Next year it will be possible to go from Montluçon to Saint-Amand-Montrond in the Cher by bike, along the Berry Canal, without having to set foot on land, except to admire the landscape.
Work on the missing section of the cycle route, connecting Vallon-en-Sully and Epineuil-le-Fleuriel should start soon. Feedback on the project.
1. The origin of the project
This section between Vallon-en-Sully and Épineuil-le-Fleuriel is the logical continuation of the development operations of the banks of the Berry Canal carried out in the past six years in the Allier and two and a half years in the Cher.
Once this section is completed, the Berry cycle route will stretch for around fifty kilometers between Montluçon and Saint-Amand-Montrond, using the old towpaths as much as possible.
2. The difficulties encountered
Following its decommissioning in 1955, the Berry Canal was sold for a small fee to the municipalities it crossed. It was then that the canal experienced various fortunes. If some municipalities preserve it, others abandon it, fill it or resell it to individuals.
For the project between Épineuil and Vallon, we encountered a black spot after the double lock of Queugne (in the town of Épineuil-le-Fleuriel, Editor’s note) because there was no longer any public land. The canal was totally privatized between six or seven owners. In the Allier, the public domain had been completely abandoned
Emmanuel Rochais (director of the union of the Canal de Berry (SCB) du Cher
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“We had to look for the small municipal road to make the junction between the two cycle routes. We were not satisfied with this solution because all of a sudden the cyclists would have found themselves on municipal roads, which no longer corresponded to the project to enhance the canal. “
Most of the section between Vallon-en-Sully and Epineuil-le-Fleuriel is in Allier. Photo Cécile Champagnat
3. The solutions found
In order to continue the Berry canal by bike, the project stakeholders (SCB, communities of communes of Val de Cher and Berry Grand Sud, the departments of Allier and Cher) asked the communes of Vallon-en-Sully and Épineuil-le-Fleuriel (also stakeholders) to negotiate with the owners to buy back their rights of way on the canal.
After two years, due to more difficult negotiations with an owner who does not live in the region and leases her land, the four kilometers separating Vallon and Épineuil are finally redeemed.
Canal de Berry by bike: the connection between Bourges and Vierzon will be possible from this summer
4. The works
The work, which was to begin mid-November for delivery in spring 2021, could be delayed due to containment. Contracting authority for the department of Cher, the SCB wishes to create cycle paths while keeping the spirit of the place.
It is a portion where the canal is in a particularly dilapidated state. We are going to connect the two pieces of the channel by a part that no longer looks like a channel. There are even huge trees that have grown in the canal in some places. We must keep the particularity of this abandonment as it is. It’s part of the history of the canal
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While the department of Cher has relied heavily on development on its sections, this development should be minimal in the Vallon-Épineuil sector due to the existing natural expansion.
“Where there is a forest, there won’t need a lot of landscaping. It is the forest that sets the mood. She is part of the adventure. We want people to be taken aback when they see trees planted in the middle of the canal, ”explains Emmanuel Rochais.
5. The cost
The project to create this cycle route between Vallon-en-Sully and Épineuil-le-Fleuriel is currently valued at 320,000 euros: 200,000 euros for the departmental council of Allier and 120,000 euros for that of Cher. The difference between the amounts is explained by the fact that on a two-kilometer route, only 800 meters are in the Cher, the rest are in the Allier.
What you need to know about the cycle route in the Cher which must be connected to the Loire by bike
This work is part of a larger project to link with Loire à Vélo. Photo Cécile Champagnat
6. A larger project
In the department of Cher, work along the canal is currently being completed between Vierzon and Bourges and others will take place between Bourges and Saint-Amand-Montrond. The ultimate goal is to connect the Berry canal to the Loire by bike via the two branches present in the Cher: one to Marseilles-lès-Aubigny which will then join Nevers and the other which will join Tours via Bourges. and Vierzon.
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This axis will be cycle route n ° 46, also called Cœur de France à Vélo. It should be completed in 2026. 330 km long
90% would be accessible only by bike (only 10% of the journey would have mixed car-bike access). This tourist and economic development tool should eventually be used by a million cyclists.
7. The Berry Canal included in a PETR project
Selected by the Ministry of Ecological and Inclusive Transition during the 2019 landscape plan, the territorial and rural balance center (PETR) of the Montluçon and Cher valley countries will begin planning projects in the fall of 2021. of the territory while preserving the resource. Forty towns in two areas, the Val de Cher and the Combraille Bourbonnaise, will be concerned. The Berry Canal will therefore be included in the development of projects.
– The 330 km of tracks are distributed as follows: around 30 km in the Allier, 190 km in the Cher, 70 km in the south of Loir-et-Cher and around 40 km in the Indre-et-Loire.
Vallon-en-Sully
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