Monday 16th July 2007
Day's Progress: 35kms : xx locks (lost track again!!)
Even though we covered a lot of milage today it was a very, very easy day. There were not many locks and going downhill was a dream. I hardly had to do a thing in the locks, just step off the boat, winched the gates and quickly step back on the boat before it went down. This was much easier than the uphill locks.
It was hot and cloudy most of the day. We were down to an altitude of 245 meters and the temperature was between 30 –35 degrees all day. The scenery of the countryside is changing subtly and we are now cruising through a hilly section.
Some of my observations:
§ There are much larger farms in this area. The have large farm buildings – barns, stables, garages for farm vehicles and huge houses.
§ The farms are very well kept with good fences between paddocks and fields.
§ Horses, really nice horses, in the paddocks.
§ The air smells fresh – amazing. It feels good to breathe.
§ The lilac bushes around the locks are in full bloom and this perfumes the air.
§ There are wild flowers along the banks of the canal.
§ There are fat butter coloured Charolais all over the place – grazing in beautiful green pastures. There are lots and lots of fat white fluffy sheep.
§ The wooden telephone posts alongside the canal have little metal cones on top of them – like little hats to protect them from the rain.
We had a fantastic lunch at a restaurant that was housed in an old lock house. It specializes in crepes and we were looking forward to eating something new. There were people 
from Australia and New Zealand at the table next to us and some local people at other tables. We were outside under an awning – I have seen quite a few of these rather elaborate Arabian Nights type tents – must be the "in thing". But comfortable and a lot cooler outside in the shade than in the building. Steve had the house special which was a lardon salad with walnuts, prunes and lettuce – I had a taste and can vouch for its niceness. I had to have a crepe and also ordered the house specialty – crepe with spinach and smoked salmon. Very yummy. We washed all of this down with lots of rose and the countryside was looking more and more lovely.
Cercy-la-Tour is a very beautiful town. There are baskets of flowers all over the place and the people are very friendly. The town is very old – dating back to the 12th century. The old town is on one side of the river and the newer, more industrialized part on the other side.
We moo
red on the old side of the town. Iwent into the old part of the town and up some very windy and steep streets to the top of the hill. A lot of the old houses on these steep roads are being renovated and modernised. There is no way a car could get up there – strictly pedestrians or bikes (bikes might also be a difficult). They are keeping the exterior of the houses fairly untouched but the interiors are ultra-modern with all the fittings and trims. At the top of the hill is the town square with the large church dominating everything around it. This church dates back to the 9th century – it is lovely and still functions. The age of these buildings never ceases to amaze me. Coming from Southern Africa where there are no old buildings, I find it awesome that something built in the 9th century is still standing and functional.
We found a little pub alongside the canal that was owned by a French guy, Michel and his English partner, Yvonne. She was lovely and very friendly – she was the one who asked if we wanted good old Brit sized glasses. Yvonne gave us this postcard that shows the pub – circled in red!
Total milage to date is 186 kms. We are on time and have some to spare according to the schedule. Steve is very pleased with our progress. We have done one third of the trip in 8 days including our rest day.
Some more observations:
* There is really good toilet paper in France – it is thick and you only need 2 squares!
* Everything is so clean
* Even in big towns you don’t see trash or litter in the streets, rivers or canals. To date I think I have seen about half a dozen plastic bottles in the canals and these probably come from other boats. The towns and villages look swept and scrubbed.
* The air is clean – even with the heat and sweat our clothes don’t get dirty around the neck!
* A young student at one of the locks popped a beer cap and he bent down, picked it up and put it in his pocket – without even thinking about it.
* The houses are old with gray, sandy coloured plaster. The shutters are painted pink, purple, rose pink, lilac or bright blue.
* There are flower boxes and baskets everywhere. Even in small villages there is care and concern about how the place looks.
* For lunch I have a main meal of whatever and always try to start with a salad vert. The salad is usually a bowl of different lettuce leaves smothered with a really nice salad dressing. The dressings all taste different and very tasty.
* I love the fromage blanc – it is like a cross between yogurt and cream cheese. It is sometimes lumpy – and very very creamy. It is really yummy and you can sprinkle it with sugar and/or spices like cinnamon.
* I like to drink Kir. It is made with a small dash of Cassis (a raspberry liqueur) and dry white wine.
* The weather report for the past 2 days has threatened us with thunderstorms…ho hum. It is now 16h15 and the temperature is 34 degrees in the shade. No wind. Hot as hell and am getting browner by the minute. I haven’t looked this tanned since I was a teenager.
To go back to Yvonne and Michel – the owners of the pub. Yvonne is a bit like that woman in the Brit movie who leaves her family and goes off to Greece. Yvonne and her beau Michel bought the pub about 18 months ago. She is a real English gal of about 50. Michel is French and has an enormous mustache. He appears to hate a lot of things and has quite a few missing teeth – he is quite a nice guy with a very dry sense of humour. They have a very well behaved miniature sausage dog.
Steve rigged his fishing rod – the one he bought in Clamercy – to try a bit of fishing. There are heaps of people fishing on the canals and rivers so we figured there must be something worthwhile catching. No sooner had Steve put the hook in the water then he caught a fish. Pretty revolting it was – a small yellow slimy cat fish type thing with very bony fins on its back. Steve got a nasty cut from this and had to hold the little devil with a plastic bag and used pliers to take the hook out. But, the most interesting thing was when I was feeding the ducks, there was swirling under some of the ducks and it was these cat fish…..they happily settled under the ducks and took advantage of the bread crumbs. The ducks didn’t seem to mind – and there must have been a couple of dozen fish swimming and swirling under them just below the surfact. Some sort of symbiotic relationship perhaps? We were to see this quite often – not only with ducks – if I threw scraps of bread overboard they would start coming to the surface and would form a tight circle on the surface made up of dozens of fish. They were quite smelly and I was pleased when Steve decided, after a couple of days of catching them, to pack away the rod.
We are off to Decize tomorrow but I am really looking forward to Nevers – it is the home of pottery in France and we should have a bit of time to do some exploring. So far we have been quite rushed so I am looking forward to this.
It has been a super day and as Bill would say – this sort of trip is “enforced idleness”.
Some stats for the record:
From Migennes to Decize it is 208 kms and there are 122 locks.
From Tannay to Decize it is 99 kms and 72 locks.
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