Sudden bereavement: 25th July 2008

Our lovely Roger (of the removable leg) died in his sleep last night. Our sense of loss and devastation has been out of all proportion to the brief time we have known Roger and Chris off the barge Liberté . We met Roger and Chris when by chance we were moored with only Brian and Liz’ boat, de Laak, between us when Erewhon was put on the marina at St Jean de Losne at the end of April. That was such a great piece of luck for us. Both Brian and Liz and Roger and Chris, who are old hands at canal boating, took us greenhorns very easily into their ‘boating family’ as though we had always belonged. We have never underestimated our good fortune.

Roger , a Yorkshireman in every respect, was a detective for about 25 years and seemingly never became cynical or hard hearted.. He had, what we subsequently learned, was a typical Yorkshire sense of humour and we gloried in it. He did much more for us than we ever did for him. Catherine did accompany him on a couple of shopping trips - once when he wanted to buy a new pump for his boat and once to buy decking glue - to make sure he was getting what he wanted. His French speaking skills couldn’t cope with the technical language. (Mind you, C had to check a few terms in her dictionary as well!)

We had a leaking tap in one of the bathrooms. It was a dog of a thing to work on: almost inaccessible and the spanners wouldn’t fit into the confined space. We had several goes at it and in the end did the girlie thing and put a drip tray under it. After all it was an intermittent leak! The day before we left for the south of France, for no reason, the drip turned into something a lot more serious, about a litre a day. We knew the drip tray would be inadequate while we were away so we turned off the water pump, emptied the pipes and left for Nice knowing we would have to deal with it when we got back. Indeed when we got back we contorted ourselves and used all our strength in failed attempts to undo what we believed to be the offending connection. Enter Roger, who assured us such problems were mechanical not physical. We gladly relinquished this problem to one so knowledgeable. Many hours and a lot of exclamations later, Roger disentangled himself from the bowels of our hand basin with the problem solved, permanently as we now know. When Jeanette said to him, ‘was it mechanical or physical?’ He responded ‘it required brute strength and ignorance’. “oh well’, said Jeanette, ‘no wonder Catherine and I couldn’t solve the problem!’
True to his Yorkshire humour, Roger just gave a rueful grin. He knew we were just joking but he also knew it was too good an opening not to respond to!

Earlier we recounted how it took us five days to do the one and a half day journey from St Jean de Losne to Dijon. Such is the network of friendship we enjoy, that everyone knew Catherine had been laid low with a bad back. On our final run into Dijon, we had stopped for a lunch break on the side of the canal. (locks close between noon and 1pm) As it happened, Roger was driving to Dijon to pick up a friend from the railway station, he saw our boat, did a u-turn and came back to check we were ok, which we were. We gave him a cuppa, and had a good old natter, it was ssooo good to see him. Jeanette mentioned that the head had fallen off the mallet when Catherine was driving in a spike when we moored up for lunch. This long suffering friend took the offending mallet and a hammer and put it all together for us. Jeanette promised him that the next time she saw him she WOULD NOT tell him our problems otherwise he would avoid coming to see us. Roger accidentally left his packet of smokes on our boat. We put them safely on our bookshelf ready to return to him. We exchanged text messages en route over the following weeks and had a good idea where each other was.

Unbelievably now, we cannot have that chat and tell him about a problem we need help with, (even though we promised not to) and we cannot give him back his forgotten smokes. It is hard to comprehend that the death of someone we knew for such a short time has had such an impact on us. Roger was a gentleman and friend it was a true privilege to know. Our hearts go out to Chris. To have to cope with a sudden death on a canal in a foreign country would be extremely difficult and it is going to be at least a day before close family can be with Chris, we know her son is on his way.

Kia kaha, Chris.

Roger and Chis enjoying a drink with Jeanette in Dole (where they took us on a shopping mission)

Evening in Auxerre

We have had many, many beautiful evenings on our journey up the Bourgogne Canal, onto the Yonne River and now we are at Auxerre and the beginning of the Nivernais Canal . We left Gurgy this morning and had very nice weather all day but this evening is an absolute stunner and it is hard to imagine how it could be improved upon. We are anchored at the port on the opposite side of the canal to the main part of the city. We look across about 50 metres of placid, glassy calm water to very pretty city lights and many beautiful old buildings all with perfect reflections. It makes one wish for a sophisticated camera and the skill to catch the essence of a sight that seems too good to be true. The sky has gradually faded from the bright blue of daytime to a soft misty pale yellow tinged with orange and looks simply wonderful. It is 10pm and although it is dark enough to appreciate the lights, it is still light enough to identify landmarks very clearly. The faithful in Auxerre are very well served with impressive places to worship, we can see three of them without moving from the boat, all old, large and beautifully lit up. You can’t help but be reminded a little of Paris, but this vision seems softer and kinder somehow, probably because Auxerre is a smaller city and much, much quieter, lacking some of the harsh and strident elements of the capital. It is at times like these one could easily believe there is only beauty in the world. If only…
Jeanette

A typical Sunday: 20 July

It is sometimes a struggle to remember what day of the week it is and we have taken to having a special Sunday lunch as a ‘pointer’ for the week. Yesterday was very typical of a Sunday. It started off a little cooler than usual so we were late rising and having breakfast. We then set off on our bikes to the neighbouring village of Appoigny (5km away) as they have a market on Sunday mornings. The ride there was especially pleasant, the sun was shining, the road nearly flat and of course we were enjoying our new bikes. The market was small, not surprising as the village is small, but the produce was very good. We bought green beans, courgettes and cabbage that had obviously been picked that morning, shallots, and some goat’s cheese for Catherine. We also bought a lovely chicken from the butcher and a loaf of bread from the baker. Yes, they are open on a Sunday morning (but don’t count on them on a Monday!). We saw one man coming out of the bakers with an arm load of at least seven baguettes; he said he had a large family! We had a cycle around the village, very pretty with lots of colourful civic planting and well cared for houses with impressive flower and vegetable gardens. Of course the large church was seemingly out of all proportion to the size of the village.

We cycled back to the boat and while Jeanette cooked roast chicken dinner, Catherine continued her queenly duties with mastic gun and paint brush. (As I have mentioned previously, Catherine is Queen of the mastic gun and paint brush) The main course was delicious (the gas oven is a dream to use despite its complete lack of temperature markings) the cheese board and baguette that followed most enjoyable and all accompanied with a delicious dry and cheap Italian riesling. (As a rule we are paying between 2 and 3 euros - that's roughly $4-6 - for a very drinkable bottle of wine. We pay more for white than red and have found perfectly quaffable wines for under 2 euros!) A post prandial rest was required with a read of the current novel before doing a few more little jobs around the boat and then heading off for another bike ride up the track by the river to the next village, Monteneau, which we will sail through tomorrow on our way to Auxerre. We were only just hungry enough when we got back at 8pm to have a snack. It doesn’t get dark at the moment until after 10pm, so after dishes and a few more jobs we played cards until we felt it was a respectable time to go to bed.

Jeanette (and Catherine)

Things that keep us busy

As you know, we bought a 20 year old ex hire boat that had had a new 50 hp motor installed in 2004. The hull is very strong and in good shape. It was built in the days when the makers didn’t realise the fibre glass could be a lot thinner and so our hull is a lot thicker than boats made now. Not surprisingly, hire boats, as much as possible, are made idiot proof because it is company practice to advertise ‘no experience necessary, we will instruct you all you need to know’ ! So while the hull and motor are OK, the rest of the boat is in need of quite a bit of TLC and we are on a rapid learning curve to redecorate and stop leaks. Don’t be alarmed at this, we are confident that we can gradually see to the ongoing maintenance issues and redecorate the boat to ‘make it ours’. We are really enjoying the challenges and love Erewhon more each day (although we are both still coming to terms with the name). Of course we look at other boats with interest (and sometimes with a degree of envy) but anything better than ours is also a lot more expensive so we are satisfied we have got value for money... and we have also learned that ALL boats have problems, no matter how much they cost. Day to day living is comfortable but we know we can still improve things quite a lot.

Hire boats are built with a 10 year commercial return in mind. The result of this is, many of the fittings are constructed with this mindset so they are not particularly robust. I suppose some people who hired the boat were not very careful with eg formica bench tops etc. There are enough signs to indicate some people have been very rough indeed. Tidying those things up is harder to do without spending more money than the boat is worth. Add to this a few persistent leaks over the past 20 years on to laminated plywood that seemingly is screwed or nailed into thin air and you begin to get more of an idea of the tasks ahead. Some of the leaks must have gone on for a long time undetected in remote corners as the plywood has in places delaminated and pretty much crumbled. We have been very lucky because the former owners of the boat left a wide range of tools for us which has been wonderful. Fortunately fibreglass isn’t affected when windows leak and I guess the water ended up in the bilges and was automatically pumped out.

We have been told ‘Your boat is a simple boat, do not be afraid to take things apart and have a go at fixing things yourself’ We have become bolder and I guess it is not surprising that our efforts so far have been more successful sometimes than others but we are getting better very quickly. Often it is a 2 steps forward and 1 step backward kind of progress, especially in relation to leaks We have been reliably informed that windows in boats will remain leak free for 7 years at the most. It is likely that we will arrange for all our windows to be removed and resealed over winter. In the meantime, Catherine has become the Queen of the mastic gun and is making a difference. The leaks are smaller now and easily manageable. Jeanette has had a couple of goes at removing deck blemishes with the fibre glass repair kit with some success.

Catherine has an almost pathological dislike of an over-abundance of 1980s brown in any dwelling. There is a lot of laminated plywood stained dark brown (pretending to be teak I think) and the two bathrooms were lined with brown floor vinyl. Catherine is well on her way to eliminating as much of the brown as possible. Using her French language skills, she was able to locate a primer paint to paint on the slightly roughened vinyl to provide a suitable painting surface. The bathrooms are now gleaming white with French navy blue trim. It was a mammoth effort, there were strict time lines to follow regarding the timing of the three layers of paint and the space excruciatingly confined to work in. As I write she is applying a second coat of paint to the spare cabin which up till now has looked a bit like the black hole of Calcutta, well the brown hole, anyway… Very drab indeed. The new paint has brightened the room immensely and we are much happier for guests to sleep there now!


We bought a remnant of carpet for 45 euros and cut it to fit the main saloon the floor of which was - yes you guessed it - covered in brown vinyl. . To stop the edge fraying (we have to lift the carpet every time we do an engine check) Catherine used string to edge it with blanket stitch and we’ve backed the edges with good strong tape . We also bought some outdoor carpet for the cockpit area which we are very pleased with. It’s green but doesn’t look like it’s pretending to be grass.

Earlier we mentioned a fair amount of time is taken up with supermarket shopping and socialising. Texting is a good way to keep up with new friends discovering where they are and giving each other hints on what not to miss as you sail by. We bought a jar of berry jam from a lock keeper and didn’t find out for three days it was the best jam we had ever tasted and it only cost 2.5 euros. Mark, (he and Jocelyn were with us at the time) was going to cycle the 16 kms each way to buy several more jars but the wind and rain set in and not surprisingly he decided against it in the end. We have let those following in our wake know that the jam at that lock is jolly good stuff. Cycling has just become impossible for us, some b****** stole our bikes the other night. They were locked and the thief must have used bolt cutters. They were right next to the boat so it was surprising that we didn’t hear anything at all. We will replace them at some stage when we find suitable ones and will have to actually have them locked and on the boat. Up till now they have been safe locked to eg a fence next to the boat. That is about a $600 expense we weren’t counting on but maybe our travel insurance will help out a bit. The process of reporting the theft to the Gendarmerie Nationale kept Catherine busy for an entire morning; just as well Jeanette didn’t go too as it would have been a waste of a perfect morning for getting the clothes washed and dried.

You mustn’t get the idea this is all work and no play. Indeed no. At the moment we are in Tonnerre, the weather is dodgy and there are no fees for mooring, electricity and water (10 euros a night in Dijon) . It is a good time to do some maintenance and very close to the railway station, handy for Mark and Jocelyn to leave us and catch the night train to Rome for the next part of their journey. Then of course with Bastille Day tomorrow there will be a lot of entertainment and fireworks for most of the night tonight and there will be no locks open tomorrow as it is a national holiday.

Our days vary according to where we are, what the local attractions might be, what the weather is like etc etc. We only go into a port (especially a paying one) when we need water and/or electricity. Normally there is a charge for that but at Tonnerre, it is free for 21 days, the view is taken that while you are in port you are spending money in the local shops (and we are certainly doing that) which more than offsets the waived charge for water and electricity. Most of the time we ‘park up’ on a nice, hopefully shady side of the canal. (locks are closed from 7pm till 9am and from noon till 1pm) Very often we do anything strenuous first thing in the morning to avoid the real heat in the afternoon and evening. We might cycle (when we have bikes) or walk (if it is very hilly)to a point of interest sometimes before breakfast and just have brunch later ready to be at the lock at 1pm. Then we might motor until we found the next point of interest. We tramped up a steep hill to see a large statue of Mary and baby Jesus which was on top of a medieval chapel. We cycled to see the Abby at Fontenay which is absolutely stunning and saw a reproduction of the hydraulic hammer which was invented there. Such a cunning and yet simple device which men working in the forge would have been thankful for. The bikes have been handy too when we’ve needed food supplies and there was nothing close to the canal.. We are never bored, the days are not long enough and of course when the motoring is over for the day, we can sit in the comfy chairs, in the cool of the cockpit, and sample yet another French wine which cost a fraction of what they cost back home. Mmmm

Update (Monday 21st July) : Now in Gurgy on our way to Auxerre tomorrow While we were in Migennes, we visited a very good bicycle shop and bought two new bikes to replace the stolen ones. We had bought one for Catherine while we were in St John de Losne - a cheapie from the supermarket, which was ok but not great either. Jeanette’s was an old bike (a Healing Cruiser) that came with the boat and was on its last legs anyway. Both bikes were adequate for our needs and we were disappointed when they were stolen. Our new bikes are more expensive. They are both the same model: a Gitane 1930, they are black, upright and have a carrier on the back and a basket on the front. If you think about what women rode in French war movies, you’ll have some idea what they look like. But they are light and easily taken on and off the boat and best of all they are an utter joy to ride!

Jeanette

Visitors

We have just farewelled my brother, Mark, and his partner, Jocelyn, our first visitors on Erewhon, albeit for the second time. They have been touring France, Italy and Spain since mid-April and had spent a few days with us in the port at St Jean de Losne before we were on the move. They have just spent another week with us - this time on the Canal de Bourgogne between Montbard and Tonnerre.

Because of the nearness of the railway station to the canal, we had arranged to meet them in Montbard on the 2nd of July. We arrived a day early so we could do washing and a general tidy-up, as well as get supplies on board before they joined us. We got the washing done and dropped into the Tourist Information Office to get a map of the town and information about supermarkets and internet connections, only to find Mark and Jocelyn coming out to meet us! They’d also arrived a day early and had been getting information about hotels because the nearby Hotel de la Gare didn’t open until late in the afternoon… most fortuitous as they were able to swap a hotel room for the much cheaper option of a bed on the boat.

We only stayed the one night in Montbard - partly because of the stated mooring costs (8 euros a night for a 2-person boat; 15 euros for a larger one) which would have been the most expensive so far, except that no-one ever came to collect it, partly because of the grain depot next to the port, which operated noisily and dustily at all hours of the day and evening, and partly because of the proximity to the railway lines, which was an advantage for the pick-up but not when it came to sleeping! While Mark and Jocelyn had a recovery and email catch-up day, Jeanette and I cycled the 6km each way to the magnificent Abbey at Fontenay, a very-well restored 12th century Cistercian monastery, which has UNESCO World Heritage status. Both the ride and the visit were fabulous.

During the next week, I think Mark and Jocelyn got a pretty good taste of different aspects of life on the canal. We experienced almost the full range of weather, sometimes within the space of one day, from blazing heat and humidity, through spectacular thunderstorms, wind and rain, to gentle overcast and/or sunny times. (The photos below were taken one evening over the course of just 90 minutes). We had one full day when we didn’t navigate because of the rain but we covered a total of about 60 km in the week, which seems about average based on our limited experience. They met a wide range of lockkeepers from the aging Dutchman selling the most fabulous jam imaginable (how we wish we’d bought more than one jar!) to the ditziest pair of young girls wearing clothing and hair that looked in danger of getting tangled in the lock mechanisms at any moment. We walked and cycled through a variety of villages - small and smaller - each with its own church and usually a chateau within spitting distance as well. We sampled the wares of many a bakery, Mark having made it his own personal mission to find fresh bread for us each morning (and preferably good stuff as well!) and, despite dire warnings from several boaties about the lack of places to buy groceries, found enough to keep us fed and watered for the week without any difficulty, although we did probably push the fridge to the limit of its capacity at times.

It has been a joy for us to have “crew” on the boat. Mark learned the ropes (literally) and mastered the different parts of assisting with the operation of the locks, which made coming into moorings much easier and ensured a speedier transition through those locks with only one person on duty. It also tends to ensure a good reception from the lockkeepers as it results in quite a bit less work for them. Jocelyn took over galley duties for most of the time, which meant that we had the luxury of stopping navigating at lunchtime and sitting straight down to a beautifully prepared meal. Their shopping expeditions also brought more variety into our eating and drinking as they brought back their discoveries to share with us - some of those will become part of our standard stocks from now on.

They left us yesterday to travel by train via Dijon to Naples and Rome (and then home by the end of next week). It has taken us almost exactly 4 weeks to travel by canal from Dijon to Tonnerre. The return trip was to have taken Mark and Jocelyn exactly an hour yesterday. Little wonder then, that our sense of time, space and pace is changing - and I already sense a strong resistance to changing back to what is considered the norms.

Catherine

Our first tunnel!

This message is written from Pouilly-en-Auxois, at the ‘top’ of the canal Bourgogne and we are looking forward to ‘locking down’ (going downhill) for a while - when we get going again.. From our experience three years ago we expect this will be easier. To get to Pouilly we passed through lock number one, (locks number away from the high point of the canal and we started at number 76 at St Jean de Losne) then through a 3.33 km tunnel just wide enough for one boat. This means entry and exit is carefully controlled to make sure only boats going in the same direction are in the tunnel at the same time. It is quite a process to go through but it costs nothing as the annual inland waterways navigation fee covers the cost. Canal staff check that you are wearing lifejackets and that you have a suitable fixed light. You are supposed to have a fire extinguisher, which we did but it wasn’t sighted by the staff. You are given a special two-way radio to use in case of emergency, you sign a piece of paper and off you go!

Sensibly, you go a fair distance above ground through a canal as narrow as the tunnel so you can ‘get your eye in’. The tunnel is absolutely straight and as you enter it, if there isn’t another boat in front of you, apparently you can see a tiny pinpoint of light in the distance. We had a boat in front of us so we couldn’t tell but as we were getting close to the end of the tunnel we could look back and only just see light at the other end. There is a row of lights down the centre of the tunnel which give good light - a relatively recent and most welcome addition. Your light is for use if the other lights fail, which is a distinct possibility in this season of electrical storms. While it isn’t difficult to steer a straight line in such a narrow space, it is surprising how much you have to pay attention to keeping to the straight and narrow. Catherine tested the acoustics with her singing and didn’t find them all that great, unlike a lovely Romanesque church we were in the other day which had fantastic acoustics.

As you leave the tunnel and come into the port, you pass a small, modern museum which exhibits the history of the tunnel as well as the electric cable tugboat that was once used to haul barges through the tunnel. The museum was a bit of a disappointment in terms of the information and how it was presented. It all looked beautiful but at the end of the visit we had to ask when the first boat actually passed through the tunnel. The staff were able to provide the answer but you might have thought it would be obvious from the displays - or at least included! There also wasn’t a lot of information provided about the construction of the tunnel, which must have been a major feat of engineering for its time. We did find out that it took 7 years to build (from 1825 to 1832) and that they dug shafts down at regular intervals to assist with construction and kept about a dozen of them open for ventilation purposes. We noticed these as we came through. Legend has it that some 200 workers lost their lives during construction and that their bodies remain behind the masonry. Historical records don’t seem to confirm or deny…
To begin with, the barges were hauled through the tunnel by manpower alone - a team of six men would take up to 10 hours to pull a barge through. Next they introduces a steam-powered chain tug, which worked on more or less the same principle as a cable car but they hadn’t left enough of the shafts open to provide enough ventilation for this option and t least one sailor was asphyxiated by the smoke. It was replaced by a model with an enclosed boiler and then by an electric model, which reduced the journey time to 40 minutes - about the same time it took us to get from one end to the other!

Have you ever wondered how you can have a canal and locks at the top of a range of hills? Where does the water come from? In this case, the construction engineers also had to create a series of reservoirs with a total capacity of 30 million cubic metres. The region benefits as it has some six artificial lakes which are also used for recreational purposes and the water is fed into the main canal by means of a series of smaller “feeder” or “filler” canals. Even so, there are times in summer when traffic on the canal is restricted due to a lack of water.

The whole tunnel experience has been an enjoyable buzz for us, quite different to anything else we have done so far.

Jeanette

Locks (ecluses)

Maisons d’ecluse are the houses built at the locks; male lockkeepers are called eclusiers and female lockkeepers are eclusieres. This afternoon (Sunday 22nd June) we have just passed through our 56th ecluse and will spend the night here at Pont d’Ouche. The Canal de Bourgogne (Burgundy Canal) seems to have more locks than most - averaging around one every kilometre, which can make progress quite slow. Although there are many, many more locks still to navigate through we have begun to form some opinions and ideas about them. Time will tell how valid these are…

In the past there was a lot more commercial traffic on the canals and every maison d’ecluse had a resident eclusier. These days one eclusier may operate three or four consecutive locks. They ‘put you through’ a lock and then whiz off on motor scooters to do the same thing at the next lock. They have quite a bit of planning and organising to do because they have boats travelling in both directions throughout the day. Different lock keepers have slightly different techniques, some of which are designed to speed up the process but which can make the entry and tying up at locks more difficult for those of us on canal boats.

So far all our locks have involved ‘locking up’ as we are essentially going uphill. This means we enter an empty lock, the gates are closed behind us, water is let in from in front of us by lifting paddles that are set into the lock gates and when the level in the lock is the same level as the part of the canal we are moving on to, the gates are opened and we motor out. It sounds easy but it is always that straight forward. There has been a lot of rain and the level of the water in the canals is running unusually high. The lockkeepers are obliged to leave an empty lock with the paddles slightly open to avoid a waterfall forming over the lock gates at the ‘far end’ of the lock. This means you are motoring in, quite slowly, into turbulent water coming into the lock at an angle. It pushes you off line and at slow speed it is very hard to maintain adequate steerage. Then you have the occasional lockkeeper who open the paddles even more because that makes it easier and quicker for him to close the gates behind - the speed of the water rushing through the lock means that less effort is needed to push the long handles that close the locks. While this is going on the boatie is trying to manoeuvre the boat to the side of the lock to get bow and stern lines around bollards that are, so far, nearly three metres above you. There could well be another boat in the lock with you so at those times there are two boats bobbing about attempting to get secured. If you are unlucky the lockkeeper may decide to fully open the paddles as soon as s/he is ready whether or not the boats are properly tied up. At one particularly difficult lock this morning, a lockkeeper started to open the gates and Catherine shouted at him (thank goodness she can speak French!) to please wait for us to tie up. He did thankfully and all was executed properly in the end.

Some of the lockkeepers are very considerate and do all they can to be helpful, others are very cursory. You certainly don’t count on them to help with the ropes - so few deign to that you have to wonder if there is a rule against it! Yesterday, we were going through a lock, the water was let in too soon making tying up more of a challenge than necessary, and I said to Catherine, “that’s what happens when the water is let in too soon“. I think the eclusier may have understood English because at the next lock he was particularly considerate and making the whole process very easy and yes, even reaching down to take our ropes.

There is no such thing as a ‘standard’ lockkeeper: there are male and female, young and old, fit and trim and not-quite-so-fit-and-trim, University students earning money in the summer holidays and permanent employees... One distinctive lockkeeper had blond /grey hair down to halfway between his shoulders and his chest, and even in the hot, humid weather was wearing several layers of clothing, including a long-sleeved jacket, long trousers, gloves and boots. It made us nearly expire from the heat just to look at him but he was one of the lovelies, who helped with the ropes, so he got the thumbs up from us! He is also the only lockkeeper we have met who eschewed the scooter for travel between locks in favour of a pushbike. In general, but not exclusively so, the females wear their helmets properly fastened when scooting from one lock to the next whereas the males often don’t strap their helmet on or don’t wear it at all.
The grounds of the maisons d’ecluse vary enormously and it‘s part of the fun of locking up to discover what awaits you at the top. Many are occupied by eclusiers but sadly quite a few are boarded up and are very neglected. Of the ones that are permanently lived in, there is a wide variety of external presentation which is always interesting. Some have amazing flower gardens to delight the eye and help pass the time. Some have ‘themes’ eg statuary, (Catherine wasn’t so impressed with gnomes and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.) Some have lovely outdoor areas for the family to enjoy (No fencing off of locks for the safety of children, parents are expected to keep them safe) . One of the lockkeepers (on his day off) was in the process of constructing a very low stone wall around his garden - a meticulous process and obviously a labour of love. Many of the houses have spotless windows and crisp lace curtains to afford some privacy from boaties gazing in. There seems generally to be a different approach to lawn mowing. Lawns are let to grow much longer than we are used to. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of closely clipped lawns I’ve seen in France. Large dogs are a feature of many of the inhabited ecluses, some of them are ‘pussy cats’ but others really look and sound as though they mean business.

Usually, but not always, there will be three bollards on the same side as the maison d’ecluse and two on the other side. We have a pair of binoculars on board so Catherine searches for these before we go into a lock so that I know which side to aim for. Of course it is not always that straight forward, there could suddenly be two on the side of the maison and three on the other side, or perhaps all you have is one bollard and a ladder. Often if you are the second of two boats in the lock there is only one bollard left and both bow and stern ropes have to be tied to it and that requires a slightly different approach to secure the boat. Yesterday we came across a couple of real doozies. Up till then, the bollards had been set into the concrete edging at the top of the lock, where you might expect them to be. We went into a couple of locks which seemed particularly short of bollards with none at all visible on one side. It turns out that they were there after all but had been set about two metres back from the side of the lock making them invisible from the boat until we had locked up halfway! Very useful!

I will read this at the end of our stay in France and see if I have changed my mind about any of the above - and to see what other surprises the lock designers of France may have thrown at us. There are sure to be quite a few.

Jeanette

Sunday lunch in the French countryside

Thanks to the connections of some of our new friends, we were invited to a ‘Sunday Lunch’ in the countryside just out of Dijon. Our offer to take a dessert was accepted and Catherine bravely decided to make a ‘Kiwi Pav’. I say bravely because the matching ingredients are hard to find and our gas oven lost all its temperature markings a long time ago. (The first pavlova C made was not quite good enough to take but fortunately two US teenagers on a nearby boa thought it was just great…’You guys are amazing!’ was their comment. Mind you we had given the kind and generous people on their boat hot scones for breakfast as well)

The two of us along with Francois and Judith from Silver Fern (the Aussie boat next door!) were picked up at the quayside at 11.30am on a grey and drizzly Sunday by Christian, our mutual boat insurance agent. We were whisked away into the verdant French countryside. Although there has been a lot of rain lately, there is no evidence of flooding, with everything being so flat, there is no catchment area as such to funnel water downstream with perhaps unfortunate consequences.

On arrival we had to ring a bell at the gated wall and wait to be admitted and greeted by our hosts, Marie-Jo and Therese, as well as to gain the approval of the family dog, a very French breed we had never seen before but which we admired very much. The house is more than three hundred years old and was originally three two-storey cottages. They have been joined together by the current owners to make an amazing maison which has been restored faithfully in the appropriate manner. This restoration has taken seventeen years so far and there are many more years of work to come to complete this most ambitious and delightful project. We were permitted the merest glimpse of a stunning garden and were told we could look at that later when the weather was expected to improve.

We were ushered into what we would call a living room with a selection of comfortable chairs in front of a huge log fire which was keeping the very large area, complete with the original stone floor, pleasantly warm. This space flowed into the dining area and the ‘authentic’ county kitchen was off that. Seven of us sat around chatted, ate nibbles and the five wine drinkers enjoyed two bottles of Tattinger which went down remarkably easily. The first course was a Salade Composé e with greens, seafood and grapefruit accompanied by a dressing of fromage blanc, chive and lemon, and, of course, an appropriate wine. The next course was escargots on tasty garlic bread followed by beef bourguignon and new potatoes, alos accompanied by some stunning Burgundy from the cellar. Then came the cheese board with many types of cheeses including a wonderful Roquefort… (and more wine!) Miam! Then of course the dessert which included the pavlova covered with kiwifruit and a small jug of raspberry coulis. This was followed by coffee, more drinks and the three French people present enjoyed a post prandial cigar.

The wander around the garden was a complete and utter joy. More than fifty variety of roses were flowering with gay abandon and were suitably shown off with a variety of other shrubs and flowers. The vegetable garden is just beginning to do its thing and the garden is bordered by a crystal clear, spring fed stream complete with an enticing swimming hole and trout which can be fished. We then were given a tour of the house and its many out buildings. As much as possible is being saved and used from the original structure - as well as from Marie-Jo and Therese’s families’ attics, from second-hand shops and from the rubbish dump. Everything ‘new’ is sympathetic to the historical nature of the house. There is plenty of room for the owners to spread out and use the rooms for their special interests, music, art and all manner of creative pursuits including an entertainment and computer room. We were invited to check our e-mail which was much appreciated. We sat back and viewed a slide show of the restoration progress to date. At the beginning there were many years of living in very difficult conditions.

When we went downstairs ready to return to our boats, we saw the table had been set and we were invited to sit down and eat supper. We all assured our hosts we could not eat a thing and were instructed to go back upstairs and watch a short movie. The next time we went downstairs it was 9pm and we were still expected to sit down and eat. With some embarrassment we had to say we were still full from lunch and couldn’t possibly eat a thing. Reluctantly our hosts let us go but not without a big armful of beautiful flowers from the garden which are making our boat smell quite lovely. It was well after 9.30pm by the time we got back to the quayside after a most memorable and thoroughly enjoyable day.

Jeanette