Back at the barge we spent the Sunday morning relaxing before heading North after a lunch of Bryony's poulet Roti stuffed in a baguette. Then off to Vandenesse.
After a dozen or so locks we moored up in Vandenesse alongside the quay where the village was having a dance for the older folk of the village - the previous night they had fireworks and a dance for the young 'uns which had apparently gone on till the early hours - just as well we weren't there as the tent was alongside the quay where we were moored! So after being entertained by accordion music [edit by Rosie: "entertained" - they lost me when the accordion version of Cotton Eye Joe was played] and having sausages in baguettes from the buffet we turned in for the night. Right on queue the music stopped and the oldies staggered home at 10pm.
The next day we headed off to Escommes through the rain (this led to the discovery that the expensive waterproof trousers purchased in Melbourne were NOT, in fact waterproof...Laurel was soaked to the skin under the expanse of so-called waterproof fabric) [edit by Rosie: this also led to the discovery that my improvised gladwrap leggings were, in fact, more watertight - take that Kathmandu!] - it poured the whole way.
We felt sorry for the lockeepers as they had to simply stand there to push levers in the pouring rain. The system means that you have to moor in Escommes and speak to the VNF guy who gives you a sheet of instructions for the tunnel, makes sure that you have life jackets and a spot light and a hand held radio for the trip through the tunnel. We arrived in Escommes at about 12 and Andrew understood the VNF to say that we would go through the tunnel at 3. All good. So we prepared lunch while Andrew took a look around the port. Suddenly the hand held radio spouted French, my very English reply then elicited the response that we were 'to go through now' Oops. Andrew and Cordelia dashed onto to deck to tackle the removal of the wheelhouse (shame, Laurel is just to short and too weak...shame) - fortunately it had stopped raining. The railings on the deck had to come down as well and the VNF guys drove over to see why we were delaying our entry. One look at Cordelia and Andrew struggling made them leave quietly. At 1 o'clock we entered the tunnel after going through a 1km very narrow cutting.
The 3.3km tunnel is quite magical as there are lights about every 50 metres which creates a pretty band of light heading into the distance (think the Willy Wonka tunnel, with less colour). We came through without hitting the sides (quite an achievement as it is not a lot wider than the barge) after a one hour trip which amazingly is exactly the timing allowed by the VNF.
And we were delighted to see that there was a good mooring for us on the quay at Pouilly en Auxois. The first job was to put our wheelhouse and railings back up before it rained again (not a job for Bram when he comes to visit - as there are spiders a-plenty!). This was another nice mooring with power and water and a supermarket only a few hundred yards away.
We spent the next day recovering from our tunnel trip and restocked the barge - in this part of the world never waste an available supermarket! [edit by Rosie: this trip included the ground breaking discovery of "Ovalmaltine Crunchy" which is the Ovaltine version of Nutella - heaven! Edited by Laurel...this is a direct response to me banning super sugary spreads when the children were tots] ]
On the Wednesday we got a taxi and headed off to the very pretty little village of Chateauneuf en Auxois. We celebrated with a lovely lunch at a pretty little restaurant - including steaks with a basket full of Dijon-style mustards, Rosie-heaven! We did a trip around the Chateau - the earliest part was built in the 12th century, and there were a lot of tourists there. A clever idea was to have all the visiting children don costumes and learn how to swordfight with miniature shields and swords...they also got to try archery...it made for an excellent visit for children who must get bored to bits by yet another castle/church/chateau. [edit by Rosie: Mother was so enamored with said swords and shields that when I suggested we "borrow" some to take some funny photos, she instead attacked me. Mindy and Bram will remember the years of tuteledge we received as children from Mum, who likes to "fake" you with one hand to create a distraction and then jabs you with the other. This lesson was still just as hard to learn as an adult, with Mum stabbing me with hard, wooden sword.]
The next day we set off for Pont Royal - (our stops were selected because they had bus stops and Cordelia will go home from there). Cordelia filmed us leaving Pouilly and then biked up part of the canal.
After a string of 10 locks in a few km's we then had a long 12km stretch without a lock - about the only big stretch on the whole canal. This is a very pretty mooring with power and water (so different from the canal du midi where we did not have power or water for months) .But....there was barely enough room for us on the quay, a kind couple in the bumper boat next to us moved up a few feet and with Cordelia and Laurel ashore with the ropes we were able to moor with just a enough room. And were we glad we got here early as another boat arrived about 4pm and had to perch on the quay in a very strange position.
On the Thursday we caught the bus into Semur en Auxois a lovely walled town built on a hill with a small village outside the ramparts. We wandered around the town and then caught a tourist train which gave us a guided tour - we sat in the back not a good idea as the carriage bounced around like a fairground ride across the cobbles, and nearly threw us out when we went round a corner!
Spiders???
ReplyDeleteThe rest of the trip sounds ideal - I look forward to seeing photos!