Sunday 8th July 2007
Day's progress: 23kms, 10 locks
This was our first day on the water and I think we managed exceptionally well. Steve had instruction on the boat the day before but as he is an old hand at barging and ca
nals he really only had to know how the boat worked. Bill and I were the novices but by the end of the day we were old hands. We leapt about the boat like middle aged spring chickens, throwing ropes, climbing up slimy ladders, which were quite scary, hanging on to ropes to stabilize the boat in the lock and generally having quite a bit of fun. Bill was the one who did most of the leaping up ladders – I gave a lot of encouragement from the deck. The route Steve plotted for us was to go South first, down through Decize and then head north, then south again at Montereau where I have an elderly uncle, then back to where we started from. Migennes was about a third of the way down on southward trip.
We were traveling up river – this first part of the journey was on the River Yonne. We went through 10 loc
ks this first day and going “up” certainly required a bit more work than the “down” locks. Each lock (ecluse) is numbered according to the river or canal. The river and canal charts have all this detail so it is fairly easy to plot ones course and know when and where to stop. There is a speed limit for pleasure boats and barges – the maximum is 8kmh – so the pace is quite leisurely and 23km in one day was quite an achievement. The locks only open at 9 in the morning and as with most things in France there is a complete shut down of everything for lunch between 12 and 1. Because we were there in July and August and it only got dark at about 10, the locks closed at 7 in the evening. This did however require that we plotted our course every day so that we had a nice place to stop for lunch and decent mooring at night, preferably with electricity and water for us to charge the batteries and have lots of water for the showers.
I think there was a competition on for the prettiest lock and lock keeper house. There were tubs of flowers and a very abundant supply of garden ornaments of all shapes and sizes. The flowers were very colorful and there were some really colorful lock keepers as well. One of the lock keepers (eclusier) was a jolly fellow dressed in skimpy shorts and a string vest t
hat barely covered his ample tummy had the best lock that day - he had a good selection of garden ornaments including a startling white life size lamb at the entrance to the lock. We were traveling at that time with a couple of other boats and this delightful lock keeper rushed off whilst the lock was filling and gathered up bunches of herbs from his garden which he charmingly presented to a lady on each of the boats. The herbs were lavender, Citronelle and bergamot – I put them in the water carafe and they lasted a good 3 weeks. They made a lovely centerpiece for our table.
We stopped at a tiny village called Gurgy for lunch – it was a pretty, pretty place. Boxes of flowers everywhere and everything was spotless and well maintained. The one and only restaurant was located in what seemed to be a converted church hall, hig
h ceilings and old wooden floors and doors. They served fantastic food and whilst I only had cold meats and salad there was enough to feed at least 3 people. They gave me a slab of roast beef and pork – delicious and lovely fresh veg salad. I am already getting the feeling that I will definitely over eat on this trip – I guess the secret will be to do lots of exercise like riding my bike alongside the canal, walking between locks and helping the lock keeper operate the large winches that open and close the lock doors. Hmmmm. Steve and Bill got stuck into a guinea fowl type dish that looked delicious – all washed down with lovely bread and wine and super cheeses for pud.
Back on board and we headed off for our evening mooring at Auxerre. We went through one huge lock that was not quite as automated as the others. The lockkeeper had to open the valves that allow the water into lock with a series of levers. He did a wonderful little dance flicking up the levers with his feet and jumping from one to another (there were 3 levers) until the valves were fully open – it was great to watch!
When we arrived in Auxerre it was packed – there were hundreds of c
amper vehicles buy the river and boats are barges were sometimes 3 or 4 deep on the moorings. We moored up to another boat. It had started to Rain at that stage and we scrambled over 2 boats to get to shore to do a bit of exploring. Auxerre is an old and important town and 3 enormous cathedrals dominate one side of the town. One of the cathedrals dates back to the 9th century and the others are not much younger. We walked around the old town a bit but we were tired and it was wet and there were heaps of people all over the place – we were quite worried and wondered if this was what the entire trip would be like. We decided not to sit under wet dripping umbrellas for dinner and went back to the boat. I knocked up a quick meal of country pate (store bought), bread, cheese, ham and salad. And wine of course.
Another night of sleeping like a baby – didn’t hear the rain at all.
nals he really only had to know how the boat worked. Bill and I were the novices but by the end of the day we were old hands. We leapt about the boat like middle aged spring chickens, throwing ropes, climbing up slimy ladders, which were quite scary, hanging on to ropes to stabilize the boat in the lock and generally having quite a bit of fun. Bill was the one who did most of the leaping up ladders – I gave a lot of encouragement from the deck. The route Steve plotted for us was to go South first, down through Decize and then head north, then south again at Montereau where I have an elderly uncle, then back to where we started from. Migennes was about a third of the way down on southward trip.We were traveling up river – this first part of the journey was on the River Yonne. We went through 10 loc
ks this first day and going “up” certainly required a bit more work than the “down” locks. Each lock (ecluse) is numbered according to the river or canal. The river and canal charts have all this detail so it is fairly easy to plot ones course and know when and where to stop. There is a speed limit for pleasure boats and barges – the maximum is 8kmh – so the pace is quite leisurely and 23km in one day was quite an achievement. The locks only open at 9 in the morning and as with most things in France there is a complete shut down of everything for lunch between 12 and 1. Because we were there in July and August and it only got dark at about 10, the locks closed at 7 in the evening. This did however require that we plotted our course every day so that we had a nice place to stop for lunch and decent mooring at night, preferably with electricity and water for us to charge the batteries and have lots of water for the showers.I think there was a competition on for the prettiest lock and lock keeper house. There were tubs of flowers and a very abundant supply of garden ornaments of all shapes and sizes. The flowers were very colorful and there were some really colorful lock keepers as well. One of the lock keepers (eclusier) was a jolly fellow dressed in skimpy shorts and a string vest t
hat barely covered his ample tummy had the best lock that day - he had a good selection of garden ornaments including a startling white life size lamb at the entrance to the lock. We were traveling at that time with a couple of other boats and this delightful lock keeper rushed off whilst the lock was filling and gathered up bunches of herbs from his garden which he charmingly presented to a lady on each of the boats. The herbs were lavender, Citronelle and bergamot – I put them in the water carafe and they lasted a good 3 weeks. They made a lovely centerpiece for our table.We stopped at a tiny village called Gurgy for lunch – it was a pretty, pretty place. Boxes of flowers everywhere and everything was spotless and well maintained. The one and only restaurant was located in what seemed to be a converted church hall, hig
h ceilings and old wooden floors and doors. They served fantastic food and whilst I only had cold meats and salad there was enough to feed at least 3 people. They gave me a slab of roast beef and pork – delicious and lovely fresh veg salad. I am already getting the feeling that I will definitely over eat on this trip – I guess the secret will be to do lots of exercise like riding my bike alongside the canal, walking between locks and helping the lock keeper operate the large winches that open and close the lock doors. Hmmmm. Steve and Bill got stuck into a guinea fowl type dish that looked delicious – all washed down with lovely bread and wine and super cheeses for pud.Back on board and we headed off for our evening mooring at Auxerre. We went through one huge lock that was not quite as automated as the others. The lockkeeper had to open the valves that allow the water into lock with a series of levers. He did a wonderful little dance flicking up the levers with his feet and jumping from one to another (there were 3 levers) until the valves were fully open – it was great to watch!
When we arrived in Auxerre it was packed – there were hundreds of c
amper vehicles buy the river and boats are barges were sometimes 3 or 4 deep on the moorings. We moored up to another boat. It had started to Rain at that stage and we scrambled over 2 boats to get to shore to do a bit of exploring. Auxerre is an old and important town and 3 enormous cathedrals dominate one side of the town. One of the cathedrals dates back to the 9th century and the others are not much younger. We walked around the old town a bit but we were tired and it was wet and there were heaps of people all over the place – we were quite worried and wondered if this was what the entire trip would be like. We decided not to sit under wet dripping umbrellas for dinner and went back to the boat. I knocked up a quick meal of country pate (store bought), bread, cheese, ham and salad. And wine of course.Another night of sleeping like a baby – didn’t hear the rain at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment