Overland with the Kriegsmarine...

[MooN]

riding around the area I have sometimes come across a road junction layout that has really surprised me. i don't mean like the eternal unmarked "priorité a droite" which can catch one unawares, but a junction or a road that really puzzles me as to "Why?".  I have noticed, over the years, a number of villages in the area that have a surprisingly wide road through the centre, or huuuge crossroads with large areas of unused space or again a small village with a really wide road, almost a bypass, but which no village of that size could possibly afford and the traffic conditions in the middle of nowhere simply cannot justify. there's no heavy industry in the immediate area and the road doesn't even seem to actually go anywhere. 

Having been sat on me arse for some time now I started doing some research as to why certain medieval villages in the middle of the burgundy countrysie halfway between "nowhere" and " somewhere else" would have a massive bypass or a huge junction leading to it.  I noted the villages where I remembered seeing these anomalies and looked on google earth and google maps. having done that I rode a route that linked them and WOW.   There is, across the heart of rural burgundy a 16m wide highway very straight, with no tight corners, only sweeping curves and large, open corners and junctions, much wider than normal french secondary roads.  

I then did some research online into why this should be and where this super wide road goes to and from, searching newspaper archives about exceptionel transports etc and was astounded by what I found.  I re rode the route today, 60 km each way from Auxerre to Avallon and could now fully understand.

Some pics ( in the rian mostly, so not good ones)

The route starts at the port in Auxerre which I have often wondered about why it was made the way it was,  you can see it best on google earth 

 

the section outlined is clearly a man made adittion to the river. There is a slipway at the north end and a 15m wide exit gate leading to the road by the carpark which leads in turn to the big junction. moving south from here the road leaves auxerre to join the RN6 which was the main Paris - Lyon road prior to the building of the Autoroute in the 60's. Shortly after leaving Auxerre and before the village of Augy there is the first of the junctions that intrigued me, turing left ino the countryside and no apparent destination 

this junction is about 20m wide and now has this huge pointless space in the middle which was tarmac but has been filled in to reduce maintenance costs. This is looking back towards auxerre.

this road climbs the hill and reaches the village of St Bris le Vineux which is a medieval village but has this odd super wide bypass round the edge of it

the original road through the village goes to the right of the V shaped house right of centre in the pic. the " Bypass" goes to the left, obscured by the roundabout vegetation. this is a really bad pic but shows the road from the roundabout, i measured it at a constant 16m wide between the buildings.

the road then gous on east and south through the middle of nowhere but resembles a roman road, straight and wide, clear both sides for metres and only sweeping curves where not straight. ( actually not a roman road as these are well documented in the area and dead easy to spot when you know what to look for) the road carries on through St Cyr les Colons, Licheres prés Aigremont  and Nitry where ther is another right hand turn that was obviously widened at some point

the junction has clearly been widenend for vehicles turning right ( this is looking back towards auxerre, where the vehicles were coming from...)

Now heading south the road continues pretty straight through Joux la ville,  with the exception of a series of large bends at Lucy le bois there are no further obstacles until it arrives in Avallon and there is another overly large junction clearly cut out for vehicles making a left turn onto the RN6

Again you can clearly see the cut out ( turning righ from this angle) the route I've followed arrives from the right of the picture where that red car is coming from. 

this oddly incongruous route has now rejoind the RN 6, the main nort south artery.

 

 So, Why all this and what did I discover? 

In April 1943, the german Kriegsmarine needed to move part of their fleet from the channel and north sea coast to the mediterranean theatre but were incapable of breaking the  British naval blockade in the gibraltar straights. They hatched and put into practice a plan whereby they moved ships upstream from Le harvre, up the Seine through Paris, and on up the Yonne as far as Auxerre ( the locks as far as auxerre are 90m long ). At auxerre they backfilled along the north bank to create a hard apron with a slipway. The ships were slipped, loaded onto 2x 6 axle bogies  pulled by 3 tractors in front and and pushed by 4 tractors from behind they were  transferred overland via this route, which avoided the tunnel at St Moré, and then on down the RN6 to Chalon sur Saone where they were slipped back into the water and could head south down the Saone and Rhone to the med. 

By July 1943, 53 vessels, minesweepers, MTB's and landing craft had made the transit. 5000 locals had been drafted to create the route, Any houses or buildings making the route too narrow or the corners too tight the inhabitants were given 24hrs notice and were simply buldozed, 

 I can't believe how little known this exploit is, even here. there is very little information available and wht there is is only really from a single source ( Claude Delasselle, history professor and authority on the subject) but all thos little things that i didn't understand about the odd junctions and wide roads through medieval villages to no apparent destination are now glaringly obvious, the occupying germans simly widened and improved existing roads to their own ends.

 

 

[Pedro]

Thank you, Chris, that's very interesting. People simply did shit instead of thinking of reasons not to.

Must be interesting to now go through those villages having learned of the history.

[XTreme]

Brilliant bit of research and history there Chris.....very impressive!

Have you ever been to Oradour-sur-Glane?

 

[MooN]

9 hours ago, XTreme said:

Brilliant bit of research and history there Chris.....very impressive!

Have you ever been to Oradour-sur-Glane?

 

I did a whole ride report on ouradour back on MB Pete. you want me to redo it here? 

[XTreme]

11 minutes ago, MooN said:

I did a whole ride report on ouradour back on MB Pete. you want me to redo it here? 

Yeh......that would be brilliant Chris!

[Tym]

Interesting, we have a oddly wide road in town next to me, its wide because the livery barn was on the street in the old days, and the horses needed a wide street to u-turn the wagons. 

 

[MooN]

10 minutes ago, Tym said:

Interesting, we have a oddly wide road in town next to me, its wide because the livery barn was on the street in the old days, and the horses needed a wide street to u-turn the wagons. 

 

there's always a reason