A Day Off Renovating

I don't think it's right to have to do mucky work on your birthday, so we had a day off yesterday. After first establishing that the 'festival' advertised in Tulle was in fact a Day of the Dead procession, and not a knees up, and finding that all of the coffee shops and restaurants were closed due to the National Holiday, we drove to Aubazine to explore the Canal des Moines, or Monks' Canal. 

 We parked outside the Marie and walked up a very steep footpath, following the signs, and then there it was, a stone-lined channel, about a two feet wide, containing slow-flowing water, parallel to an uneven footpath, meandering lazily upwards into woodland. 

We noticed this odd-looking climbing frame in a back garden, wondering between us how a child could comfortably play on it... and then we spotted the plaque- it's a work of art, The Flower! Perhaps it doubles up as a climbing frame for older children... 



The monks decided to divert some of the waters of the nearby cascading river right into the grounds of the monastery for milling, washing and drinking, hence the construction of this 1.5 km canal. There are several very uneven parts along the footpath, not least where both the path and the canal have to navigate a huge wall of granite. Way back in the 12th century, the monks were determined to solve the problem. Legend has it that Etienne stood at the rock and prayed for it to split from top to bottom, and lo and behold, it happened... But it is also said that the monks found a clever, but time-consuming method; during the winter, they chipped out small holes along the surface of the rock, and filled them with water, which turned to ice, forcing the rock to crack further, repeating the process night after night for goodness knows how many winters! 







We had been able to hear the cascading river somewhere deep in the valley below us, but eventually, it came in line with the canal.


 We followed the canal up to the point where it has been channeled away from the river.




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