Winter in Roanne

We are now settling down into our winter home.  There are lots of people in port, many of whom return to their homes around the world during October and November.  There are quite a few who will be staying over for the winter so the social scene will continue!


We have been having quite a social whirl with drinks, dinners, card evenings and outings.  One of the highlights of barging is the great people you meet along the way.


We are starting to show signs of permanence and even have a letterbox!


This means that we can now receive mail at our very stylish home address:

  - Aflleur D'O, Port de Roanne, 22 Quai Comm Fourcauld, Roanne 42300 France.

We have  a lovely American couple on a barge moored near us - Randy and Debbie, and have enjoyed drinks, dinners and games together.We have explored Kaloukie, Oh Hell and of course mexican Train! Debbie made some delicious snacks for drinks one night

The biggest change to our lifestyle is that we have bought a small car - a Renault Meganne.  After a bit of mucking about coping with the French bureaucracy we managed to get it registered and insured.
We have been exploring around Roanne and also did a big trip to Lyon (only about 60k's) with Randy and Debbie.We enjoyed seeing many of our favourite haunts in Lyon...a city much undervalued as it has lots of interest. Here is the official '1st road trip ' photo.

Lyon always surprises us and the restaurant where we had lunch was no exception. We chose it at random, in a side street and the food was very good [Debbie and I not so impressed with our main course - who would have guessed that Saumonete is the French name for Dogfish- a kind of shark -often called 'Sea Eel" in the EU]   The rest of the meal was delicious. This very traditional restaurant featured a decor which included many paintings of ladies bare bottoms...some complete with a door to close should the patron find it all a little to risque.

The ceiling painting was very pretty, as was the whole decor.

These were a collection of old style picture books.

Not a single inch of space was let unadorned....it all looked it had been done 50 years ago and left untouched.

With the car we have been able to whizz around the shops and have now planted pansies - which makes us look a bit less wintery! Still trying to work out why the yellow pansies are failing to flourish.

 

Our friends Brad and Nancy are heading back to the US soon so we decided a celebratory dinner at the Auberge Cotteloise was called for (Heather and David - do you remember our wonderful dinner there?)  . Together with Randy and Debbie a fine night was had by all!

The Pear tart tartin

Desserts always make everyone happy!

The chocolate cup with chestnut puree, the chocolate mousse bar sitting in marmalade with a scoop of pistachio ice cream.....delish! 

Nancy opted for Pear Belle Helene...a belle choice for sure!

We have done a few outings with the car.  We headed off to Thiers which is Frances cutlery making town. It is a has a very pretty old town on the hill, with the factories in the valley below near the river to power the forges.  Of course we bought some knives, which seem excellent. 

 

From here we headed into the large town of Clermont Ferrand, which is the home of Michelin, whose massive factory dominates the outskirts of the town. We had a lovely lunch, wandered round the medieval city and did a bit of shopping before heading home.

Alongside the port of Roanne is the river Loire.  This is one of the biggest rivers in France and can handle massive amounts of water when it rains.  Just up from Roanne is a Barrage - a damn - which they use to control the water flow.

Every second Saturday Emmaus, which is a huge charity hold a sale of secondhand goods at a massive facility on the outskirts of Roanne.  It is a favorite of the port dwellers, and Laurel really enjoys poking around.  It has a mix of junk to some really good buys.

In the winter the canals are closed from November to April.  The VNF use this time to do maintenance on the system.  Part of the canal de Roanne has been drained and we went up to Iguerand to take a look - it was very strange seeing it empty and quite fascinating to see the profile of the bottom.

On Sunday most of the Port headed off to Beaujolais for the release of Beaujolais Nouveau.  About 40 of us set off in a fleet of cars and had a lovely drive through the countryside to the winery. After nibbles snacks and tastings we settled down to lunch, and the of song or two.