Nederlandse versieOther canals in FranceCanal de Saint-Quentin
In July  2003I the Canal de Saint-Quentin and I get acquainted. As always start my views from the highest point, a place where I often find particular details. There are two tunnels in the highest  section of the canal. I take a look first at the longest tunnel, the 'souterrain de Riqueval'. The tunnel is badly ventilated and is 5.670 meters long. There is an old electrical 'warping-tug' which tows all barge and pleasure boats through the tunnel with a speed of about 3 kilometer per hour. The 'toueur' can tow up to thirty barges. The voyage through the tunnel lasts about two hours.
It appears that I haven't chosen the right moment to take a look. The warping-tug stays workless at the waterside. It will depart more then two hours later. Each day it leaves at 7.10 and 15.10 hours in northern direction and at 9.30 and 17.30 in southern direction. Also the museum above the southern entry of the tunnel, the Touage museum, is closed now. It is lunch time.
I decide to get acquainted with the canal by bike and drive some miles to the north. I park my car near the village Vendhuile at an old canal branch. In earlier days the canal turned around a hill here. There is a barge loading grain nearby a large silo.
I cycle along the silo and soon I arrive at the Canal de St-Quentin. The canal is dug through a hill here and therefore the 'Tranchée de Vendhuile' was created. I cycle though high grass. It s heavy. At some places I find a track  where I can cycle a bit easier but most of the time I have to pedal heavily. At some places I have to cycle through shingle which is put in great quantities into the holes in the towpath.
I cycle along four locks. All the locks are doubled. Before the Cabal du Nord was opened, this was a very busy route. It was the only connection between the north of France and Paris. The canal links the Scheldt with the river basin of the Seine. There is a connection halfway with the river Somme. The Canal de St-Quentin starts in the north at Cambrai and finishes at Chauny. The canal is 92 kilometers long.
Since the Canal du Nord was opened in 1965, the canal lost most of its significance. I can see that now. There is but a single barge navigating and a couple of pleasure boats. When I reach the fourth lock I decide to go back. I think it's too risky to cycle on these sections with shingle . I'm afraid getting a flat tire. The locks have a glamorous air but it is vanishing because of the bad maintenance. The wooden constructions in front of the lock are rotting and one of the two locks is out of use. Nevertheless, some lock are beautifully decorated with flowers.. 
I put my bike on the car again and drive back to the Touage museum. The entire museum appears to be in the old warping-tug: the 'toueur'. It is situated on the ground in front of a tourist office. The exposition is mostly dedicated to the toueur and not so much to the canal. I find it remarkable that there is a bedroom in the warping tug. I read that the warping tug was navigating day and night in earlier days. So the bedroom was used by the crew to rest a little during their trips.
I drive to the other side of the tunnel to take a look at the warping tug navigating out of it. I look into the tube but I can see nothing. I'm too early. I hear some rumbling far away. 

When time passes by, the rumbling becomes louder and louder. It certainly isn't a pleasure for one's ears to be in a boat just behind the tug.

Finally I see the warping tug coming out of the tunnel. It pulls a loaded barge. It's a beautiful sight. The electricity comes from electric overhead lines. The tug is connected to them.  A contact wire with a little weal of copper is pulled over the lines. At every connection point a member of the crew must help to roll the wheel over the highest point of the overhead line.
The barge unfastens the line to the warping tug just outside the tunnel and navigates further on its own power. The tug stops just around a corner where a return cargo is already waiting: an empty barge and a houseboat.
I am taking with a Dutchman who is gong to navigate through the tunnel the next day. It isn't fun, he says. Some years ago his ship was the first in a row of ten pleasure boats. His boat was grated heavily along the walls of the tunnel. He couldn't do anything, just wait and pray that the damage at the end of the tunnel wouldn't be too heavy. Meanwhile I make a picture of the barge on tow going into the tunnel.

As the barge and the pleasure boat behind it have vanished in the tunnel, I drive to the second tunnel, the 'souterrain de Tronquoy'. From here I cycle some locks down. Just above the first lock one can see the water supplying canal. From the rivers Noirieux en Oise, about 20 kilometers from here, water is permanently supplied to the highest section of the Canal de Saint-Quentin.