Between lakes and canal

Depart from the town of Peigney, latitude 47.8779440 (N 47° 52’ 41”), longitude 5.3713250 (E 5° 22’ 17”)

• Peigney and the lake of Liez

• The lake of Liez collects the waters of this river and that of Suane. It is the largest lake, with 290 ha at the beginning of the season, but also the oldest. Its construction, begun in 1880, was completed in 1888. Its dam, 16 meters high, consists of wrought earth. It closes downstream of the valley to a width of 460 meters, creating a reservoir 4.5 km long. Although it is powered by the smallest of the four watersheds (3,400 ha), it has the highest storage capacity with 16,100,000 m3.
• The fort of Peigney
• This belt fort was to cover the upper Marne Valley, the Nancy and Belfort roads and the Paris-Basel railway line. It is the only work langrois of this generation to have preserved its bastioned layout. This one appears rather complex since the rider forming a ridge of fire high and long range is constituted in reduced concentrating the barracks and the magazines of storage. This reduction is separated from the four bastions forming the envelope by a second ditch on the front and side of the head.

• Lake Charmes

• Lake Charmes offers 197 ha of water and a dyke 362 m long, 17 m high, completed in 1906. It is famous for fishing; the catch of zander, pike, carp and even catfish delight specialists.
• Its waters occupy the bottom of a deep valley of the Langres plateau. This biotope is characterized by a fluvial type of dynamics: the water level, very variable according to the seasons according to the needs in water of the channel, is notably quite low in the end of summer and in autumn. These special conditions favor a special vegetation, stabilized for a long time with very typical vegetation belts.

• The canal between Champagne and Burgundy

• The canal between Champagne and Burgundy (from the Marne to the Saône) is like the backbone of Haute-Marne. Its realization began in 1862, after a study undertaken between 1839 and 1845. The entire course was completed on February 1, 1907 for a total length of nearly 225 kilometers, including 166 in Haute-Marne. Between the Marne basin and the Saône basin, the threshold of the Langres plateau, the watershed, is crossed by means of a 4.8-kilometer tunnel (the 4th fluvial tunnel in France). It was dug out 118 meters underground and dug between 1882 and 1888. It is 8 meters wide and has a 4-meter high arch. Its route passes just under the village of Balesmes-sur-Marne. The Langres plateau, the highest point of the canal, also required the setting up of 18 locks between the Côte d'Or and Foulain. On the other hand, its higher altitude offered also the best possibility of water supply by gravity. The presence of numerous sources has enabled engineers to guarantee this supply through the construction of 4 reservoir lakes to regulate the level of the canal. Today, with the use of the barges, to add the river tourism: another way to apprehend the charms and the tranquility of the channel, starting from the nautical halt of Rolampont.

• The revolving bridge of Jorquenay

• The revolving bridge of Jorquenay is a movable bridge whose deck pivots in a horizontal plane, to let the boats pass. It was built during the construction of the Marne to Saône Canal to restore road access on both sides of the waterway. Built in the 19th century, it is one of the few surviving structures of this type.