Storms and Floods – Descent to the Saone (29 April -10 May)

Monday morning we loaf around Montchanin and walk the dogs. Our Belgian friends go off first at 0900 as they want / need to get to St Jean-de-Losne (descend the canal and up the Saone).  Carpe Diem goes later in the morning, but like us, they are only going down to St Julien.  We all hope there’s enough mooring there. We set off at 1400.  Linda checks whether the lock has been reset but an eclusier arrives to do it for us.

Checking Whether the Lock will be Reset

Respite at St Julien

The weather is fine.  A little overcast with spots of rain but quite pleasant.  Going downhill is much easier as we are at the top of the lock when we need to attach ropes.  But the first two locks are moderately deep (5.13m) so lock keepers see us through.  The rest is easy and when we get to St Julien the sun is almost shining, and just the Carpe Diem there.

 

A little later the Tiara arrives.  She is a sea-going boat and with limited depth in the mooring we all help her moor carefully.  Ron and Robin are from Queensland with their daughter and six month old grandchild.  Might as well start them young.  They clearly know Doug and Susan well and we talk about canal and river conditions.  They were on the Saone at Chalons but the river was roaring past and almost up to the quay, so they decided to head for the canal for safety.  Having wintered at St Jean-de-Losne they are heading to meet friends (and son-in-law) at Roanne.

The evening is very pleasant and we stroll the dogs through the village and beyond.

Tuesday and we and the Tiara are off first thing at 0900 in different directions.  The Carpe Diem is waiting at St Julien for the Ariana.

Fresh Countryside at St Julien

The weather is overcast a little but still not too bad.  We descend seven locks to St Berain which has a little quay out in the countryside.  We had thought to moor here the night but it is quite exposed and the weather (or rain) seems to be closing in on us again.  The lock keeper passes by as he goes to lunch and he thinks St Leger (two more locks – and where he lives) would be a better bet.  We can get water and maybe power there, so we agree we’ll go down at 1400.  The rain is spitting but not too bad.

The Calm Before the Storm

Mooring at St Leger is trickier than we thought.  The Locaboat base looks closed and is not encouraging to passing boaters (though maybe we should have tried harder to get in there).  The bank further along has water and power and we try to moor up next to the Orion with a lovely French couple from just south of Chalon.  They have escaped the river which they say is raging.  This mooring is primarily for hotel boats, but the Mairie has said we can stay there till Thursday.  The bank is broken here however, and unless we moor more than a metre out we are going to be unstable.  We assess our options.  In the end we fill up with water and then cross the canal where there are bollards and a good shuttered bank, though no power.

It’s a reasonable afternoon and we mooch around the town, and get some supplies from the local supermarket. 

Mairie, Church and Fascinating Steeple at St Leger-sure-Dheune

We take the girls for an early late night walk getting back before 2200.  The weather is closing in.  We have had hardly shut up the boat and made a cup of tea and coffee when we hear the rain start.  And it rains all night.

The Wednesday morning is a little better but fresh and cloudy.  It is May 1^st – not only a national holiday in France but one of only three when all the locks are closed.  So we can’t move today but we have in any event said we will stay until Friday.  There is big “Foire des Puces” in the town so we stroll around that with the dogs who behave well except for add growls at other canines.   It is pleasant morning, but the outdoor part of the fair is full of puddles.

The Eye of the Storm

We get back just after 1200 for a French time lunch.  Suddenly at 1230 the sky goes black and by 1245 we have thunder and lightning right above us with torrential rain.  The girls head for their hidey-holes in the cabin, and need lots of comfort.  Both of them hate thunder, and lightning only makes it worse.  May 1^st and an afternoon only fit for hunkering down.  Thank God for Kindles (if only Amazon would pay its taxes properly)!

The weather clears up a little in the evening, but then with nightfall the rain comes again.

Thursday is a little better.  But we go and buy a new mop and try to clean up the roof a bit and the back deck which have suffered from all the rain.  We also take time to have a longer look around this very pleasant small town (if only the weather was good).  The Carpe Diem and the Ariana arrive in the early afternoon and moor further up on the opposite bank.  Later the Renaissance goes through but she is carrying on a few more locks.   The Kiwis on the Ariana (never did get their names) alert us that the Saone is in flood. A little bit of rain that night but not as bad as Tuesday and Wednesday.

So Friday we set off downstream again.  A charming lady eclusier (immaculately dressed for the weather) helps us with all the locks, as she hides from the steady if not pouring rain.   She says that the quay at Chalon is now under water.  Clearly the Saone is presenting some challenges. She thinks we could not go on it in present conditions, but it should be alright in a week or so.

We think about mooring at Cheilly-les-Maranges, but the weather is overcast and threatening, and the good little mooring is very exposed to both roads and the weather.  A Czech family on a Locaboat moor up alongside us for lunch and we help them moor.  They don’t speak French but they congratulate us on how good our English is.  They say there is only one boat moored downstream at Santenay.

The Hillsides Looking Over to Beaune from Cheilly-les-Maranges

The Peace and Beauty of Vineyard Country

We move on just the few kilometres to moor for the night at Santenay just inside the Cote d’Or, a small wine village.  The weather actually seems to be perking up.  It is a beautiful mooring though there is no water or power here.  We are fine for water, but will have to run the engine to keep our power supply up.  The solar panel will not be enough. 

Arriving in Wine Country

We walk down to the village with the dogs.  It is very pleasant with many opportunities for “disgusting in the caves”, but we are merely on a recce though we get some bread. 

We cross the bridge over the River Dheune to get to the village, but this is like Malmesbury last November – though luckily no houses visibly under water.  The Dheune has burst its banks and for such a small river is amazingly fast and wide.  If it is like this, we can only imagine what the Saone is like.

The Dheune Breaks Its Banks and almost reaches the Vineyards

Peculiarly we could not get a TV signal at St Leger but the Internet was good.  Here (only 6 miles / 9 kms away) it is fascinating that the TV works well but our Internet signal is not strong enough for anything.  We have received an email from VNF saying where we can check the flood situation on the Saone, but then the weak signal gives out and we can do no more to check it. The TV now tells us that 11 departments in the east of France (including the Yonne, Cote d’Or and the Haute Marne) are on orange alerts for flooding. 

At 7pm (1900) a hotel boat – the Amarayllis – arrives, passes us very slowly and then is clearly mooring up behind us.  We get out to check the wash, and take his ropes to help him moor.  He should have got to St Leger this evening but couldn’t make it.  A mixed English / French crew but the skipper is English.  May Day held him up at St Jean-de-Losne, and then the Saone was “tricky”, he says.  We recognise British understatement - and he is 10 times our size.  Later he says that the waters coming in after the Ecuelles lock and from the Doubs at Verdun (sur-le-Doubs) are quite furious and were very hard to navigate.  He also tells us that the Canal de Bourgogne has been closed because of flooding from the river Ouche, and parts of Dijon have been flooded. 

The Amaryllis moors Behind

We start thinking about our options if we can’t get up the Saone to Auxonne.  The other query in our minds is whether we can moor at Fragnes just outside Chalon (first stop on the canal when you come off the river) which is now probably packed with boats.  But we have a week or so.

Saturday and the weather is fine, and gets better as the day goes on.  The girls love it here.  Very pleasant walks even if punctuated with many bicycles.  We cycle down to the village.  Now part of the road is closed due to flooding, but it is only minor.  We amble through the town, buy a few bottles of wine, and have a beer in the village square on a glorious afternoon.

After walking the dogs the TV shows pictures of Dijon under water but the orange alert is now down to only three departments: alas they are still the Yonne, Cote d’Or and the Haute Marne.

But here it’s beautiful, and we can relax out of email and internet contact until Monday, and then worry about things then.  In the evening we get a nice telephone call from Lauren.  The weather seems a bit better in England, and she, Jake and Alfie are all well and enjoyed their holiday.

So Sunday we stay put.  A lazy day enjoying the sunshine, washing the roof (which has got covered with fallen rotting foliage), other chores, walking the dogs, and reading.  Finally it begins to feel like retirement. We have a problem as now even the phone signal seems to have gone weak.  Fog on the canal! The world is cut off! That’s retirement for you.

The waters on the Dheune are receding now.  Hopefully in a few days we will back to normal.  Certainly below us the flooding has gone down a lot.  Lots of people are out cycling, walking, fishing. It is a glorious day.

The Waters of the Dheune Start to Recede

It clouds over for the night, which will at least keep the temperature up.  Monday morning is also slightly cloudy, but also less cool than yesterday.  Even at 0700 we can walk the dogs with just a light second layer of clothes.

Full Stop at Chagny

We do the 5 kms down to Chagny, the northernmost point of the Canal du Centre, just south of Beaune.  This takes less than an hour.  We will moor up and go and explore with other boaters and with the VNF sub-station what lies ahead of us.  But we first we walk the dogs and bump into a French colleague on the Naxa.  He confirms (or at least tells us) we are well and truly “bouché’d” here.  “Everything is jammed up ahead, you can’t get down to the Saone, and now the canal is closed at Montchanin down to Blanzy, so you can’t go upstream either”.  He produces the local weekly “Journal” and this confirms that the water pressure from the floods at the summit forced a bank to burst, and the water just seeped out.  This happened on Sunday and 15 kms of the canal are shut.  It turns out that 5 boats were in the pound when the water seeped out.  Now that we do not fancy!!

We do some shopping, have showers and lunch, and then go over to the VNF sub-station. “What are the chances of getting down onto the Saone?” we ask.  This only produces mirth.  The water is very high, they say.  Not likely this week.  Ah. Well.  By the weekend it might be better.  Ask us after the holidays (we remember that France has two national holidays this week – Wednesday and Thursday to commemorate VE Day and celebrate Ascension Day) or talk to the lock keeper at Crissey (the deep lock into the Saone) whose number they kindly give us.   

It might be alright by the weekend or next week they say.  That’s OK for us as we planned it for next week anyway.  There’s no point going onward they say.  All the moorings further down the canal are all already overcrowded.  There might be a couple of spaces for small boats, but not long ones like yours!  Uh-hu! So we are staying here awhile.

We amble on over to the Ariana which is already moored.  We finally exchange names.  Adie is doing some catching up painting – might as well, he says, it’s needed and can’t do much else.  He confirms too that we are stuck, unless we want to go back upstream, which he might do, but then, only so far.  Se we settle down, walk the dogs between showers (the rain is back but not too bad), chores and read.  And start thinking about some plans for the week.

Two Into One Won’t Go

We are just sitting down for supper at 8pm (2000) when a very large industrial barge (the Liberty) passes gently by into the arch and small aqueduct behind us.  Even though he is very careful and slow we feel his tow.  Then he seems to stop in the passage on the aqueduct.  Five minutes later there is lots of shouting.  The Liberty has indeed moored in the channel, and no-one can get passed.  We guess he assumed that no-one was now moving on the canal this time of night.  But the hotel boat the Amaryllis has just arrived and coming downstream, and wants to get to its mooring on the other side. 

Mexican Stand Off at Chagny

Slowly the Liberty backs out again coming as close to us as is possible, then slips sideways and the Amaryllis comes in between, before the Liberty slides forward again. Poor chap, he has a load of timber to get to Nevers, but he will be stuck this side of Montceau at least until 15 May, and many think a lot longer.  We banter with the skipper of the Amaryllis.  “We told you cause trouble.” But he is only half amused.

The Liberty Backs Off 

And the Amaryllis comes through 

Tuesday is a quiet day.  We explore the town which is quite delightful with good shops.  A local lady takes time to show us all the places we are looking for, and the Tourist Office is also extremely helpful about dog walks.  We bump into Betty from the Pandora who also can tell us about things like launderettes if we need to dry clothes.

We walk the dogs and work on some minor repairs.  Then we telephone Celine the “Capitaine” at Fragnes which is downstream before the Saone, and ask what chance of a mooring with her.  Possibly on Friday she says, because tomorrow I‘ve got the Carpe Diem and Ariana arriving. So we will ring again Thursday evening.  We cycle around to the CD and Ariana, and ask what time they are leaving in the morning. How do you know we’re leaving? They ask.  We have ways, we say, before unveiling our sources.  But we need to pick up water tomorrow and if you’re moving we’ll take up your mooring.  The banter continues, but essentially they’ll be off fairly early.

We Really are Lazing Now.

Wednesday morning after an early walk with the dogs we sidle the boat over the water point at 9am and fill up with water.  We are too long to moor at the water point so hover diagonally, while Jo, an anglicized Dutchman now from Wimbledon who is on the moored on the Marinus just along the way, helps us complete the job as quickly as possible.  He is really very good.

We then sidle over to the empty moorings from the Ariana /CD and moor alongside the Matilda.  Topsy decides to roll in something so gets a shampoo-ing she doesn’t think she deserves.  But it also cools her coat down.

The Matilda is a big beautiful 1907 Dutch barge lovingly looked after by Peter and Margaret from Perth WA, with a very original Aussie name for the boat. Again we pick lots of useful information, including a possible “made to measure” boat cover maker at St Jean de Losne.  Throughout the day we keep interrupting their painting work, but they are very patient and helpful.  It’s a holiday here so we’ll relax.  We think about some painting but there may be a few showers this afternoon. So we take the dogs for a walk, chat to Betty and do some blogging. 

On Thursday we do actually do some painting, just an hour or so, and the weather holds.  In fact it is quite warm, even if sultry, later, and for the afternoon we insist that the dogs have a proper walk and go off for a couple of hours into the hills and woods overlooking the valley and the vineyards on the other side. The wild flowers are beautiful and this hillside is so peaceful.

A Euro for Anyone who can name all Four Flowers (50c for Botanists)

To the other side of the valley we could see all the villages and towns on this panorama slab, alas if only the pine forestation had not grown so tall – Chassagne- and Pouligny-Montrachet, Meursault, and in the distance Beaune. We could pick them all out, but not in one vista.

The view to the hillsides of Cote d’Or (if only we could see it all in one swoop)

Later we confirm that the Porte Verte beautiful little mooring / port at Fragnes on the outskirts of Chalon-sur-Saone can take us for the weekend. So tomorrow we will reach the Val de Saone.