Canal de Bourgogne - Dijon heading North

After a fairly straight run to Dijon we enter the more scenic parts of the canal de Bourgogne.  Most of the first part is through the Ouche valley (a small river that parallels the canal most of the way) to the summit near the 3km long Pouilly tunnel.

The valley is very wooded with small villages dotted along the way - most don't even run to a shop! Just as well we stocked up in Dijon.

There are lots of locks but they are quite easy and in a typical day we did about 12 locks and about 12 km - with of course the mandatory stop for lunch when the locks close. The interesting thing is that there are so few boats on the canal....some days we saw just 2 or 3 others, plus 1 or 2 of the big hotel barges. It makes it hard to understand the economics of the waterways...each lock has at least one and often 2 lock keepers who then move up the canal with you, each set covering 4 to 5 locks.

Our favourites were "the ladies who lock" [see photo] one in particular turned smoking into an art form, never letting her mouth be without a fag, she even managed a great Australian outback tradition...talking with a cigarette hanging on her lip...fascinating. I counted 5 cigarettes in one lock change...it took about about 15 minutes from start to finish, so i think she was having a new fag every 3 mins...that's impressive!

As each set of eclusiers looks after 3 or 4 locks they whizz between them on little scooters - hopefully all ready to meet us at the next lock.

We did three fairly busy days, stopping at Velars sur Ouche, notable because they were building new homes along the canal,  houses so small that I think they must have been less than 9 squares. Then on to Gisey sur Ouche , a tiny village but absolutely beautiful with the Ouche running gently beside the canal....  it really was picture postcard territory. Here was moored one of the huge hotel barges, this one specialising in tours of the famous wineries, these stops often including a vintner who comes aboard with his best wines to share with the meal. But we noticed that they were up and off in their mini bus by 8.30am the next morning...another hard day at Nuit St.George no doubt....we thought it looked ideal for the Park Orchards drinks crowd...a mere 7000 euros head for the top tour [yes that does include all meals and the very best wines...start saving now guys]

And so to Pont d'ouche. We are moored beside a stone wall with a lovely grassy verge...we spent yesterday on our sun lounges basking. Once again there are very few other boats around, we are currently the only fee paying [and that a mere six euros a night including water and electricity] barge here.

Cordelia is joining us on the 14th of August for a week and we thought it would be interesting for her to go through the Pouilly tunnel.  As this area is very rural we have to make sure that we find a town with a bus stop at each end of her trip - so after much research we have decided to meet her at Pont D'Ouche and drop her off at Pont Royal both of which are serviced by a rural bus service - the princely sum of 1.50 euro to Dijon! 

So we are spending a week here at Pont D'Ouche -The port is run by Bryony who is English and runs a small shop and snack bar - so we get bread each morning - can't have a baguette free day!  The village runs to about 20 houses and a little Auberge and Bar.  We had a lovely dinner there on our first night.   Both are suprisingly busy, as there are many cyclists and tourists who make a stop here. Just a shame that more boats are not on the canal this year.

  55 locks down only 134 to go!

We took advantage of the rural bus service and did a trip into Dijon - did a bit of restocking - but most importantly got some extra cable for a satellite dish.  Satellite signals do not go through trees - and you would be amazed at how many times we have moored up and had a tree between us and the satellite . The dish is normally mounted on the rail at the front of the boat - so I have bought 60m of cable so we can move the dish off the boat - ah luxury TV again!