Paray Le Monial

We have arrived safely In Paray Le Monial. It is a very pretty town, and it was nice to show Jan and Ian around.  Having bid them goodbye we decided to stay here for a while and see if  Laurels leg gets better, and do some bits and pieces on the barge.

We hired a car for 10 days as this makes it easier to get around and visit some of the bigger shops. We have become fans of Vide Greniers (car boot sales) so headed off for our first trip into the French countryside to visit one that was advertised.  Nothing very exciting although I bought a road atlas for 3 Euros - we use the Tom Tom to get us around but it makes trip planning easier with the book. On the way we went through the very pretty town of La Clayett with a Chateau on the lake right in the centre.

On the Monday we went to the emergency department at the hospital and Laurel had an X Ray on her kneee and lots of other tests. They found nothing major, and gave her some tablets and a leg brace.  We have to go back in a week to see how its progressing. The French health system is amazing, very efficient and medicine must be very heavily subsidised (I thing prescriptions must be free for the French)  as it is very cheap even for us.


We did a trip into Lyon - the traffic was terrible - we are becoming country folk and not used to the big cities! - and visted Ikea and a big hardware chain - we now have new carpet on the foredeck and a new BBQ, as well as lots of other bits and pieces. We are looking very ship shape!

Our friends Brad and Nancy had headed off up the Canal Lateral and were only 70kms away and invited us over for the night and a short cruise on their lovely barge, Libelule.  It was great to catch up and experience cruising on a different barge.  Libelule is much wider than us, and only fits in the locks with about 6 inches on either side - Brad is quite the master at getting in without hitting the sides! - Very impressive.