Travel with Amateur Traveler · Saturday, July 11, 2026
On the Briare Canal cruise, locks no longer have keepers at each location; instead, assigned personnel drive from lock to lock, and the pilot, Luke, can operate some locks remotely. Crew members like Craig also coordinate by biking ahead to meet the boat and drive transfer vans for excursions.
“And it's interesting in this particular canal, they no longer have lock keepers at each canal lock. You can still see the lock keeper's houses because that's the way it was before. But there are people who are assigned to us who are driving from lock to lock to help us out.”
“Luke also has a remote that he can operate some of these locks remotely.”
“And so Craig, for instance, at one point, when we're going along this canal, while Luke is driving us down the canal, he's going to hop out and hop on one of the bikes that's available on the boat and pedal back to town so he can drive the van to where we're going to stop for the night and meet us there so that we're ready to go for the next day for the excursions.”