Putting A Toe in the Burgundy Canal

Thursday 15 September (A Quiet Day Inspecting the Bow Thruster)

Today is an easy day.  We stay in the boat yard, and this afternoon they will lift the bow to inspect the bow thruster tube.  In the morning we take the dogs for a very long walk (over to Cheny and back) and the do our “ re provisioning”.  We have no car to get to the big supermarket but the Atac nearby is pretty good, and we get all we need.   By now the dogs are enjoying clambering over barges, gangplanks and ladders.  The think it is fun, and then can around freely in the scrubland next to the boatyard.

At 2pm we move around to the quay and they lift the front out.  “Hanging around” takes on a whole new meaning.  But it is indeed strange to be on the stern of the boat with the front end lifted high out of the water.  A friend from Poole warns us that our exhaust is pretty near the water line, but there is no traffic and we ship no water.  Meanwhile Simon and Roger get out dinghy and have a good look in the tube.

Well, one of the blades of the propeller has shorn off.  In fact the propeller is fitted too tightly and the blades are chafing the thruster tube, which is almost certainly the cause of our shear pins breaking so often.  However even with those conditions the thruster should propel. They inspect the pin, and the last fit was not done properly.  They refit and the propeller turns, albeit with only two blades.  We can use it now but the propeller does need replacing and not to be fitted so tightly.  That work can be done next week.  So a quiet night tonight, with just ourselves on the quay.

Friday 16 September (A Good Service and Short trip into the Burgundy)

Friday morning Mark, who works for Simon, does our 950 hours service.  He is pretty good, and gets the filters changed quicker than Glyn can.  He is pleased though that we have all the tools on the boat to do the job, and doesn't have to keep running back to the workshop.  He is also pleased that everything is reasonably easy to get at, and even more so that we have the rear deck canopy, when some slight drizzle starts to descend.

That and a couple of other minor works are all completed by lunchtime.  We walk the dogs again, and at 2pm we begin a minor unhurried trip up the Canal de Bourgogne.

We are warned that the rise to Tonnerre is hard work, and that some of the lock-keepers are not always fully helpful.  However today we are going only to Brienon – 3 locks and 10kms.  We do it easily in 2 hours.  All three lock-keepers, including two young women, are extremely helpful and friendly.  Why do we almost always get the friendly ones?  And the first two locks are all ready and open for us when we arrive, while at the third we only have to wait a moment while a downstream boat comes out.  The first lock is deep at 5.2m, but all in a day’s work now.

However as we emerge from the last lock to go just 200m to our mooring we are confronted with a very large industrial barge seemingly coming towards us and crossing the channel.  On closer inspection it is reversing through a very narrow bridge with a 90^o turn immediately afterwards.  It is struggling to do this in reverse, and it is not funny but reassuring to see that even professionals have the same problems we do.  It achieves the objective however and slowly reverses on up past the sugar refinery.

Challenge at Brienon - Will This Bridge be Blocked Forever?

Brienon is a small but lovely little town, with a Leclerc express right opposite the mooring, and a good boulanger.  It is relatively spread out given its small size, but well set out and clearly looked after.  It is a good town and a good mooring.  Coincidentally it is twinned with Konz near Trier in the Rheinpfalz (Germany) a town we know a little from our stay in April.  Interesting connections, but there is no significant wine growing here to match that in Konz in the Mosel.

Saturday 17 September (Brienon to St Florentin)

We are now in a really relaxed “we are retired and on (permanent) holiday” mood.  We get up late, but even the dogs are tolerant of this.  A lazy run to the bakers, whose nut bread is excellent, and a lazy morning reading and writing and doing nothing in particular.

After lunch we take the 3 locks and 9 kms to the next town St. Florentin.  The canal here, as it was from Migennes to Brienon, is straighter than the straightest Roman road.  The lock-keepers are again excellent.  It is the same lock-keeper for the first two locks who is amazingly attentive and needlessly apologetic, and who cycles at a tremendous rate to be at the second lock in order to have it ready for us.  Husband and wife at the third lock are equally attentive, friendly and efficient.

We are moored up by 4pm alongside the quay by a lovely little port, with the town and church of St Florentin towering above us.  We walk the dogs, say hi to the fishermen, and then nosey up to town.  Even at 5pm the Tourist Office is open and willing to give all sorts of helpful advice.  We must visit the church they say, and there is a big market on Monday morning.  We do in fact visit the church, which is also very much worth it.  We have got to the point where one church or cathedral is just like another, but this is something different, with amazing stained glass windows from the Troyes school, with fascinating colours, even if some of the stories they tell are bizarre and a little depressing.

The Church at St Florentin on the Approach by canal

Sunday 18 September (Loafing around St Florentin)

Now we are entering into the spirit of things! We stay put today, just a few chores around the boat, lots of walks for the dogs, lots of fishermen and gongoozlers to chat to, and not much else.  Washing goes out on our newly organised whirligig, which holds well, and the stiff breeze and occasional sun dries and freshens it very well. That’s it for today.  We walk around the port a few times, and it is a delightful place.  We meet a couple from Kent who are leaving their boat here for the winter, and then off today to the climes of England.  Some Aussies (turns out they are noisy Kiwis) moor alongside us, so it’s not quite as quiet a day as all that, but they are friendly enough.  Eternal optimists they are hoping to find shops open in France on a Sunday afternoon.

Monday 19 September (A Really Great French Market and 7 Locks Rising 20 metres for the pleasure of it)

A lazy morning again as we will go the market in the town.  Glyn takes the dogs however all the way to inspect the lock at Germigny (is it a staircase are just deep?) which there and back is over 4 miles (about 6.5kms), and doesn’t get back until 9am.  By then the Kiwis who are on a hire boat are handing it back to France Fluviale, before they head to Dubai.  They have lots of perishables left so shower us with beer, coke, vegetables, fruit, etc., but Linda turns down the wine in plastic bottles.  Our days of Grappilru are over.  Ah! La vieillesse!

The market up the hill (and it is a hill – it makes Malmesbury look flat) is amazingly large, and almost everything you want.  We spend an hour and a half mooching around, buying lots more veg and fruit, as well as the local cheese.  If only we could have a market like this at home.

The Church at St Florentin from the Outside - Equally Impressive from the Inside

We take a lazy lunch and then after that go on to Flogny which is at the end of our canal map for “Bourgogne Ouest”.  We had wanted to do the whole of this canal this year (114 locks to the summit and then 60 odd down to Dijon and St Jean-de-Losne).  But that will now wait for next year.  At least we will make lock 100.  All the lock-keepers are amazingly friendly and helpful.  At the first lock (Germigny) we buy some local honey and we don’t need our arms twisted to also but some Chablis at an excellent price.  The second lock is equally friendly and selling a variety of other local wines.  We may try some on our way back.

The third lock is selling courgettes but also wild mushrooms, sweet chestnuts and “asperges de bois” all collected locally from the woodland. 

We travel with two couples on a boat share from Bristol.  They have an excellent Dutch barge called the Dorney, and 12 couples have a share each, having use of it for 2 weeks each year.  This is excellent way to enjoy canalling in France without investing in a whole boat.  They are very chatty at each lock, but going on to Tonnerre, and are based at Auxerre.  They also advise us that the cafe routier at Germigny is excellent value for money if we want to try that on the way back.

We complete the seven locks and 12 kms in under 4 hours.  We need to turn the boat but at this point discover it isn’t quite wide enough, and we have seen others in difficulty: no taking risks.  We walk back to the last lock-keeper.  “You can’t turn” he smiles.  Yes, we say, where is the nearest place we can do it safely?  Oh, before the next lock, he says.  And then with an even bigger grin, just before the lock – and it 4 kms there and 4 back! Oh, gosh that will take an hour, we say.  “Une bonne heure” he replies.  So off we set.  It is though a very lovely trip in the warm evening.  At various points it looks wide enough that we might be able to turn, but we take it gently and turn in an easy wide circle at the end.  We are back in 1 hr 10 minutes.  Not too bad.

A phone call from Lauren.  Virginie (and Mike) has had her baby today, a girl, a sister for James.  Delightful news on a delightful day.

It’s still not 6pm.  We wander with the dogs up to the village just ¼ mile away.  It is a long village and another ¼ mile to the new shopping precinct with almost everything you want just in front of the Salle Polyvalente.  Mind you, it’s Monday, so most things are closed.  But this is a good place.  And it’s lovely evening.

We return to the boat.  The girls can run freely on the bank of the mooring.  It is peaceful and idyllic here, only marred by three carfuls of the local “yoof” coming to hang out from 8-9.30pm, just when it’s getting dark, doing nothing in particular, just making noise.  It slightly mires the peace, but eventually – one by one - they go.

Tuesday 20 September (The Rural Idyll and Workers’ Paradise)

So on Tuesday we merely tinker back.  The first lock is only 5 minutes and the lock-keeper friendly as yesterday.  It’s fresh, we say.  No, it’s good he says, smiling as ever.  The he receives a long call from the next lock-keeper on his walkie-talkie (it’s not an open VHF here).  You can see he is getting increasingly irritated.  At the end he feigns to throw the walkie-talkie into the canal.  Modern techno logy, he says, they won’t let you get on with the job.

He is also our lock-keeper at the second lock.  He gets there before us on his scooter.  When we arrive he’s rubbing his arms and hands.  OK, it is bit parkey, he says, with the same old smile.

But it’s getting warmer.  A beautiful morning, beautiful countryside.  At the penultimate we buy a couple of bottles of the local wine, one red, one rosé.  We’ll try it later.  But we tell him we are stopping before the next lock for lunch, and ask if there is baker there.  There is.  He also suggests the cafe, which is excellent value he says.

So we lunch at the cafe Germigny.  It is our first meal out on this trip.  It is good.  We regress and think we have not eaten in a “cafe ouvrier” since the Kerampont in Lannion.  We used to eat there every Thursday (market day) all through the summer for so many years.  300 covers, buzzing like made.  A four course meal, wine, soft drinks and coffee, all thrown in.  When we first ate there in the 80s it was 39 francs (then about £3.50, though the exchange rate alone would now make that £5.00 or €6.00) per head.  When we last ate there, probably in 2004, it was €8.00.

Here the price is €12.00, but again a four course meal, a good steak for Glyn and a good veal escalope for Linda.  They only do about 100 covers, but two women do all the serving, back and forth non-stop.  There are more families and women here than there used to be at the Kerampont. Although it is relatively plain food it is very good.  We hope France never loses these.  Admittedly our kids were never as enamoured as we were, and sometimes we had to give in to a Big Mac (though even Big Mac in France serves a good salad and a good coffee).

So after a good meal and little siesta we reach the lock at Germigny at about 2pm.  We have to wait for another boat.  The lock-keeper asks if we’ve tasted the Chablis yet.  Not yet, we say.  Oh, you’ll enjoy it, he says.  It’s a lovely day today, we agree, and then note (hopefully not too morbidly) that it’s the last day of summer.

The other boat arrives.  We shared two locks with this French couple this morning, before they stopped for breakfast, but weren’t able to strike up much conversation.  Nor can we now.  Any way we both stop at St Florentin for the night, but on opposite banks.  We have a just quiet evening, a light supper, and walk the dogs.  This has been an idyllic day.

Wednesday 21 September (A Day of Two Halves)

We wake and get up late.  But even at 7.30am you cannot see the other side of the canal just 15-20 metres away.  There is an amazingly thick blanket of fog.  Glyn walks the dogs before we have breakfast, and comes back quite cold.  At 8.30am you can just see lock about 40 metres away.  

The French couple from yesterday head for the lock just in front of us.  We both have navigation lights on.  Should we travelling in weather like this? But the lock-keepers have no worries about letting us through.

The fog lightens but not very much over the next three locks back to Brienon.  We really are travelling in the dark.  It is nearly 11am at the last lock, and finally the sky is lightening a little.

Yet when we have moored up at Brienon by 12 noon the sun is finally out.  Linda has done some washing on the journey, and we put up the washing line to dry it.  Amazingly by 1pm this is a very warm and sunny day.

The French couple, who had shared locks with us, had moored earlier in a not very easy place.  They are walking their dog and see us in a better mooring.  They come over and ask about it.  We have a good chat and then they come and moor behind us, but they are only staying for lunch. Isn’t amazing though, that over two days we hardly got a word, but now we know they have brought their boat from Decize up the Canal du Centre, the Saone and the Burgundy, and going to a permanent mooring on the Nivernais.  We don’t get as far as names (it’s odd how that is always quite a way down the talk list on the canals) but at least we’ve made contact.

After a bit we take the dogs for a walk, circling around behind the back of the town, and then come down the High Street.  It is small town, but with an amazing circular “lavoir” (communal clothes washing area from centuries past), and good town square.

We laze through the afternoon, read a bit, sleep a bit, walk the dogs, shop a bit.  Our French couple move on, but another arrives and we help them moor.  They are from Dijon, and know most of the Burgundy canal very well, but not this bit.  We disappoint them that there is no electricity or water, but diesel is available from the garage across the road.  We check our diesel and realise we should fill up again before we ride the Seine.  Do we fill with jerry cans at a reasonable price, or get it pumped in at astronomical prices?  A decision for tomorrow.  Today is too nice.  All the clothes are dry and aired.  Glyn needs another walk and the dogs are happy to go with him.  It may have been autumn this morning, but it’s certainly summer this afternoon.

Thursday 22 September (Better Ways to Get Diesel)

A lazy day today again, or so we thought.  Just down the canal to the river Yonne at Migennes so that we can go into the boatyard first thing tomorrow.  Just 10kms and 3 locks: should be 2-2½ hours.  We have debated diesel at the local garage at €1.40 but where we have to carry it and pour it in ourselves, or at Le Boat in Migennes where they have a direct pump but at €1.65.  We need between 150 and 200 litres.  We are not skinflints but that’s between €40 and €50 extra from the pump.  Also we need to get used to getting diesel from the roadside.  We will just have to do it as we travel further afield. (On the faster rivers we have been using about 2.5 litres per hour against 1.5 on the French canals, and only 1.0 when crawling on the Kennet and Avon.  But even at 2.5 that’s a very good consumption rate.) The Capitainerie at Briare offers a reasonable price (only €1.50) but everywhere else on the waterways is astronomical.

So at 9.15 we start the treks of about 250m each way to and from the local garage.  Our trolleys will only take one can (we will have to get a better one) so carrying is the only option - 2 x c.18 litres at a time.  With decanting via funnel each takes 20 minutes.  By 10.25 we have put in 150 litres and decided that is enough for now.  By the time we have tidied up it’s 11.00, so enough time to walk the dogs, have lunch and be off at 1pm.

We have an easy run to Migennes and the sun is winning the battle.  It is beautiful afternoon.  Having filled one tank we have to empty another and find a quiet spot to do this.  At Migennes we stop above the river lock for a bit of essential shopping at ATAC, and lo and behold find hard plastic jerry cans with taps (to empty them) for only €7.  Our French friends yesterday just sat with the tap filling the boat tank which is a lot easier than trying to funnel it in.  So half our problem solved.  Now only a decent trolley.

The River Front at Laroche-Migennes

We drop to the river and go downstream to search a mooring at Laroche.  This is a good find, with easy walks for the dogs back to the lock at Epineau.  We get some beautiful pictures of the sky at dusk, and over the weir to the lock.  We moor alongside a Royal Squadron yacht called the Cosi and they very kindly help us moor.  It turns out they bought their boat through Simon Evans and winter with him at Sens.  We will see them quite a few times over the next few days.  The sunset is spectacular (see pictures on blog).  We’ve done our big chores and had a lovely day.

Sunset at Epineau Lock

Friday 23 September (Hanging About for a New Bow Thruster Propeller)

An early start, walking the dogs back to the weir.  We set off for the boatyard at 8.15 and Mark helps us more up at 8.30.  We catch up with Simon who will get ready to replace the bow thruster asap.  But he has to get the crane ready etc.  Meanwhile he has all the parts replacements we have ordered, but says we can do the job on the sanitary system ourselves.  (He only does the mucky jobs.)  This turns out much easier and cleaner than we thought.

Various other people cause distractions so we take the girls for another walk, and at 1100 the propeller replacement is under way, and all done by 12.15.  

Roger to the Rescue - To Get Under the Bow

However others again demand urgent attention before lunch and we get left literally “hanging about” (see below).

Hanging About for a new Bow Thruster Propeller

At 2.00 we are finally let down, but new arrivals want lifting out of the water and it much more sensible to do it now with the crane in place.  Also we have bills to pay, paint to collect, and other things to discuss.  We decide we won’t get away today and arrange to stay overnight.  But as we walk the dogs in the early evening, we feel calm, relaxed and happy.  The weather is gorgeous (a true Indian summer) and the Meteo are promising this for another week at least.  The boat is now all ship-shape and (that city) fashion.  We are ready for the return to Briare.  We discuss some works for next year with Simon, and arrange to leave the boat here next late May / early June when we will back in England.  Already the bigger “trajets” for next year are well planned.  It’s been a great week.