Day's Progress: 17 kms : 4 locks (Total 519 kms : 220 locks)
We spent the morning in Sens, exploring the old streets and went to the museum. The museum is attached to the cathedral and would probably have been lived in by the church people and local nobility. Outside the entrance to the museum is a birdbath made out of a fallen gargoyle!
The museum is wonderful – very old things and we saw 12th – 13th century cloth - it was so fragile that the room was dimmed and no sunlight came in. The cloth was faded but you could still see the intricate patterns and colours. The walls covered in old paintings and there were 2 statues by Rodin on display. It is a fabulous place considering it is quite large…. There are Roman tombs in the basement, galleries with pre-historic collections from the bronze age and some sculptures from the 1st century!!! Ancient church relics and the vestments of Thomas Becket from the 12th century. The mosaics were magnificent.
Another day on the river – at lunchtime we moored up against a commercial barge next to the lock. The lock was closed for lunchtime and they were also waiting for another barge coming from the other direction. Tying up against the barge our little boat looks like a toy – these barges are really enormous. The iron edges are thick and it doesn’t move an inch when we bump up against it.
We moored in Villeneuve in the afternoon – this is another 11th century town. This place is super! We went into town to scout around a bit and found a small pub with 2 tables on the pavement – the picture here is of the table top – cute! Sitting outside the pub we met a nice hairy but well kept dog who was waiting for his master – the master was quite drunk and set off without his dog. The bar=keeper said it was ok and this happens quite often – he then looks after the dog until the master returns! The drunken master bought us a drink and when Steve tried to reciprocate by leaving money for him the barkeeper advised against it!
As with all the town and villages there is a beautiful church – this one has bright purple doors and just down the path from the church is this unusual garden sculpture – a ball made of yellow hose-pipe which must stand about 1.5 meteres high…. Lovely! The church has quite a lot of broken windows which have been replaced with plain glass. It has immensely high vau
lted ceilings and I can just imagine knights charging into it on their horses.
lted ceilings and I can just imagine knights charging into it on their horses. The butcheries and bakeries in this town have lovely stuff on display – not just a lamb chop – everything is beautifully dressed and they have lots of home made stuff; sausage, terrines, pies and pate. The bakeries had fab looking cakes and breads.
I really like this town – it has such a nice feeling about it.
It was hot today and we were in the sun for about 5 hours – but the sun is much softer than our African sun. Back at the boat I decided to feed the ducks and they know the sound of a plastic bag I swear. Before I had even taken out the bread they were zooming towards me!
2 days to go till we have spent 4 weeks on this boat.
We had dinner at a fab riverside Auberge. I had lamb and an asparagus sald. Then a chocolate pud which had soft runny chocolate inside a muffin sized spone cake. Yum.
I really like this town – it has such a nice feeling about it.
It was hot today and we were in the sun for about 5 hours – but the sun is much softer than our African sun. Back at the boat I decided to feed the ducks and they know the sound of a plastic bag I swear. Before I had even taken out the bread they were zooming towards me!
2 days to go till we have spent 4 weeks on this boat.
We had dinner at a fab riverside Auberge. I had lamb and an asparagus sald. Then a chocolate pud which had soft runny chocolate inside a muffin sized spone cake. Yum.
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