by Léonce-Abel Mazoyer to adapt it to the dimensions of ships of the Freycinet class, with the water depth being increased by raising the trough walls. (Source: Wikipedia)

Always surprising a canal bridge!

The Digoin aqueduct is both a curiosity and a rarity. This 243-meter bridge allows barges to pass over the Loire River. It is also open to pedestrians and cyclists, who are asked to walk alongside their bicycles during the crossing. This remarkable structure was designed in the 1880s and 1890s. It allows the Loire Lateral Canal to connect with the Canal du Centre a little further downstream.