Category: France 2017

Spent our second night (and Martini Night!) on the Saône at a lovely “Nature mooring” (i.e. tied up to the bank) after a record 40 Km day. We only averaged about 16 Km/day on the Canal de Burgogne because of all the locks. Locks on the river are much less frequent, we went through only three all yesterday.

Speaking of locks we had a bit of excitement at the first lock the morning. We were waiting to ascend the lock while two boats were descending. I hopped off the boat and walked over to help/watch when I heard some yelling. The lead boat had tied off his bow line (NEVER fix a line in a lock) and, as the water level dropped the bow of the boat begin to lift out of the water. I yelled at the gentleman to cut the rope, I yelled knife in French and English but he was too confused to hear. As the water dropped and the bow lifted higher he pulled the alarm but the level continued to drop. Finally I got his wife’s attention and got her to run to their galley and get a knife. When he cut the rope, the front of the boat fell 4-5 feet to the water with a crash. No one was hurt but the lock had to be reset by a lock keeper (there was no lock keeper present – these are self-operated locks) so we had to wait a bit.

So we were read for a nice quite picnic lunch in Mantoche…

with swans!

After 17 days, 242 kilometers, 193 locks and a 3.3 kilometer long tunnel we have completed the Canal de Burgogne.  The canal connects the Seine watershed with the Saone river. We went up (and down) 300 meters (nearly 1000 feet).

We stopped briefly in St Jean-de-Losne (where the canal meets the Saone) for some much needed groceries (and another plant for the boat).

We are currently tied up at Mailly-le-Port on the Saone with one other boat (we helped them tie up in the rain). The Saone is a big river and we entered it in a stiff 20-30 km/hr wind which made the last couple of locks very exciting (good job at the helm Richard!).

The river portion of the trip is  different than the canals. You cannot tie up anywhere – it has to be at an official anchorage (no staking off anywhere you fell like) but there are a lot fewer locks so you can go much farther in a day.  The river is much wider than the canal so it is possible to overtake especially slow boats. This is our first day on the Saone so we will have more to day later.

Sad to see Jackie, David and Emory leave but Richard is with us! Jackie and David had a little trouble getting to the train station because there was a fair going on at the marina ….. with rides!!! And Emory wasn’t about to pass a merry-go-round without riding it. Three times.

And Richard Wylie showed up so we didn’t have time to get sad.

Had our first real lock hiccup in Plombieres-les-Dijon after lunch…. no lock keeper. Finally called the posted number…”Parley-vous angles?”…”Non”… okay… explained that we were waiting at lock 50 and “il n’y a pas d’ecluisier..”. Waited for about an hour and they finally showed. After 171 locks this was our first real wait. And it was a Sunday, as a couple of elderly women watching at the lock explained to me.

Busy “rest” day. Started with two trips (on foot) to the “Super U” supermarche for all kinds of stuff for the boat and us. On the way back from the second trip, stopped at a garden center, which, yes, sells wine. No umbrella though. Then a road trip of about 8 Km round trip (on crappy rental bikes) to get an umbrella for the boat that we can move around (the two on the boat are fixed) so there is some shade at the helm in the middle of the day.

Stopped at a regional specialties store on the way back for some Burgundian wine, jam and cassis. AND stopped at a little tobac in town for a ceramic butter dish (we spotted the night before).

Then a light lunch before… hopping back on the bikes for a 10 km round trip to an old Abby in Chailly-sur-Armacon, which looked interesting but turned out to be a high-end hotel and golf resort. Did I mention the bikes were crappy? Cool building though. But it was uphill both ways. And into the wind.

On the way back we stopped in the Super U for the third time today (same grim cashier who finally cracked a smile on seeing us yet again!) and then to the marina office to start doing some last minute laundry (on the slowest washing machine in existance – 2 hours per load).

We can hardly wait to get moving again. This “resting” is killing us!

Another BIG lock day – 26 locks and 30 Km. We have done 55 locks in two days which is more than we did the entire first week. This puts us at the top the Canal de Burgogne – next is a 3 Km long tunnel to get to the other side of the plateau as we head down toward Dijon.

Highlights from today –

• The lock keeper with  3 year old and a 4 year old helpers – tres cute.
• Attempting to leave the second to last lock, we realized the boat wouldn’t move! A line had fallen off the back and wedged in the now-closed downstream doors. Oops. Fortunately the nice lock lady cycled the lock to free us.
• Lots of cute lock dogs.
• Roberta had a good day on the lines. She hit more than 50% of her first casts for the lock mooring posts (which is good).

Big lock day on the Canal du Burgogne! Left Veraney at a little after 9:00 after biking up to a “supermarche” to buy some towels and, of course, more wine. To quote the Waterways Guide “To begin the long ascension towards the dividing pond, you should present yourself at lock 55 between 9AM and 11AM…. Between locks 55 and 16 you will be accompanied by a series of itinerant lock-keepers. At the end of each day you must inform them of your intensions the following day. All the locks are manual so you will need two very full days to reach Pouilly.”

We motored for 4-1/2 hours, 2-1/2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, arriving at Marigny-le-Cahouet about 3:00PM (where we managed the impossible, finding a place serving cold beer on a Sunday afternoon!).  We did 28 locks and 10 Km today, averaging just over 4 minutes per lock. We could often see two locks ahead, and many of the locks were only a couple hundred meters apart.

We have climbed from Joigny (elevation 75 meters) to Marigny (285 meters), so over 600 feet in 82 locks (about 7.5 feet per lock). Tomorrow we attempt to reach Pouilly-en-Auxois, the high point of the canal (370 meters, another 250 feet) where, after a rest day, we will enter a 3km tunnel (the Pouilly Tunnel) as we begin our descent  toward Dijon.

And Happy Fete de Mere day! Yes, today is Mother’s Day in France!

Our first full week of barging is over. Some highlights

• The sunsets – the light here in the evening is absolutely gorgeous.
• The Fosse Dionne in Tonnerre (natural spring from a cave) and the view from L’eglise St Pierre of the city.
• Getting yelled at  (by an eclusier, lock keeper) for operating a lock without an eclusier present (“c’est interdite!!”)
• Buying our first bottles of wine from an eclusier
• Wine. Rose. 3.50 (Euros) a bottle.
• Biking to the boulangerie in the morning for croissants and pain au chocolate
• Picturesque Joigny and the bored teenagers gunning their (one) motorcycle in town.
• The market (our first) in St Florentine where the vendor would not sell us anything without us first tasting it, listing all ingredients, and giving us specific directions on how to prepare each.
• Learning how to play Spades and having Francis and Emilie with us for the first week.
• The very nice gentleman in Raviere who, when he saw us looking at the closed epicerie, would not let us continue without getting a cold bottle of water from his house and giving it to us,l

Emilie and Francis left us in Montbard to begin their trek home (train to Paris, taxi to CDG, flight to Chicago, then Houston, then Norman). We will miss them! Looking forward to Jackie, David and Emory joining us Thursday. Montbard was a bit of a disappointment  –  we thought it was a full Locaboat base but it isn’t. Fortunately we arrived on a Saturday – the one day they usually have someone there so we were able to get a little fuel, a kids life jacket and a replacement umbrella.

Speaking of fuel, we now have an estimate of fuel use (~2L/Hr), which is nice because there is no fuel gauge on the boat! With the 400L tank this boat is supposed to have that gives us a range of about 200 hours (4-5 weeks or so).

Today we do our first big lock chain (Echelle de Pouillenay), 18 locks. Should be interesting, especially since we are in the middle of an unusual heat wave – high 80’s and no clouds. Fortunately it cools off at night.