When we enter a ‘Freycinet’ lock, we have just a few centimetres of clearance on either side. Now that we’re on the Seine, the locks are monstrous.
I thought I could hear the theme from the movie Jaws as we sat inside the lock. Rising from the depths behind us, the lock gate. Instead of the doors that we’re used to, this lock had a guillotine blade that began to surface – shutting off water from upstream so the lock we were in could empty. I cannot imagine the millions of litres of water that flow each time this lock is emptied and filled.
There is so much traffic on the Seine that a parallel lock is under construction.
