We arrived back at the boat on Sunday 7 April after
good drive from Caen and two good forest walks for Topsy and Shady. Just after we arrived at the boat Charlie
arrives for the Moondance moored next door, but on his own, just to
de-winterising and jobs. It seems that Drogheda is having the same weather as
Malmesbury and Marianne is staying at home there worrying about the garden.
Our boat seems fine except a tiny drip from the principal
domestic pump. We need the heating and
luckily it’s independent of the water system, so at least we can use that. Otherwise we dare only turn on water when
essential, until we get the pump seen to.
We pop in to see Patrick, the new Capitaine at
Briare; everything is fine though he thought we were bit a stern heavy (we say
that’s the way the boat is) so he had checked the bilges for us but found no
water. That’s a relief. We discuss our
plans and explain we are heading to Strasbourg this year and won’t be back for
the winter. “What about winter 2014” he
asks. Not sure, we say. OK do you want me to reserve your mooring for
2015? We hadn’t thought about that but
exchange glances and both say “Yes, OK, yes please”. So that’s how you plan a few years!!
On Monday we get the chimney up, as we’ll need the
fire today! It’s pretty nippy here. We then pop around to Alain at Charme Nautique to ask if he will look
at the pump. “You are “pressé” he asks (well yes we say) so he’ll come round
this afternoon.
We spend the rest of morning “provisioning”, and then
light the wood burner at lunch time. Alain arrives about 3pm. It’s the pump itself leaking and he can’t repair it (though someone else might). Luckily we have a spare so he puts that in.
Briare Commercial Port on a Grey April Day
All in all takes two hours but we have an
appointment at 6pm to meet Lyliane Maillard from the Gien Twinning Association
and Claud Fontaine from the Gien Walkers Club to discuss an exchange / joint
activity between Gien and Malmesbury walkers. We have very quick showers (now
the water is on) and change. The boat is nice and warm for the girls as we
leave them to guard the boat for the evening.
We have an excellent meeting with Lyliane and Claud.
He will meet Malmesbury walkers in May and we are hopeful there might be a
joint activity next year. We have dinner
with Lyliane and Maurice (and Gilles and Martine join us too). Excellent wild boar
you couldn’t get in England. It is a very lovely evening, with lots of
fascinating information exchanged, though Mrs Thatcher whose death has just
been announced clouds the table a little.
On Tuesday there are a few more little jobs to check
the boat out. The bow thrusters have 12.9 volts so that’s good but we still put
them on charger for a bit. It is surprising how long the little jobs take.
In the afternoon we ring Annie (Delbecq) just to say
hello but she insists we come over for coffee and cakes. We are on our way to
Philippe and Marcelle’s, who besides offering us dinner that evening, have also
insisted on re-stocking us with logs (cut to size) for the wood burner. We have
no shame but, as Philippe said on the phone, it’s very cold and wet at the
moment and we need the burner. Annie insists we pop in to say hello to the
Twinning Committee on our way to Coullons; and then we have a relaxed evening
with Philippe and Marcelle. An excellent tasty meal – how much time these must
take to prepare. The girls (dogs) come with us and are relaxed in the garden
and house, though the smell of the new kitten enlivens them. Philippe and Marcelle are so easy with
them. We collect our wood. We are so
lucky with such good friends in France.
So Wednesday arrives and we are getting ready to go.
Glyn takes the car to Migennes, a half way stop to Auxonne which is our
destination this trip. Migennes is an
hour and a half by car and 4 hours return by train. Only Mark is there of the guys based at
Migennes. Simon and Roger are at Sens, and so Mark is pressed, but they have a
brief exchange of news on mutual friends.
The four hour rail trip back is not so bad. We walk
the dogs when Glyn is back and pop into Mike and Rosaleen on the Acquarelle
(who had popped by earlier in that day to welcome us) and get offered coffee and
some fascinating stories and info about their trip down the Danube to Serbia. Getting
small boats even as large as theirs (up to 2 times ours) through Austria,
Hungary and Serbia has many intriguing problems but they are more official than
navigational. It is fascinating and we
take it all in.
The Pont Canal is also Grey This Week
We have an evening meal with Charlie at the Pet’t St Trop which is always good;
Charlie is such excellent company. He
seems to be OK on his own on the boat but also has Skype to keep him company,
and his collecting advice from many friends in Briare on the various jobs he
has to do.
So Thursday arrives and off we go, 9am at the Henri
IV lock, and by 10am we are up on the Canal Lateral. Today destination
Léré. We take a few photos as we will
not see Briare again (at least on the boat) until 2015. Charlie sees us off and presents us with one
of his own hand-made pens. We will
treasure that.
A Last look Back at the Town and Church in
Briare
The timing is good and we get to the Mambray lock
just by 1pm. We are moored up at 3pm.
There is only one other boat in but it is the Edwina Rose with Andy
Chris with whom we travelled part of the Burgundy canal last year. Again an invite (this time a glass of wine)
and we exchange news of that trip last year, of their visit to the Paris rally,
our mutual horror of the new management at Brienon on the Burgundy canal, and our
respective plans for this year. They are
taking the Nivernais so we exchange info on our mutual experiences; we can
advise them about the Nivernais, they us about the Saone. But first we are off to the bakers for bread
and some of the best tarts in France.
Back on board we light fire and have a quiet warm evening with the girls
and Inspector Montalbano.
On Friday we are off at 9am to Herry. We pick up some
Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé at the Houards lock. This is one of the best ways to
buy local wines. Sadly the egg man at
Peseau lock is off duty today, so wine but no eggs! We get to Herry again about
3pm and this time we are on our own now but it is still cold and wet as it has
been all morning.
We light the fire, walk the girls and this time
Topsy (with some hesitation) is willing to come for a reasonable walk. She has developed noise phobias and has been
quite agoraphobic all winter. 5kms is
not much for a border collie but is much better than we’ve done for a
while. Then another quiet night by the
fire and with the Inspector with a late night walk for the girls.
We are doing the Canal Lateral quite quickly as we
know it so well, and our objective this trip is to spend time on the Canal du
Centre. So we are off early on Saturday with a destination of Cours-les-Barres
between Aubigny-les-Marseilles and Guetin. Can we pass Aubigny before midday
and make C-l-B by one?
All the lock keepers are very friendly and helpful
and get us through Aubigny even though they have to keep going to 1215.
Fantastic! There are also lots of new
work at Beffes (it looks a new “halte” is being planned).
We moor up by 1pm; we’ve had some hard spats of rain
including hail (the meteo promised the “grele” and we got it) but the afternoon
the weather is brighter and again Topsy deigns to come with us all for another
4 kms walk.
Works too at the Church at Cours-les-Barres - a Plastic covered Tower
The girls have their freedom to wander along the mooring banks as they did at Herry, so all is well. Maybe Spring is arriving.
But
the mooring is still inviting
For Sunday we had booked the first lock for 0900 so
need to leave at 0830. We check the engine at 0810 and there seems to water in
the bilge. We clear out all the storage down there and yes there is between
about 5 and 10mm in different places. We mop, nappy-sap (nappies are essential
tools on canal boats), kitchen towel and WD40 it all dry and take out about 5
litres. We can’t see where the water came from and will have to investigate
further.
Meanwhile it’s 0910 and we are 40 minutes late for
the lock-keeper. But when we arrive at 0940 he is quite relaxed – there is no
problem. Then we move on to the Gates (double lock) of Guetin at about 1100 and
into the Allier / Auvergne after which we have 20 kms without a lock.
We stop at Vieille Tour (a quiet spot for lunch and
where the dogs can run) only to find that two other boats quickly join us. At
least there are now some other boats on the canal. And the cowslips are
fantastic, so we gather some to decorate the boat.
Cowslips from la Vieille Tour
We get to the next lock at 1445 and pass the three
locks with ease to moor at Fleury by 4pm.
We have a quiet evening and another longish walk with the dogs, joined
by a local who we’ve walked the dogs with before – he too has a border collie
and a boat moored in the Bay of Morbihan.
On Monday we have a short trip to Decize for some necessary
shopping, and then on to Gannay where there is a boat yard to discuss our water
problem and also fix a rivet. Our lock-keeper for the first two locks is the
one who lives at Fleury lock and grows great vegetables (not this time of year
though). We say we thought he was retired, but he says no, later this year, he
hopes. Both his knees are shot and he is going to have them replaced. Over the
next two locks we discuss how bad the winter has been and how damaging for the
gardens; but he hopes he can grow something this year. We say we won’t be back
until 2015. Well, he says, hopefully I’ll still be in the cottage and garden so
pop in then, even if I am retired. A really great guy.
Decize provides everything we want, except
critically we forget the fresh milk we needed and so have to go back to the
store. The girls get a good stroll and then onward to Gannay where arrive at
about 1630. We pop straight to the boatyard, but Mark Vardy who runs it can’t
help us until Wednesday because of prior work. That’s fine we say, we were
planning a day’s stop.
So Tuesday provides a quiet day at last. We walk the
dogs several times and they are really happy; the banks are covered with cowslips,
soldiers & sailors, and wild violets; we meet up with Bill Fisher and his
crew and discuss jobs on boats, getting some really useful advice. Bill and his
crew turn out to come from Newbury and Devizes and he is VP of the Kennet &
Avon Trust; oh what a small world; for us it is really good to have day without
cruising.
Bill
and his crew working hard at Gannay
But
Topsy only wants a walk
Glyn finishes the day by avidly following the
Cardiff-Charlton game (and parallel Championship games) to go to bed happy
knowing, albeit that it was only a draw, that Cardiff are promoted to the
Premier League.
On Wednesday Mark comes to fix the rivet we need and
to look at where our bilge water may have come from. It’s not from the engine, nor
does it seem from the hot water tank or calorifier. There is a bulwark to the
rest of the boat so it has to be from the back. One possibility is rainwater
ingress possibly from air vents; another is the anchor chain where the chain
store had water in it back in Briare.
Nothing major to worry about, Mark assures us. Don’t worry too much
about 5 litres, a tonne or two might destabilise you, but not a few litres. But he advises that when we leave the boat we
should always get the anchor chain on board and under cover to avoid the risk
of ingress from that.
Mark also gives some tips on repainting the roof.
What excellent help, and then he refuses any payment. It was only 10 minutes he
says (plus the 20 inspecting and giving advice which he doesn’t mention). He
really has been so helpful and friendly; we will try to use him again (but pay
next time) and recommend him to anyone else who might be passing that way.
In the afternoon we cruise just a few hours onto
Beaulon; a nice easy stop for an easy day; only one boat and two camper vans at
a site usually packed. We pass through the Clos du May lock and Glyn has to
tell the lock-keeper about the novel of a former lock-keeper here who was the
last French soldier from World War I.
The
Lock at Clos du May (as in La Vie en
Rouge et Bleu)
Sunset at Beaulon – Still Cool but Spring is Coming
Thursday is going to be a long day as we will finish
off the Canal Lateral and achieve our main objective this trip – to spend a lot
of gentle time on the Canal du Centre. We stop at Diou after the morning to
pick up a few things we need but alas the village shop has closed. The baker is
open though, but when she puts the bread through the slicer she misses it and
it all falls on the floor. “You won’t get to play for Wales like that” quips
Glyn, “though these days maybe for France”. She smiles while there is one
grimace and one big laugh from the other customers.
We pass Molinet where we moored in the mist last
year, but now it is clear.
Molinet is Quiet – but Big Boats Are Just Down the
Road
Then, wonder
of wonders, two boats ahead of us come out of the canal de Roanne into Digoin
and we actually have to wait for a lock. Not very long though as the lock
keeper has this one humming like a song bird; and then we find easy mooring just
after the Digoin pont canal It says only 0.40 metres depth but the Lady
Sue is moored there which must draw more than us. “It’s only a small
ledge at 40cm” they say, “otherwise there’s plenty of depth”.
Finally at Digoin - their Pont
Canal signals the end of the Canal Lateral as it recrosses the Loire
Paul and Sue brought their Piper barge the Lady
Sue across the channel last November and then spent a painful winter
crawling through northern France before finally ending iced up and stuck
in Langres for several weeks (Thank God
we are only doing it in the summer). Glyn’s sister was also holed up in Langres
for three weeks in January between weather and illness. A small world again.
Paul and Sue will head for Midi for this winter as
they want sun not ice. We give some info about contacting Bruno Chanal who has
moved from Briare to Castet-en-Dorthe; and then we check with the local
chandler about getting diesel in the morning and finally buy some new lock
gloves for Linda, before cheating with a takeaway kebab before the dogs’ final
walk
On Friday we walk the Loire a few times. This may be
last time we see the Loire by boat for a couple of year. A beautiful magnolia
is in flower and a very knotted twisted willow is preparing to sprout; sheer
beauty.
Magnolia and Willow at Digoin on the Loire
After a bit
of shopping including some boat work supplies we head off after lunch to pick
up our diesel. Just as we’ve backed in against a difficult wind - to where we
were told to moor, the pump attendant shouts “Ah! Not there, can you go over
there?” – and then an even more difficult manoeuvre with boats tightly all around
us. But we get there very gently.
“Our diesel tank’s at the back” we say (as we
had told him this morning). So another crazy, careful manoeuvre and finally we
can fill up, except diesel gets sprayed over the stern and the water behind us
before he gets the nozzle in. Oh well - and finally we head off for
Paray-le-Monial. Bye bye Canal Lateral;
bye bye beautiful Loire. Now for a very slow and quiet few weeks crossing over
to the Saone.
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