We had a good wander round town and visited the beautiful basilica, where we had attended a concert the week before. Once again the town was beautifully lit at nightime with photo ops around every corner. After a day to relax, including the now traditional visit to the 3 Pigeons restaurant [no Hewitt can resist the dessert chariot].
On Saturday we set off for Genelard, the town is famous for being a part of the 'Vichy" line during the second world war. It was an easy introduction to barging for Cordelia as the day was warm and sunny and all the locks were ready and waiting for us. We arrived just after lunch and quickly set up our chairs under the trees. It was nice to see Gill and David from Avontuur already settled there.
After a very peaceful night we set off in the morning, passing surprisingly few other barges, there seems to be a lot less boats around this year which makes mooring much easier. We stopped for lunch under the trees at La Gravoine where a table and seats were set up in a lovely picnic spot. Then on to Montceau Les Mines via the 3 amazing opening bridges...they are so both functional and stylish and it seems like magic when they open just in time. So into the port where we actually found a pontoon end vacant. Cordelia learnt the hard way that an unsecured pontoon is a very very wobbly place to be ....the big surprise was that she actually did not fall in to the water.
A vide grenier was in full swing on the quay and a huge general market was in town, lots of people were enjoying the afternoon in the Port. By 7pm however all was quiet and peaceful. This made me tempt fate by declaiming to Cordelia just how peaceful French towns were on Sunday nights. Wrong! An errant young motorcyclist on a very small, noisy machine started to do laps of the port, loudly. A French couple took exception to the racket and she got off their barge to flag him down to complain. He didn't take it well and pulling his t-shirt over his face, made a sign of a pointing gun. Well, her husband ran out, mobile phone in hand, calling the police. Kid took off and all seemed calm....with police driving up and down for some time....but an hour later, he returned with a friend and started throwing something at the barge.Cue the arrival of 2 policecars, police with batons leaping out and the 2 boys running away over the passeralle being chased by baton weilding gendarmes. Lots more police milling about for the next hour or so then peace reigned.
Cordelia went back to London on Monday afternoon, we enjoyed her visit and we think she enjoyed her break. We are staying here until Wednesday morning when we will head off up the canal. Today there was a big fresh food market here so we stocked up on fruit and veg. Weather is terrific, very warm with cool breezes in the evening.
We left Montceau and have been slowly making our way up the canal du centre. Mostly we have been travelling in the morning and stopping around lunchtime.
We had a lovely stop at St Julien sur Deune, and managed to have a very tasty dinner out at the Auberge. Last time we were there we got dressed up looking forward to a nice meal wandered over and found it was closed for a private function! - our specialty ferme exceptional! And of course it was the only place!
The weather has got very hot and we had some very hot days and nights at Montchanin and St Leger sur Deune. We then moved on to the wine village of Santennay at a lovely picturesque mooring with views over the vineyards on the hills opposite with nice shade trees on either side of the canal. We stayed for a couple of days and enjoyed the beautiful mooring.
Then onto Changy where we moored up in the channel leading to the port. This is a cutting where you are moored in the bottom with steep tree lined banks on either side. Quite sheltered and very cool. We arrived on the day before Bastille day and that evening there was a large firework display in the port. We sat and watched these with an NZ couple and a girl travelling with them from Ringwood - the suburb where we lived in Oz! Its a small world!
The next night (bastille day) there was this massive storm and although we were sheltered a lot of trees on the bank got blown down into the canal. Fortunately none near us, but the canal was a real mess. We decided to stay until they cleaned up - so were entertained for the day with trucks, cranes and chainsaws clearing away the debris. The VNF flushed the canal and when we left the next day it was pretty clean - good job VNF!
So onto the lovely port of Fragne which is our last stop on the Canal du Centre. We have a lovely mooring on the quay with power and water. So we have caught up on tidying the boat and doing our washing. Of course like last year we took the bus into Chalon Sur Saone (which is a very pretty town) - like last year the bus was a taxi each way for 1 Euro! Luxury! Had a wander and did a bit of shopping and then back for drinks with some other boats in the port - some of our friends from Roanne were here so we will catch up with them later in the year when we return.
No comments:
Post a Comment