We spent our final few days scurrying round the supermarkets and the bricos, and getting the boat stocked up ready for the season. Although it should not be as important this year as we plan to move the car up to points along the way (typically anywhere with good rail or bus access).
We picked up Dawn and Mark at Lyon airport and after final drinks with Debbie and Randy we were all ready to get underway. In the Roanne tradition everyone came to see us off (and NOT comment on how you entered your first lock of the season)! We had a tricky turn to get out of our winter mooring, but thankfully this went well!
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| The tricky exit from our mooring |
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| Entering Roanne lock - our first of the season |
It seems that each year we have guests join us for our start of year cruise! And once again we head for the lovely town of Paray Le Monial, as this is 3 pleasant days cruise away. This year we stopped at Melay and Digoin along the way.
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| Lunch at Melay |
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| Yes it is true! |
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| Monseuir le Pecheur |
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| Dawn and Mark hard at it! At least their eyes are still open! |
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| Monseur le Capitaine |
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| Madame la capitaine |
We brought the car up to Paray,and Dawn and Mark spent their last day enjoying the sights of Paray, which included a trip to the local Emmaus and their first ever visit to a NOZ.
After an early lunch on board we headed to Lyon for the afternoon, visiting the wonderful cathederal, and walk through the old town and taking a closer look at the rather smart new Port ,currently being developed in the confleunce area, before dropping them back to the airport.
We spent a week in Paray and it was surprisingly quiet, so we assume that this a an 'off'season in the Church calendar and that preparations were being made for the next season - infact the forecourt of the Church was being repaved. To us especially notable was the lack of pilgrims,
Andrew took note of this clerical dusting and polishing and did some more painting and sprucing up of the barge.And as the weather has been excellent all the flower pots on the barge are full of blooms. It does look rather pretty and by the number of people taking photos we guess other agree!
Finally it was time to start moving again and so we started a leisurely trip up the canal lateral. Our first stop was in Pierefeitte, a nice quiet Port that gave Andrew the chance to finish painting the other side of the barge. We stayed a couple of days and then onto Diou.
We brought the car to Diou, as even though it is a small village it has a bus service to Paray and a railway station. We spent quite a few days in Diou, a pretty mooring with a nice quay. As the wether was prettu warm, we moved our chairs under the trees - ah lovely! We took full advantage of having the car by taking a good look around this rural part of France.
Especially appealing is the town of Bourbon Lancy which although it has a huge Fiat factory also has a walled centre. The town started in the 12th century and has been constantly lived in since. So once again you have the mix of a huge ancient wall containing the outlines of old usage but today housing a modern photography studio as well as shops, hotels and so on. We just love the way the French keep adapting the old to make it new...yet it stills retains clear evidence of its history. The town also has ancient thermal springs topped by a very modern glass and steel spa. This in turn is surrounded by old world hotels for people taking 'the treatment'
We also visited the nearest 'big' town,called Moulon, once again a mixture of old and new which is having massive works done to it's old markets...they should be great when finished but appear to have been under work for several years . We noticed too that this town was having a lot of other 'civic' buidlings updated, a sure sign of prosperity in the region.
Today we went to a Vide Grenier (emptying Grannys Attic is a rough translation) in a tiny village called Lesme. There were about 30 stalls and business was brisk. I purchased for 5 Euros (about$8) a box of bits and bobs including about 12 lengths of vintage lace, very pretty, plus cottons and threads...an absolute bargain. Andrew picked up a clay wine cooler 1 euro (about $1.50) with a design of grapes and leaves...got to love a Vide Grenier...no wonder it is such a popular pastime in France.
We headed off to Vichy to meet our friends Debbie and Randy for lunch who had driven up from Roanne. We have been to the city before but in the middle of winter and it was not looking its best.We had a lovely day out including sampling the real Vichy water - which was very minerally!
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| Randy sampling the waters at Vichy |
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| The Vichy spa room |
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